Saturday, July 17, 2010

Research interests change

One of the common mistakes scholars make is to assume a researcher/professor is still interested in a topic he/she has been working on 5 years ago! This usually happens when a student is looking for a supervisor/collaborator with a specific interest. The student finds a good paper on that topic and sends to the author.

As a matter of fact, researchers change their scientific interests over time. This might happen for several reasons. Government and/or industries fund research on a topic when a need arises, then turn down the fund when the need decays. Also, believe it or not, some research problems are eventually solved! Sometimes, researchers also change their focus moving to a new position to align with the research direction of the employer (be it a university or a research lab).

1 comment:

  1. I do not see this a "mistake". As a matter of fact research interest is accumulative. Researcher's CV includes all the thgs he worked on at some day.
    research interests accumulate, and the result maybe a new point of research.

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