Cover letter for a PhD in astronomy
I need to send a cover letter for a PhD in astronomy and, honestly, Im not sure if the text I wrote qualifies. Also, I dont now how competitive it sounds and whether the key message is right.
Any help will be appreciated.
The cover letter I wrote is the following:
I have moved from my motherland xxx to xxx in 2013 intending to begin my scientific career entering the astronomy track taught in English at the University of xxx. Within the years of studies, I was lacking the feeling of being completely involved in subjects since they have been changing every quarter. In xxx, 3 subjects on average are taught per quarter. And I kept this feeling until I took up the Master´s project that boosted my interest in exact sciences, owning to the fact that I joined the scientific groups (xxx, xxx) involved in the project and related projects already for years, who shared their professional knowledge with me and pointed me out many nuances in the field of astronomical instrumentation, and with whom I could share my ideas and receive qualitative feedbacks subsequently that made me reconsider many things seemed trivial at the first glance.
My Master's project occupies the field of THz astronomy instrumentation supervised by prof. dr. xxx, co-supervised by assoc. prof. xxx and co-supervised by Dr. xxx. The thesis title is "xxx" and it is more of the electrical engineering project in the field of astronomical instrumentation. The tasks are to make electrical and mechanical designs of the downconverter mixer with the quantum-limited noise temperature using a superconductor-insulator-superconductor (SIS) junction on PCB, and its mechanical block, to fabricate them, to build up an experimental setup and to measure the downconverter gain and noise properties in a cryostat under the liquid He temperatures. In short, two mixers in series instead of conventionally one envisaged to lower the total noise in the amplification chain due to the downconverter supposed to provide an amplification gain. If successful, the downconverter will be deployed in radio interferometers such as ALMA.
During my internship at the xxx, smoothly linked to my Master's and during my Master's itself I was taught to use electrical engineering and mechanical design software (HFSS, AWR, SolidWorks), to handle the vacuum equipment, to cool down a cryostat, to handle an SIS, to solder, to mill, to glue at the microscale, to operate in a lab and a cleanroom, to seek and order necessary parts, to cooperate and be prepared for long delays. Just as important, I met many helpful and dedicated experts that kept my curiosity in the field. I got to ask for help and clarifications many times. It even prevented failures in results in other projects conducted in the lab, since my questions led to the finding of inconsistencies in the results numbering in a certain device, in a DipStick.
My Bachelor´s degree I have completed at the same university in the field of theoretical and observational astronomy. The project I have completed under the supervision of prof. dr. xxx. My thesis was called "xxx". My task was to reduce Sculptor galaxy stars´ raw spectra taken by ESO VLT/FLAMES/UVES spectrograph using Python and IRAF software in order to detect the sulfur triplet lines that provides insights into the chemical enrichment history of the dwarf galaxy.
Even it is hard to find the reason other than desire, I like to work on ambitious projects cooperating among experts, to acquire new skills that could advance me to sustainable research and minimize research inaccuracies, and to constantly evolve without rushing too much. I enjoy projects that include laboratory work, instrument development, optimization and programming; and a bit of data reduction, system engineering or concept development that allows working remotely.
Besides advancing one well-thought-out idea/concept, I hope that the PhD work would teach me to conduct research independently and maximally consciously, and would introduce me to many more professionals to cooperate with. In case I need to propose the PhD project ideas, I would suggest to carry on my Master's project since there is a room for improvement. In the long run, I would like to go for a postdoc and be a researcher in the field of instrumentational astronomy.
Working, I prefer not to rush to progress in a project, but rather check the work done some time after to increase chances avoiding some evident mistakes before making a decision. I appreciate cooperative work and like to have private time to focus on a given problem. Besides, I find inspiring working in an international team, since great ideas could be triggered once faced with a different mindset.