a letter

Dear Prof. …,

I am writing to apply for PhD position in ..., as advertised on your personal page in department website. I am recently graduated (July 2015) in Geotechnical Engineering from .... Currently, I am working on my journal paper besides two projects for Iranian Army Research Center.

My M.Sc. thesis, entitled “Research and Development of Homogenization Method for Micropile-Raft Foundation” was conducted under the supervision of professors Seyedi Hosseininia and Bolouri Bazaz. In the first part of my thesis, I was determined a proper distribution of spring stiffness of Winkler’s elastic foundation for simulating the settlement profile of a spread footing as well as a Micropile-raft obtained from continuum model by FEM. In the second part, I was developed the equivalent pier method (Polous, 1980) and introduce a new approach and formulation for homogenization, which is more accurate in both 3D and 2D exact numerical software and utilizable in software based on the Winkler’s model of elastic foundation. As a result of consolidation of my Master thesis, I was successful to present three papers in national and international conferences and also my ISI-index paper is under revision. The list of publications are available in my attached CV.

In addition to my Master thesis, I have worked on different course-dependent and independent research project in different fields, which enhance my knowledge in many Geotechnical Engineering related software. As such, I have carried out the seismic performance of earth dam with GeoStudio software, investigation of the static and seismic performance of gravity-blocked type quay wall focusing on liquefaction potential of backfill soil and overall stability of structure of quay wall with GeoStudio and PLAXIS 2D. Moreover, thanks to some privilege made by Iranian Army for graduate students with admirable resume, two recommended proposals were approved by research division of Iranian Army which will reduce my military service requirement. They are entitled: “The Behavior of Gravity-Blocked Type Quay Wall affected by Underwater Explosion” and “Studying the Behavior of Plates in the vicinity of Buried Charge, with Regards to Soil and Plate Mechanical Properties”. The former project have focused on the potential of backfill soil liquefaction and overall steadiness of structure due to underwater detonation using FLAC 2D and Ansys Autodyn software, in the latter one the effects of different soil and different saturation on transformed charge to plate have studied by FLAC 3D and Ansys Autodyn. All these projects appeal me towards my main aim for being familiar with most fields and software of Geotechnical Engineering.

Besides the academic part, I have always tried to use my theoretical knowledge in practice and apply it in real problems around. As a result, during the M.Sc. program, I have worked in Sakht Azma soil laboratory as a technician, which enhance my knowledge about different laboratory and in-situ tests. Thereafter, I have employed and worked as a supervisor engineer in Atlass Mall project during excavation, making retaining structure and some parts of foundation construction levels.

Considering my intelligence with capability of hard working, given my background and experiences, I believe that I have succeeded in progressing towards my objectives so far. I have also read some of your papers and found your research very interesting. I was wondering if there is any chance for me to join your research group and do my PhD studies under your supervision.