Email to a potential PhD supervisor in water engineering
Who wrote it
Rami Odeh is finishing an MSc in water engineering at Birzeit University. He writes to a professor in Delft whose paper raised a question his thesis can test.
The writer and every detail about them are fictional.
What went into the template
- The professor and their group
- Prof. Laura Kessler, Department of Water Management, TU Delft
- What are you looking for?
- A PhD
- Your situation
- Asking if they take students
- What you read of their work, and your thought about it
- Kessler et al. 2025, recharge from Sentinel-1 soil moisture: tested in two catchments with almost no buildings. In my catchment near Nablus the built-up share rose from 8% to 15% (2010 to 2024). Does the method hold on sealed ground?
- Your background, in facts
- MSc Water Engineering, Birzeit University, finishing in 2026, GPA 3.8/4
Thesis: monthly water-balance model of a catchment near Nablus, calibrated on 11 wells, 2005 to 2024
Python, QGIS, Sentinel-1 and Landsat processing - The question you would like to work on
- How sealed surfaces bias satellite recharge estimates, tested against well data in two or three catchments
- Funding, start date and attachments
- Applying for a doctoral scholarship this autumn; could start in September 2027; CV and one-page thesis summary attached
The writer’s facts, as typed into the template’s form. The example uses nothing else.
The example
Email to a potential supervisor: PhD enquiry
Numbered notes in the margin explain each choice.
Subject: PhD enquiry: satellite recharge estimates in built-up catchments1 (MSc, Birzeit University)
Subject line
Note 1: A busy professor can sort this from the subject alone: what he wants, the topic, and his degree.
Dear Professor Kessler,
Greeting
I am completing an MSc in Water Engineering at Birzeit University in Palestine, and I would like to ask whether you plan to take a PhD student in 20272.
Who and what
Note 2: Who he is and what he is asking, in the first sentence. Everything after it is evidence.
Your 2025 paper on estimating groundwater recharge from Sentinel-1 soil moisture tested the method in two catchments with very little building. In the catchment near Nablus where I did my thesis, the built-up share in my land-cover maps rose from 8% to 15% between 2010 and 2024. I wonder whether the soil-moisture signal still tracks recharge3 when so much of the ground is sealed.
Their work, your thought
Note 3: This is the line that proves he read the paper: a specific limit, put as an open question from his own data, with no flattery.
For my thesis I built a monthly water-balance model of that catchment and calibrated it against records from 11 wells (2005–2024)4. I processed Sentinel-1 and Landsat images in Python and QGIS, and my GPA is 3.8 out of 4. The question I would like to work on is how sealed surfaces bias satellite-based recharge estimates, tested against well data in two or three catchments.
Evidence and direction
Note 4: Facts a professor can judge: the model, the data and the years. Not one adjective.
I am applying for a doctoral scholarship this autumn and could start in September 2027. My CV and a one-page thesis summary are attached.
Practical details
Would you be open to considering a student with this background for your group?5
One question
Note 5: One question that can be answered in a line. Easy replies get sent.
Best regards,
Rami Odeh
Structure
How it is built
Each part in order, with its share of the words.
Checklist
Before you send
Go through your own draft line by line.
Before and after
Common mistakes and how to fix them
Lines like these turn up in many drafts by Arabic speakers. Each fix keeps the meaning and changes only the English.
Dear Sir, I hope this email finds you well. I am very interested in your groundbreaking research.
Dear Professor Kessler, I am completing an MSc in Water Engineering at Birzeit University, and I would like to ask whether you plan to take a PhD student in 2027.
I want to do PhD under your supervision in your esteemed university.
I would like to ask whether you plan to take a PhD student in 2027.
Please find attached my CV, my transcript, my certificates, my IELTS, my passport and my recommendation letters.
My CV and a one-page thesis summary are attached.
Questions people ask
How long should a first email to a potential PhD supervisor be?
Short enough to read on a phone: about 150 to 250 words. This one has about 200. The professor needs who you are, one piece of their work and your thought about it, two or three facts and one question; the CV carries the rest.
What if the professor does not reply?
Wait about two weeks, then send one short follow-up in the same thread with one new line, such as a result you have finished since. If there is still no answer, write to other groups: silence usually means a full inbox, not a judgement of you.
Can I send the same email to several professors?
You can write to several professors, but each email has to be written for that person: the paper, your thought about it and your question all change. Professors in the same field talk to each other and recognise a mass email at once.
Every writer in this library is fictional, and so is every detail about them. Universities and companies appear only as places someone applies to; the professors, papers and facts mentioned around them are invented for teaching. Use the examples to learn the moves, never as text to copy: committees notice, and your own facts are stronger.