Important Note during Term as Area Chair

Salil Vadhan

As of July 1, 2017, I am serving up to a 3-year term as Area Chair for Computer Science.   While I plan to maintain a fully active research program during this time, I necessarily have to reduce time spent on some other professional activities.    Some of these changes and answers to common inquiries are summarized here:

• Email:  My old Harvard emails (salil@seas and salil@eecs) are no longer actively monitored. If your question is not answered below, please email your message to whichever of the following addresses is most appropriate.
  • Email related to my role as Area Chair for Computer Science:   salil-cschair@g.harvard.edu
    (Our Area Director, Meg Hastings, and Area Coordinator, Jenny Mileski, also read and help handle mail sent to this address.)
  • Email related to the Privacy Tools Project: salil-privacytools@g.harvard.edu
    (Our Project Manager, Kimia Mavon, also reads and helps handle mail sent to this address.)
  • General work-related email (including research, advising, teaching, internal and external service): salil_vadhan@harvard.edu
    (Currently only I read email sent to this address, but it may also be accessed by staff working with me.)
    
  • (Rare) work-related email that should not be viewed by staff working with me: salil-private@g.harvard.edu
    (Only I read email sent to this address.)
  • Personal email, not related to work: salil.vadhan@gmail.com
    (Only I read email sent to this address.)
    
    
• Calendar: Please request meetings by emailing the appropriate address above and cc'ing my faculty coordinator, Allison Choat (achoat@seas.harvard.edu).
  
  
• Reference letters:  During my chair term, I only have time to write reference letters for current and former students, postdocs, institutional colleagues, and close collaborators, and possibly do small updates to letters I have written in the past.  Please do not send me requests to evaluate people not in those categories; if you do, I will decline as a matter of policy, and this should not be taken as a reflection on the candidate.
  
  
• Teaching: If you have a question about a course that I am currently teaching, I encourage you to post it to the course's Piazza site.  This is likely to get you a quicker response than emailing me.
  
  
• PhD advising: I currently have a rather full group of PhD students, so it is unlikely that I will take on additional students as primary advisor in the next couple of years.  However, the Theory of Computation group admits new PhD students every year, and I am very happy to collaborate on research with students that have other faculty as primary advisor.
  
  
• Postdoc advising:  If you are interested in working with me as a postdoc, please apply for one of our postdoc fellowships through Harvard's joint Computer Science postdoc application, which is opened up each fall.
  
  
• Undergraduate research advising:  I am happy to co-supervise research by Harvard undergraduates, for example doing so jointly with a PhD student, postdoc, or colleague from the Theory of Computation group or the Privacy Tools Project.   When you come to discuss possibilities with me, it's best if you are prepared to talk about your general areas of interest, which can come for example from graduate (200-level) courses or looking at recent publications from me or my research group. Information on some sources of research funding is available from the Office of Undergraduate Research and Fellowships.
  
  
• Summer internships: I can co-supervise summer interns who are either Harvard students (see above) or are applying to work on the Privacy Tools Project.  I am not able to take on other summer interns who do not have an already established research connection with me.
  
  
• Conference and speaking invitations:  I am continuing to travel to give talks and attend conferences related to my research interests, albeit at a reduced rate.  Invitations should be sent to the appropriate email address above.
  
  
• Internal and external service: I will decline to take on most additional service roles, both inside and outside Harvard.  This includes program committees, editorial boards, advisory boards, conference organization, and faculty committees.
  
  
• Reviewing: I generally do not have time to referee papers or review grant applications, except possibly for providing brief feedback on the relation to previous work of mine.
  
  
• Consulting: I do not have time for external consulting.