本文来自世界著名生物信息学家刘小乐的博客——Xiaole Shirley Liu's Blog Site。本文以意译为主，初次翻译，有时间地可直接去看原文。
公派留学获取海外实验室邀请函的正确做法
在过去的十年里，中国政府迅速加大了对教育和科研的财政投入。一个重要的表现，就是国家留学基金委（CSC）资助国内研究生赴海外著名高等学府进行为期一到两年的交流学习。我们实验室已经接受很多优秀的访学生，他们中有些在交流期间取得了很不错的研究成果。在奖学金申请确定前的12月和1月，我经常收到一些申请者的邮件。有一些大体像下边这封，
Dear Professor Xiaole Liu,
My name is AB, and I am 2nd year PhD student from C University in China. I work on the mechanism of X gene / complex in the Y developmental stage of Z organism. From my previous studies, I know techniques D, E, F and G and have published a paper in H, I, J journals. From your website, I read that you are a cancer and bioinformatics expert, and I really hope to learn more about both. Recently I have been awarded the CSC scholarship, which will sponsor me for travel and living cost to study in the US for one year. I hope to have the opportunity to study in your lab, so I urgently need to get an invitation letter from you.
I look forward to working with you!
Sincerely,
AB
这封信有问题吗？让我们来分析一下：
1、我们通常用姓加职称（教授、博士）称呼别人，而不是名字。正确的写法是：Dear Professor Liu
2、在大部分情况下，XYZ这些研究和我们实验室做的工作是没有关系的。申请者仅仅对学习癌症或者生物信息学感兴趣，但是我们实验室为什么想要接收他们呢？这种情况在博士后申请中也会出现。申请者能不能给带来更多诸如特定的实验技术、分析能力、生物学知识及临床样本资源等对我们有价值的东西？
3、通常来说，第一封信仅仅是为了了解被实验室接受的可能性。邀请信的请求应该是在申请的实验室同意接收之后在提及的。第一封信就请求邀请信是非常不合适的，更别说是“迫切地”要求。
4、每个研究生（当然也包括博士后和教师）应该时常更新自己的简历（CV），这里邮件也应该要带有自己的简历作为附件。简历适用于求职或者学术申请的，它有很多不同的长度和格式。简历可以让申请的实验室对申请人有一个正确的认识，包括受教育经历、考试分数、发表文章、获奖记录和其他专业经历。很多人把他们的简历放在网上，所以可以很容易地找到他们的简历并学习他们的写法。我经常去看我领域里的成功专家的简历，看看自己是否有需要改进的地方。举个例子，看到他们在自己的当前阶段发表的突破性论文、获得的奖项、教授的课程和其他专业经历，这是非常令人鼓舞的。总之，在申请PhD、博士后、访学奖学金等的时候都要附上简历，这会增加申请被认真考虑的机会。
原文地址：
http://www.longwoodgenomics.org/2017/01/15/good-practices-for-soliciting-hosts-for-csc-sponsored-visits/
原文：
Good Practices for Soliciting Hosts for CSC-sponsored Visits
In the last decade, Chinese government has drastically increased investment in education and research. One important initiative is the Chinese Scholarship Council (CSC) which sponsors graduate students to study for 1-2 years at top foreign research institutions. Our laboratory has hosted a number of talented visiting students, many of which achieved impressive research results during their visits. In Dec and Jan right before these scholarship applications are due, I often receive many email requests from candidates. Quite a few reads something like this:
Dear Professor Xiaole Liu,
My name is AB, and I am 2nd year PhD student from C University in China. I work on the mechanism of X gene / complex in the Y developmental stage of Z organism. From my previous studies, I know techniques D, E, F and G and have published a paper in H, I, J journals. From your website, I read that you are a cancer and bioinformatics expert, and I really hope to learn more about both. Recently I have been awarded the CSC scholarship, which will sponsor me for travel and living cost to study in the US for one year. I hope to have the opportunity to study in your lab, so I urgently need to get an invitation letter from you.
I look forward to working with you!
Sincerely,
AB
Is there anything wrong with such a letter? Let’s analyze:
1. People usually say Dear Professor (or Doctor) Lastname, not first last. So I should be addressed as: Dear Professor Liu.
2. In most cases, the XYZ research has nothing to do with what my lab is doing. The applicant is just interested in learning cancer or bioinformatics, or both, but why would our lab be interested in hosting them? This is the same with postdoc applications as well. Is there something that the applicant could contribute, e.g. certain experimental technique, qualitative skills, biological knowledge, clinical sample resource, etc, which might be valuable to the host laboratory?
3. Usually the first letter just explores the possibility that a is interested in hosting his/her visit. The invitation letter request should be mentioned after the host lab has agreed to host. It is inappropriate to ask for the letter in the first email, let alone to ask for it “urgently”.
4. Every graduate student (of course postdoc and faculty as well) should actively maintain and update a CV, and include the CV in the attachment of such an email. Resume and CV are used for industry and academic job applications, respectively, and they have different lengths and formats. CV gives the host laboratory a lot more concrete ideas about the candidate, his educational histories, test scores, publications, awards, and other professional experiences, etc. Many people put their CV online, so it is easy to find good CV online and see how they are written. I often look at the CV of really successful experts in my field, and see what areas I need to grow. For example, seeing what papers these big shots published, grants and awards they obtained, courses they taught, other professional experiences they had at my stage is very inspiring. Anyway, always include CV when applying for PhD, postdocs, visiting scholarship, etc, which greatly increases the chance the application will be considered seriously.