Hi,
I am a physics research scientist at a US university working with the development of a novel computational method. Note that I am emphasizing our computational method and my expertise in it--not a specific application--as my selling point. The method will be usable by many other scientists in the future for studying the science itself. The connection/application of my method to future science and technology of materials is relatively easy to argue. It is a very general-purpose method which can be applied to many different physical systems. However, the work still needs much progress to make it practical for others to use it.
I wonder if people can give me their 2 cents regarding my chance/merit of getting an EB2/NIW petition approved:
*) hold a PhD degree from the same US university [2005]
*) been a postdoc, then a research scientist in the same group/university
*) the computational method is still relatively new (first publication is ~2003 by my advisors)
*) our group is still unique in the world in doing this method
*) we receive continous major funding from DOE, NSF to further develop this method. We even have access to the largest supercomputer in the world to apply this method on some challenging problems.
*) our published works (in many of them I am a first author) have demonstrated significant progress in the application of our computational method.
*) 7 papers on international-caliber US journals
*) in terms of citations: my earliest work had been cited a handful of times (excluding self citation), but unfortunately the newer articles have not received many citations yet, if any
I am a primary software developer in this research group, working on 2 computer programs associated with the methods I mentioned above. In addition to working on these programs, I am also inventing/applying new methods in the program to make it more efficient/accurate. My knowledge in this method is unique, as it is still new. As far as I know no other US persons other than my advisors have this working knowledge of this computational method.
Now the question is, will this case be regarded sufficient for EB2/NIW? I feel like quite miniscule in terms of visible accomplishment, and to date I have not received something like prizes, awards, etc. or publicity in scientific community. But the kind of funding our group has been winning should testify to the quality of our computational method.
I'm still working on obtaining letters of recommendation; I hope to get some from those not directly connected/collaborating with me.
I am a physics research scientist at a US university working with the development of a novel computational method. Note that I am emphasizing our computational method and my expertise in it--not a specific application--as my selling point. The method will be usable by many other scientists in the future for studying the science itself. The connection/application of my method to future science and technology of materials is relatively easy to argue. It is a very general-purpose method which can be applied to many different physical systems. However, the work still needs much progress to make it practical for others to use it.
I wonder if people can give me their 2 cents regarding my chance/merit of getting an EB2/NIW petition approved:
*) hold a PhD degree from the same US university [2005]
*) been a postdoc, then a research scientist in the same group/university
*) the computational method is still relatively new (first publication is ~2003 by my advisors)
*) our group is still unique in the world in doing this method
*) we receive continous major funding from DOE, NSF to further develop this method. We even have access to the largest supercomputer in the world to apply this method on some challenging problems.
*) our published works (in many of them I am a first author) have demonstrated significant progress in the application of our computational method.
*) 7 papers on international-caliber US journals
*) in terms of citations: my earliest work had been cited a handful of times (excluding self citation), but unfortunately the newer articles have not received many citations yet, if any
I am a primary software developer in this research group, working on 2 computer programs associated with the methods I mentioned above. In addition to working on these programs, I am also inventing/applying new methods in the program to make it more efficient/accurate. My knowledge in this method is unique, as it is still new. As far as I know no other US persons other than my advisors have this working knowledge of this computational method.
Now the question is, will this case be regarded sufficient for EB2/NIW? I feel like quite miniscule in terms of visible accomplishment, and to date I have not received something like prizes, awards, etc. or publicity in scientific community. But the kind of funding our group has been winning should testify to the quality of our computational method.
I'm still working on obtaining letters of recommendation; I hope to get some from those not directly connected/collaborating with me.
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