Frequently Asked Questions & Contact Information

I have regular open office hours that are posted on my website.  

• For other meeting requests (or if you plan to drop by office hours for a discussion that will take more than 10min), please email both me (salil_vadhan@harvard.edu) and my Faculty Coordinator Allison Choat (achoat@seas.harvard.edu).  
• If you'd like to request a meeting related to the Privacy Tools Project (including OpenDP), please CC the Privacy Tools Project Team (privacytools-info@seas.harvard.edu). 

Every year I review PhD applications jointly with other Computer Science faculty, especially those in the Theory of Computation, in the Privacy Tools Project, and in Computation & Society.  If you are interested in working with me, you should apply to our PhD program and include me among the faculty you list in your application; there is no need to email me in advance (and I will probably not reply if you do, due to email volume).  Individual discussion about research fit and the possibility of becoming my advisee is most useful after the admissions process is complete. 

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.

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.

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.