Dear Dr. Li, I am a student of Bachelor of Technology (Final Year) Civil Engineering at Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, India.

I would like to apply for University of Houston for fall 2014 for direct PhD in Geotechnical Engineering. My GPA is 8.007 (on a scale of 10). My GPA in senior year is 9.048 and in junior year I got a GPA of 9.064. I scored 318 marks (148-verbal section and 170quantitave section and 3.0 in AWA section) in my GRE and in TOEFL I scored 106 (Reading-29, Listening-26, Speaking-24, Writing-27). I undertook two courses in Geotechnical Engineering namely "Soil mechanics and Engineering geology", "Foundation Engineering" and scored A+ in both courses and also undertook Rock Mechanics course and was awarded with an A grade. Of my interest, I undertook two more courses in Earthquake Engineering namely "Engineering Seismology and Seismo-tectonics and Understanding Earthquake Hazards" and scored A+ and A respectively. For my bachelors minor project, I designed and compared pile and well foundations in different aspects. I also designed pile foundations and by referring both Euro code 7 and Indian Standard codes during my internship. In my major project, I designed civil engineering aspects of a Hydropower plant. Currently, I am employed in a French design consultancy firm SYSTRA MVA and designing Foundations of Bangalore Metro and a 42 km flyover in Kuwait. I also kept myself involved in design of substructures of Viaducts of Delhi Metro Line 7. I am well versed with softwares like Geostudio, Wallap, Plaxis, Staad.Pro, Oasys, Microsoft Excel and also learning Matlab. I am interested in following areas. and found that my areas of interest overlap with your research areas. I would be obliged if you could tell me about the prospects that I get selected at Pennsylvania State University and could pursue the course with you as my mentor.