NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program

Ratings Sheet

Application Year: 2016

APPLICANT ID: 1000226826

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Intellectual Merit Criterion

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Overall Assessment of Intellectual Merit

Very Good
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Explanation to Applicant
The applicant's letter writers, and honors and awards attest to his mathematical talent. He has been described as as the best or
strongest student in the class, intelligent, hard working, and conscientious. The research proposal could have been improved by
being more descriptive and explaining the potential impact on a broader audience.
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Broader Impacts Criterion

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Overall Assessment of Broader Impacts

Very Good
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Explanation to Applicant
The applicant is committed to broader impact by his departmental activities such as a directed reading club and math club talk,
but that was the extent of it.
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Summary Comments
The applicant plans to attack Lehmer's conjecture, which is a hypothesized bound on the Mahler measures of polynomials with
integer coefficients. Throughout the personal and research statement, several noticeable grammatical errors were found. More
effort could have placed on writing a more detailed personal statement. There seemed to be a bit of redundancy as well as many
grammatical errors.
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Intellectual Merit Criterion

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Overall Assessment of Intellectual Merit

Good
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Explanation to Applicant
The intellectual merit of the application can be evidenced by both statements. While the applicant has a strong CV with an
excellent GPA, numerous awards, honors, and scholarships, certain aspects of the application were less clear. Specifically, the
personal statement deviated towards or focused mainly on the research experiences of the applicant, giving little insight on the
applicant's passion, or motivation behind the specific research topic. I would have appreciated a tiny bit less mathematical
background information for the sake of a better understanding of the applicant's intrinsic motivation. At parts, the statements
were verbatim repetitive and avoiding this would have given the space for more personal insights. While the text makes it clear
that the applicant is a strong student, I found the research plan less coherent. The general research area was clear. One line was
devoted to mention the topic, but I could imagine the rest. However, the specific steps one will have to undertake to bring this
research to fruition were less well described. Thus, as is natural, a discussion of how feasible such steps are is also missing. I did
not gain an equally clear view of the scientific impact of the proposed research, as it was only very vaguely described without
any concrete evidence of how this particular research plan will impact other areas other than the general usefulness of number
theory to other domains. Also, dissemination of results through past or future planned presentations or manuscripts under
preparation are also aspects that are not touched upon. Although I can understand that the research might not be at a point where
one can plan to communicate results, one could definitely express the intention of communicating results to the scientific
community and broader public. In addition, I wish I could gain more understanding on how the project was determined and the
applicant's involvement in this process. Finally, I would have enjoyed reading more about the choice of an institution one has in
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NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program

Ratings Sheet

Application Year: 2016

APPLICANT ID: 1000226826

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mind as well as the rationale behind such a choice (as in my view, a project can benefit from the resources available at an
institution, and these clearly vary, as e.g. one finds a different group of specialists each time).
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Broader Impacts Criterion

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Overall Assessment of Broader Impacts

Poor
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Explanation to Applicant
It has proven difficult for me to detect any discussion regarding the broader impact the applicant on society as indicated by
personal experiences, professional experiences, educational experiences and future plans. Specifically, the statements gave little
insight regarding the communication of the research to the general public, the applicant's involvement with society, integration of
research and education, interest in enhancing STEM education, stimulation of underprivileged groups, minorities or women
towards STEM education or some other form of societal benefit other than purely the intellectual or broader impact of the
project. As the broader impact of the individual is one of the two general criteria for this program, this omission was injurious for
my overall ranking. I could not ignore one of the two criteria of the program. All applicants in this program are outstanding.
Finding excellent researchers is not the challenge. It is rather finding researchers that strive to have an impact to society beyond
what will be inevitably so by proving an important theorem. One can only hope to inspire the next generation by being actively
involved in such an endeavor. In this respect, this application was rather sparse in evidence. I can only hope that this will not be
the actual realization.
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Summary Comments
The applicant is clearly a mathematically gifted student. He proposes to continue the work on Lehmer's conjecture. The applicant
needs to establish an incipient research record, as evidenced by submitted or under preparation papers (corroborated by
letter-writers or online sources). The independence and creativity of the applicant should be clearly evident from the statements,
as well as a degree of self-determination of the research project and a concrete research plan (i.e. beyond a clear research idea).
The scientific impact of the research project should be addressed and a few comments why the applicant feels driven or
passionate about this line of research are always a joy to read. While it is evident that the applicant clearly has quite some
potential to a success in graduate study as well as becoming a leader in research in the area of mathematics, this application does
not seem to do justice to the applicant's potential. Last, the application did not address one of the two criteria of this program (or
confused the broader societal impact with the specific scientific impact of the project on science in general). I have no doubts
that the applicant will continue to be an outstanding student in a graduate program. Nonetheless, I could not ignore one of the
two criteria of the program.
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Intellectual Merit Criterion

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Overall Assessment of Intellectual Merit

Very Good
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Explanation to Applicant
The applicant proposes to study questions around "Lehmer conjecture", a fundamental open question, similar to ABC
conjecture, in number theory. The three reference letters are very strong: "In his ability to prove difficult theorems, he was the
strongest"; "Menezes was one of the top three students in the past ten years taking Analytic Number Theory";"Only two graduate
students (UT-Austin) had a performance comparable to his". He has participated a couple of REUs. The applicant has
outstanding academic record with many math advanced courses at UT. He has won various honors at UT. The applicant could
improve the research proposal by explicating the sub-questions he would like to explore since it is clearly a little risky to put
Lehmer conjecture as a thesis problem.
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NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program

Ratings Sheet

Application Year: 2016

APPLICANT ID: 1000226826

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Broader Impacts Criterion

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Overall Assessment of Broader Impacts

Very Good
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Explanation to Applicant
The applicant demonstrates strong commitment to broader impact though his intensive participation in UT math club activities.
Additionally he has been serving as a grader, a learning assistant for the UT math courses.
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Summary Comments
The applicant is a very strong student interested in challenging open problem in number theory and enthusiastic in math outreach
activities.
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