Kesong Yang

2.0 2.0 / 5 1 reviews

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University: University of California, San Diego
Department: Nanoengineering
Website: http://materials.ucsd.edu

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Total 1 Reviews

Anonymous

Poor

Posted: , Edited:

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## Advisor Style & Mentorship
Met 1:1 weekly before COVID. Weekly online group meetings continue during the pandemic. Daily guidance by the PI. "Hand-on" advisor. Very accessible to students as there are only very few students in his group.

## Expectations for PhD Students
Expect 3-4 first-author papers for graduation. Students take time off on weekends and are not pushed to work late. In my observation, it takes about 4 years for PhD students to graduate.

## Funding & Support
**Q: Are you financially supported by the PI? Do you often worry about your funding and have to search for other financial sources (TA/grader)?**

Funding & Support are the RED flag of this PI. PhD students usually have the department fellowship in the first year. After that, funding support is very unstable. Usually you are expected to find a TA position on your own. The PI doesn’t help you find TA unless he teaches class during that quarter. The department doesn’t help, and doesn’t guarantee a TA position for PhD students. Oftentimes, PhD students in this group receive only half of the normal TA/RA stipend, and the PI thought this was pretty good support for students already. Therefore, when I tried to apply for more financial support from the department (like TA/reader appointments), my PI was not willing to help me even just by sending emails to the Chair or program advisor.

**Q: Is the PI supportive of academic activities outside the lab? How often does the PI send students to conferences or visiting other institutions?**

Nobody was sent out to conferences when I was in this lab for one and half years. Even no support for attendance of online conferences during the pandemic. No students are sent to visit other institutions.

**Q: Is the PI supportive of other aspects of students’ lives? Such as Visa problems and living difficulties during the pandemic.**

No support outside research, otherwise he won't think half PhD stipend was enough to survive in San Diego.


## Research
**Q: How do you describe the culture of your lab? Do members interact frequently in academics and in life?**

Students interact frequently in academics but seldom in life. Once a PhD student graduated from the lab, the PI said we would have a party for his graduation but that just never happened until he left the US.

**Q: How often do students drop out of the lab? What are the reasons?**

I dropped out of this lab after one and half years. The reason was that the funding support was very bad, and that I received a threatening phone call from the PI. When I was supported 25% GSR by this PI and trying to find more funding on my own, I reached out to many people for help as the PI just didn’t care. In my PhD offer letter it said I would be supported by 50% GSR or TA in my first three year, but my PI and the department just refused to fully fund me. Finally, the Student Union helped me to contact my department for this issue. The PI was super mad about this, and he said my behavior was threatening the department and ridiculous. He asked me to stop contacting the Student Union or I had to leave his lab. 

**Q: How is the rotation retention in this lab?**

There is no lab rotation in the NanoE department.

## Lab Culture


**Q: Does the PI tend to give students projects or have them select their own? **


PI gives projects to students.


**Q: Does the PI assign authorship appropriately and honestly to credit contributions of members when publishing papers? **


Yes.

No, I don't recommend this PI.

Review #11

If you also had experience/knowledge of this PI, do you agree or disagree with this review? Comment below or write your own review.

: This review is very helpful. Funding & Support are really red flags.
Reply 2022-05-11T05:15:17Z
: Thanks a lot!
Reply 2022-05-21T22:22:25Z
: If PI Review had existed several years ago, less Ph.D. students would suffer.
Reply 2022-05-22T02:46:53Z
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