🚀 go-pugleaf

To Whom It May Concern:

My name is Matthew Weed, and I am a blind person who has just completed a 
second master's at Harvard, and am in need of advice from those on the 
'net in order to broaden my base of advice in order to find a program 
that will support my particular set of interests during Ph.D. work.  I am 
interested in how the scientific community, (particularly those in the 
basic research sector of the life sciences),  communicates with itself, 
I.E. how information flows through the system, and how the flow of 
information can affect the progress of modern research, as well as the 
funding of that same research. Doubtless as a result of my lack of 
vision, I am also interested in how the laboratory, and information 
generated there, can be made more accessible to blind persons wishing to 
do work in the life sciences.  This may include working on methods of 
information dissemination that will allow the visually impaired 
community, (and doubtless the lay community as well), greater access to 
comprehensible data and results via the internet or other media.

Unfortunately, I have had trouble finding academic programs that can 
support this kind of work.  Pure laboratory programs, such as that which 
I entered at Harvard last Fall do not offer the opportunity to look at 
the managerial and policy questions that surround this set of issues.  
Public Policy programs don't generally have sufficient faculty trained in 
the life sciences to support a student who needs to do as much or more 
time reading the life sciences literature or in the laboratory, as he or 
she spends in the policy library, as my experience at Princeton's Woodrow 
Wilson School has led me to believe.  From the conversations that I've 
had with people at the Harvard Schooll of Public Health, most of the work 
done in these  institutions is too focused on hospital based research or 
"applied life sciences research", if questions focusing around "research 
management" are considered at all.  I have spoken with people at the 
Sloan School of Management at MIT as well as Yale's School of 
Organization and Management and they were unaware of people working at 
management or business schools who were interested in these questions.  
Therefore, I find myself searching farther afield for a program, 
hopefully in the life sciences, as I have funding from the NSF to look at 
the information/laboratory  access for the disabled, parts of this 
question from a life sciences perspective.  It is also very important to 
me to find a school that will be supportive of those with disabilities, 
as my experiences at Harvard  showed me that, in my case at least, not 
all schools are willing to assist me in a way that  will allow me to do 
the work for which I was admitted.  Fortunately, as I have had excellent 
experiences at Yale and Princeton, both of which were incredibly 
supportive of both disabled and non-disabled students, I am certain that 
such an environment can be created. As I helped Yale and Princeton 
develop their disabilities policies and institutions, I am used to 
working with administrators in this area, and am more than happy to help 
universities with this should they desire it whether I should attend or not.
Ultimately, my primary search criteria include:
1.  A university with notable financial and academic resources.
2.  A university with a strong tradition of being "pro-student", I.E. 
with a philosophy like those at Yale and Princeton.
3.  I would prefer a combined graduate and undergraduate population of 
between ten and fifteen thousand total students.  My experience has led 
me to believe that this  is an optimal size, although I am more than 
willing to look at programs at schools outside of this range if they feel 
"right".
4.  Preferably a life sciences program that will allow me to do the kinds 
of work discussed above, although I am more than willing to accept any 
suggestion that will allow me to do what I believe to be my "life's work".
5.  A single-campus set-up is preferable for me, as I have always liked 
the opportunity to work and study with people working in as many 
disciplines as possible, and multi-campus situations can be difficult to 
navigate for some notable period of time.
6.  A small town to medium-sized city environment is also easier for me, 
but again, given the proper circumstances, I am more than happy to look 
at any workable option.
Any suggestions that you think might be helpful will be very happily 
accepted at this address, as the various faculty with whom I have 
developed friendships over the past years are having some difficulty in 
helping me in my search for possible programs.  With luck, your 
suggestions may allow me to find a program that will allow me to do my 
"life's work" in an amenable environment, while making a valuable 
contribution to the institution that I ultimately attend.

-- 
"There are few ironclad rules of diplomacy but to one there is no
 exception.When an official reports that talks were useful, it can
  safely be concluded that nothing was accomplished."--John Kenneth
  Galbraith:	Matthew Weed	mweed@count51.med.harvard.edu