Motivation Letter

Dear Masters,

Can you please review my motivation letter for CERN ? Please feel free to cut lines of paragraphs that you might think that don't apply.

Best regards,

José Pedro Cardoso

Dear Sir/Madam

I am writing to express my great interest in applying for the ACEOLE Programme(or program ?) at CERN, which I truly believe will be the key for my goals in life: investigation and lecturing.

After having done a Bsc and a Msc in Engineering, it is the time to start with the PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering (FEUP). This is a unique opportunity to work as an investigator, in the most prestigious particle physics laboratory in the world and, at the same time, take the PhD at FEUP (CERN’s Partner on “ASIC building blocks for detector readout systems” project.)



I studied Electronics and Telecomunications engineering, from 1999-2000, at the , where I obtained a five year bachelor's degree. The course focused on electronics, telecommunications and computer science. As I have always had an enormous passion for electronics. The fifth year (specialization) was dedicated to microelectronics. During this year I designed an IC (1 GHz Oscillator) using CMOS 0.6 um technology.



After graduation I have been invited to work as an investigator for the Telecommunications Institute, in order to design a charge pre-amplifier, in CMOS 0.6 um technology, for a Particle Detector belonging to the Physics Department. By that time I had almost two years of Analog IC Design experience with Cadence tools.



From 2001 to 2007, I went to to work as a Telecom Engineer. It wasn’t and IC Design role, but by that time, this function wasn’t very popular in .

Meanwhile I have decided to go back to University to do a Master’s Degree. During 2006 I finished the Master’s Degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering, at Universidade Técnica de Lisboa (IST).

In the following year the work “” was awarded first prize on the contest “



Nowadays I am working for Company_xxx as a IC Test Engineer, where I am the responsible for 110DDR nm and 90 DDR2 nm.



Given my career, awards and especially will to continue my studies (PhD), I have decided that is time to return to IC Design, in order to accomplish my dreams: being an investigator and a lecturer in microelectronics area.



I found CERN programme quiet appealing, because of the institution itself, the role involved, the possibility of doing the PhD in cooperation with CERN, working together with scientists and engineers, continuous seek for improvement, that would challenge me every day.



I would be grateful for your consideration of my candidacy for this program.





Sincerely Yours,

José Pedro Cardoso