Please suggest any change?

Dear Professor ,
I am writing to apply for the PhD position in soil microbial ecology project with reference no. xxx in University of xxxx.
I graduated in Microbiology in 2006 from Bharathiar University, India. During my B.Sc I had practical as well as theory classes based on soil and environmental microbiology, in which I learned the various aspects of soil microbes and useful bacteria and fungi present in soil. Their interactions in soil have always interested me to take up my further research work on soil microbiology. I have also did various microbial practicals like isolation and identification of soil microbes. I also made study on physical and chemical nature of different soil and various microbes found in different layer of soil. During the practical classes in team we have isolated Actinomycetes as well as microbes which solubilize phosphorous in specific media. Thus my zeal in soil microbiology continued and I joined my master’s in applied microbiology.
In 2009, I joined my Master degree in applied Microbiology at Vellore Institute of Technology, India. As part of my curriculum during my second sem we had a detailed study of soil microbiology. During this time while doing my practical I isolated a blue pigment producing soil actinomycetes, the color fascinated me to undergo a research work in identification and characterization of the microbe. To my surprise while doing its molecular identification it came out to be a novel strain which was registered in EMBL with name Streptomyces coelicolor MSIS1. I also found out that the strain which I isolated to be representing as a bio indicator of acid and base. It changes color from red to blue as the pH of the media was changed from acidic to basic. That was my first achievement in the field.
While I was developing my master’s dissertation, I thought of doing something related to microbial interactions, then I contacted my supervisor, as she did her PhD work in microbial interaction, and she suggested me to combine plant microbe interaction where I can study the various aspects of soil microbes and interaction among the soil microbes as well as with the plants. I did my dissertation work on the “Bioelicitation of Gymnema Sylvestre callus using bacterial bioelicitor for increasing the secondary metabolite production”. I used Xanthomonas spp., isolated from citrous canker to produce the bioelicitor. HR protein from Xanthomonas was used as a bioelicitor for giving stress to the plant callus for increasing the secondary metabolite production. While this process I developed a special interest in this soil microbiology and ecology. This process also made me to learn the practical skills in this field. It was a real challenge and a very interesting experience for me to complete my dissertation in 9 months in limited conditions.
Since 2011, I started to penned down my work in the form of research article and finally in January 2012 my first research article was published on “Enhanced production of Gymnemic acid using HR bio elicitor extracted from Xanthomonas spp” in International Journal of Pharmacy volume 3(1).
While doing my research work, I have realized how important are the various microbial community such bacteria, fungi and actinomycetes present in the soil and its interaction among each other. This has reinforced my interest in this topic, to which I intend to contribute and get involved as a researcher. Hence, I intend to develop a PhD thesis related to the designing of bio indicators and its use in soil. After all ecology is the one which provide us everything and we should keep our mother earth healthy by improving the health of soil, which suited to maximizing the benefits in economic, social and environmental terms is my main aim of my PhD.
As the department of microbial ecology of university of Groningen has important research activities in these areas, I would like to have the opportunity to develop its PhD Programme in soil microbial ecology, for which I am confident I have the skills, knowledge and competence.
Thank you very much for considering my application and I look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Ipsita Nandi