Any student contemplating graduate study, or embarking on graduate study or a career in science, is confronted by a myriad of choices. During your undergraduate career, you have the choices of major and minor subject, but you're likely past having made decisions on those. Once you have decided to pursue graduate study, near the end of your undergraduate study comes your choice of graduate university and program, founded on the choice of field – and, perhaps, subfield – of study you wish to pursue or type of career you wish to follow. Once beyond these choices, or perhaps concurrent with them, comes an all-important one, your choice of adviser – the individual who likely will have the largest influence on your approach to and outlook on science as well as on your success throughout the time of graduate study. An abundance of choices, many of which are puzzling and difficult to make, but what a wonderful position to be in to have created for yourself the opportunity to face such difficulties.

In planning research it is usually not hard to decide broadly what we want to achieve. The goal of the research might be to pursue an interest or a desire “to know”; it might be to find the path in which to establish a career; it might be to obtain a higher degree; it could be driven by the wish to contribute to making our world a better place in which to live; and it could be a mix of such considerations.