<table cellspacing='0' cellpadding='0' border='0' ><tr><td valign='top' style='font: inherit;'><P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>Dear everyone,</FONT></P>
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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>Hi, my name is Erwin. I would like to know where I can learn some good programming skills for bioinformatics. I have an M.Sc. degree in bioinformatics, and I learned some Perl and Java in my graduate study, but I don’t feel that I have the ability to be a good bioinformatician yet. I came from chemistry background and I did not use any programming in my graduate thesis.</FONT></P>
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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>I’d like to pursue a Ph.D. study but I notice that most (or all) of the Ph.D. opportunities in bioinformatics require either “a strong programming background” or “experience in software development”, which I have none. Now I would like to improve my programming skills before applying for a Ph.D. studentship. Do you have any recommendations on what kind of education I should take to do that? Your answers will be much appreciated. Thank you.</FONT></P>
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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>Yours,</FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>Erwin</FONT></P></td></tr></table><br>