Dear Professor, How are you? It is my pleasure to have this self-introduction to you. I am Damon Peng from the University of Hong Kong. I will get my PhD by the ending of this year (2005). Now I am seeking a postdoctoral position in Biocomputation/Bioinformatics. I believe that my education and research background are appropriate for the position. I have a strong academic background in computer science as well as biological technology. During my study toward the PhDâ??s degree, I am engaged in the algorithm field of the computational biology for the last four years. This area is explosively proliferating with huge challenging opportunities. I focus on the design and analysis of structure comparison algorithms. Specifically, the involved structures include strings or sequences (primary structures), trees (secondary structures) and three-dimensional structures (tertiary structures). The involved real biological data includes DNA (RNA and protein) sequences, RNA secondary structures, phylogenetic trees, images and protein structures. My research concentrates on two aspects: one is intra-structure analysis such as square detecting, peptide sequencing and square-free detecting, maintaining and updating; the other is inter-structure analysis such as locating consensus for primary (secondary and tertiary) structures, especially the consensus with some constraints, i.e., some reserved domains are included in the consensus. The computational biology is data driven in general. But the biological data is empirical and it can often be noisy. Optimal solutions in mathematics cannot guarantee the best ones in Biology. Further, when Biologists want to interpret the data, they will not be able to classify the data as cleanly as what mathematicians and computer scientists do. The score functions of most existing tools, which embody conventional knowledge, are pre-defined for all comparisons. There are a few tools allowing users to define their own score matrices. However most biological experts are not good at defining scores. They are even unfamiliar with the meaning of score matrices. They are experts in mastering the activities of cells. This conceptual difference inconveniences biological experts to use computer tools. Another problem for most existing tools is that their outputs are derived from purely mathematical analysis. Biologists are shriveled when using such tools because the calculation of the outputs is a black box for them and they are not allowed to supervise the comparison with knowledge of their particular data for better results. Such interfaces are not amiable. So providing more flexible computational tools is a challenge in computational biology. I investigate this problem through theoretical modeling, algorithm design and analysis on structure data. We provide a new comparison method to deal with the above problems. Modern comparative analysis should be both computationally sophisticated and biologically knowledgeable. This method asks Biologists to participate in the comparative analysis on biological data with their biological knowledge. The knowledge imposed by users is to guide the comparative procedure for better results. The outputs are consistent with the imposed knowledge specified by users. In sum, the objective is to provide flexible tools and increase interactions between tools and Biologists. Details of this proposal can be provided for requirements. I wish I can apply my combination of knowledge and experience to penetrate structure comparison research in Bioinformatics. I will complete my PhDâ??s degree in computational biology at the ending of 2005 and will be available to begin employment at beginning of 2006. I look forward to talking with you regarding research opportunities in the algorithm field of Bioinformatics and to answering any questions you may have. Thank you for your time and your consideration. Sincerely, Damon Peng, Department of Computer Science The University of Hong Kong Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong Telephone: 852-28578436 (office) Telephone: 852-61793215 (mobile) Fax: 852-25598447 Attached is a copy of my curriculum vitae, which includes the contact information of four references and has more fully details about my qualifications for such positions. The resume is also provided in the website of http://www.cs.hku.hk/~zspeng/resume.html.