Failure CV

This is my CV of failure, inspired by the article in Nature by Melanie I. Stefan. Several other examples can be found here: Jia-Bin Huang, Johannes Haushofer, Alexandra Roshchina, Samuel Joseph Lord, and Sara Rywe. To my future self, and to anyone reading this after a rejection: academia is, in many ways, a long practice of being turned down. Degree programs say no, funding applications say no, journals say no, and sometimes potential collaborators say no as well. These decisions can hurt, but they are often shaped by timing, fit, competition, and uncertainty; they are not the final measure of our work or our worth. Failures are often invisible, while successes are much easier to see. I keep this page as a reminder that what matters is not avoiding rejection, but learning how to continue with honesty and courage. Rejection is part of the route, not proof that the route is closed.

Degree programs I failed to get into

2025

  • PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering, Princeton University.
  • DPhil in Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford.
  • PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
  • PhD in Earth System Science, Stanford University.
  • PhD in Civil Engineering, Environmental and Water Resources Engineering, University of Texas at Austin.
  • PhD in Earth and Environmental Engineering, Columbia University.
  • PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Berkeley.

2026

  • PhD in Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics, University of Pennsylvania.
  • PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering, Stanford University.
  • PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering, Princeton University.
  • DPhil in Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford.
  • Nine PhD position applications, ETH Zurich / Eawag.
  • PhD in Civil Engineering, University of Cambridge.

Paper submissions rejected

  • 2025, Geophysical Research Letters ×1.
  • 2026, International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML) ×1.
  • 2026, Journal of Hydrology ×2.

Awards and scholarships I failed to get

  • 2025, Knight-Hennessy Scholars Program.
  • 2026, ETH AI Center Doctoral Fellowships.