<p>Hi. I'm a junior in undergrad and staying two more years from now on as an undergrad student. </p>
<p>To consider getting a good letter of recommendation and getting the title as a publisher, besides my interest, what kind of professor should I apply for, to work in the lab?</p>
<p>Here are examples: </p>
<p>A young professor who has a few of lab members, has not done much work yet (one or two selected publications).</p>
<p>An old professor who has many lab members and who has done much work (ten to fifteen selected publications).</p>
<p>I faced the same predicament in my undergraduate years. And I ended up choosing the younger one whose lab was relatively small and who had not published an impressive number of referred papers. The reason I selected the professor was that his research areas matched my interest the best in the department, and I certainly did not want to spend my undergraduate time doing something with the older professor that was not quite academically interesting to me.</p>
<p>Also I guess there are other things to consider, such as if the professor is an recognized person in the field, if he is the kind of person who loves to work with his students and takes great care of them, and so on.</p>
<p>I wouldn't worry so much about the age & experience of the professor as much as I would how well you get along with the professor. If you aren't on the same wavelength as the professor then you won't get a good letter of recommendation anyway.
Personally I find it harder to work for older professors. They are very stuck in their old ways & are resistant to change or novel new ideas. Other old professors don't really care about the life of thier students & demand long hours to get results.</p>