Professor Research Direction Mapper

A professor's current direction is not the same as their most cited paper or their lab's generic webpage. For applications and outreach, the useful question is: what are they actively moving toward, and where could the applicant plausibly connect?

Use this when

• The user wants to understand a professor's recent or trending research direction.
• The user is preparing faculty-specific PhD fit notes, SOP material, or a cold email.
• The user has a professor name, lab page, Google Scholar profile, DBLP/Semantic Scholar page, publication list, grant page, or talk abstract and needs synthesis.
• The user asks which of a professor's topics are active, fading, emerging, or risky to mention.
• The user wants to identify credible bridges between their own interests and the professor's current work.

Do not use this when

• The user is choosing entire programs or building a school shortlist. Use apply-program-fit-mapper.
• The user wants the actual cold email draft. Use apply-cold-email-drafter after the direction is mapped.
• The user wants polished SOP prose. Use apply-sop-writer.
• The user wants a broad field literature map not centered on one professor. Use literature-triangulation.