At 10:15 AM 9/23/2005 -0500, you wrote:
You are right, it does not matter. The judgement of the quality of the proposal is not, in my experience, based on the author's reputation.
Carlo
FWIW, this is one of the reviews I got for a beam time proposal:
The PI proposes to study monodisperced nanoparticle size using XAFS and compare it against TEM and DLS. The PI has proven in recent years to carry out careful and well planned experiments. Previous studies have resulted in several high quality publications in letter and archievel literature. The PI also has been active in the integration of undergraduate students in his synchrotron research. I highly recommend user time.
For this reviewer, it appears that "reputation" was a factor. My guess, however, is that reputation of this sort is transferable to the whole research group; as long as the more senior adviser is mentioned somewhere in the proposal, it should be just as likely to get approved as if the senior member is the PI. For the other reasons that people have suggested, I agree that having the student as PI is desirable. Also, of course, having the student as PI is good for their career in the long run, as they can build on the experience when they establish their own program... --Scott Calvin Sarah Lawrence College