Introducing Yourself
as a Researcher
What is a Bio Statement?
 A bio statement is short for biographical statement
and is also called a bio-data statement.
 A bio statement introduces you as a researcher.
 A bio statement often includes:
(a) Your academic credentials.
(b) Your research interests.
(c) Your current position (or notable past positions).
(d) Your recent or notable publications.
Sample Bio Statement 1
 Kota Ohata earned his B.A. degree from Kyoto
University of Foreign Studies in 1994, a M.A. in TESOL
from West Virginia University in 1996. After a few
years of EFL teaching back in Japan, he returned to the
U.S. for the pursuit of doctoral degree in the area of
applied linguistics. Recently Kota Ohata completed his
dissertation and received a Ph.D. in Composition &
from Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
Where Are Bio Statements Used?
 Bio statements are used when submitting papers to
journals, when applying for grants, and when
proposing conference papers to name a few of the
important places where you find bio statements.
 Here is a call for paper proposals:
Please send the abstract without author(s) names. On
a separate sheet, include each author's name,
affiliation, mailing address, e-mail address, telephone
and fax numbers, and 50-word biographical
statement.
 Here is another call for papers:
Notes to Contributors
All materials submitted become the property of
TESOL Arabia. The editors reserve the right to
make editorial changes to better suit the format
and readership. If substantial changes are
required, the editors will consult the author(s).
Please remember to include a brief
biographical statement (50-75 words
maximum) with your submission.
Some More Bio Statements
 Joanne Bennett Doeman was born October 25, 1952 in
Salisbury, North Carolina. She did her undergraduate work
at Hollins College in Hollins, Virginia. She received her
Bachelor of Arts with Honors in English in 1974. After
college she moved to Winston-Salem and began working for
the Social Security Administration, where she worked until
the birth of her first child in 1980. She has been a volunteer
at the Methodist Home and is a member of the North
Carolina Council on Aging. She began work on her Master of
Arts in Liberal Studies in 1990 with the purpose of
combining her interests in English literature and the
problems of aging.
Part I: Dr. Lust
Prof. Barbara Lust studied Developmental Psychology,
Linguistics and Philosophy, as well as English
literature. She received her Ph.d. in Developmental
Psychology from City University of New York Graduate
Center after earlier studies at L'Institut des Sciences de
l"Education, at the University of Geneva, Switzerland.
She followed this with postdoctoral study in linguistics
and philosophy at MIT before coming to Cornell. Her
teaching at Cornell involves Developmental Psychology
and Linguistics, within an interdisciplinary perspective
of Cognitive Science.
Part II: Dr. Lust
Dr. Lust's research is framed in an interdisciplinary and
cross-linguistic framework, involving the study of first,
second and multilingual language acquisition,
especially in the child, and links theoretical paradigms
to experimental methods of research. Recently she is
involved in building a virtual internetbased international center for the study of language
acquisition and the related science of information
integration which it involves. She is also developing
comparative study of language in normal healthy aging
in contrast to that in early Alzheimer's Disease.
Part I: Dr. Gebhard
Dr. Gebhard is a recently retired IUP professor where he
taught in the English Department Composition &
TESOL Program. Throughout his career, he has been
an international speaker and advocate for ESL/EFL
students and teachers, and he has taught English to a
variety of different students, including Buddhist monks
in Northeast Thailand, Vietnamese and Laotian
refugees in Hawaii, immigrants in New York City,
intensive language institute students in New York City
and Indiana, Pennsylvania, university English majors
and non-English majors in Thailand, businessmen in
Japan, and undergraduates at IUP.
Part II: Dr. Gebhard
He has also taught English teachers and developing
scholars enrolled in the Ph.D. Program in
Composition & TESOL and in the MA TESOL
Program at IUP, as well as teachers in China, Japan
and Hungary where he taught as a visiting
professor. After earning his doctorate from
Teachers College, Columbia University, he focused
on developing principles & practices teachers can
use to make their on informed teaching decisions,
rather than to depend on the prescriptions of others.
Part III: Dr. Gebhard
Dr. Gebhard is the author of Teaching English as a
Foreign or Second Language (University of
Michigan Press, second edition, 2006) and
Language Teaching Awareness: A Guide to
Exploring Beliefs and Practices (Cambridge
University Press, 1999, with Robert Oprandy). He
has also published scores of book chapters and
journal articles. His most recent book chapter is The
TESOL Practicum (In A. Burns and J.C. Richards,
eds. The Cambridge Guide to Second Language
Teacher Education, Cambridge University Press, in
press).
Bio Statement Assignment
 Assignment
 Working with a partner, write a 50 word bio statement
introducing yourself. You partner will also write 50
word bio statement. Exchange statements and off
suggestions. Use your partners bio statement to
introduce your partner.