Writing a letter asking for possible assignment

sz0

Hello, i seem to have a conundrum on my hands that i hope the kind people on here might be able to give me some tips about how to handle.

I am currecntly working on my bachelor degree in physics, and have one more year before i'm finnished with that and will go on to my masters(and finally phd).
Recently at a social gathering I was conversing with a exchange student doing his master thesis.
I mentioned my intrest in going into a sertain field of recearch, he then gave me the email of someone he knew in this field to contact. Becuse maybe i could do some sort of job for this person during the summer or something like that.

I now am quite excited about this oppertunity, but at the same time realise that i as a bachelor student lack any signifigant knowledge about anything.But I figure if he tells me I'm useless I'm not worse of then if I do nothing anyway, yet I get very anxius about this. Could you guys maybe advise me as to what I should write to this person and if this sort of thing is a common way to get a foot in?
Is this maybe just the result of a drunk guy giving away adresses to people he hardly knows :)?

If you think this forum post is a disaster, then you realise why I was worried about writing the mail straight away. I am very thankful for anyone taking the time to respond.

story645

Go for it. The worst thing that'll happen is that he won't reply or will say no, which really isn't a big thing once you realize how much email professors are inundated with.

You write a professional, cordial, business letter similar to:

Hello Professor X,
Y, your former student/co-author/insert relationship here, gave me your email address because I am a junior undergrad in physics at university Z and am interested in doing research in [field]. Would it be possible to work with you this summer?

sz0

That you, that was just what i needed to hear to just do it.