Today Dr Sabry mentioned the Oral Qualifiers to me - maybe I should start putting together a reading list and selecting a committee. I thought I should put down a first list based on what comes to mind first without caring too much about what people really want to deal with. So this list will have to undergo many alterations - I thought it would be nice to preserve it. I don't know how large or small PhD Orals reading lists are - maybe I should ask around. Maybe this one is too small.

Oral Qualifiers
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Computational/Process Calculi
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Functions as Processes, Pi calculus - Milner
Join Calculus, Reflexive CHAM - Gonthier, Fournet
STM - Tim Harris, Simon PJ, Herlihy

Foundations: Logic and Mathematics
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Basic Category Theory - Pierce
Basic Mathematical Logic - ?
Natural Deduction and Sequent Calculus - Dag Prawitz
B*, K* logics, Linear/Affine type systems - Dunn, Walker
Lattices, Gaggle theory - Dunn, Bimbo

Types & Semantics
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Lambda Cube (Fw, Dep. types) - Barendegt, Aspinwall, Hofman
Typed Operational Reasoning, Equational Correspondence - Sabry, Harper, Felleisen
Something about Pure Type Systems - ?
Basic Model Theory, Scott Models, Denotational Semantics - ?
Calculus of Constructions - Coquand
Lambda~ mu mu~ Calculus, CBV CBN duality - Curien, Herberlin, Wadler
Type theory behind Control operators - Makarov, Sabry, Danvy, Filinski, Kiselyov, Felleisen
Theory of Objects - Cardelli, Abadi

As I look at this list I wonder, what can I possibly do in the *real* world after I get out of here? Maybe I should be writing a web server or some such thing. That way when I am out of here maybe someone will say "He knows all this Category theory nonsense. Really! I looked it up on Wikipedia, it really is called the generalized-abstract-nonsense. But he's also written a web server, maybe we should interview him?"

If you are wondering what PhD Oral Quals are like, maybe these serve as a good explanation -

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