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I guess this is more of an academic culture question than anything, but how do you get over anxiety about approaching really successful faculty, researchers, etc? For example, there's a professor in my department who is a rising star in her area, with early tenure, incredible success with grants, etc. She teaches a required class and so all the students are at least somewhat familiar with her. However, a lot of us who aren't her advisees are really intimidated about approaching her regarding consultation or collaboration, even when we have projects that could benefit from her expertise. It's not a personality issue--she seems really nice in class and mentions that she likes consulting with people about her area of expertise--but just that we're nervous about approaching someone who seems both incredibly good and incredibly busy. How do you approach someone like that without feeling like you're imposing?