In mid Sept I sent an email to my potential supervisor asking him if he would be interested in my research project and free to supervise my project . But I got no reply from him at the end of the month. So I sent another email to him again in early Oct. Unfortunately I have still got no reply from him. The deadline for PhD applications is next month. Should I send an email to him again? What do you guys think? I need your advice. Thank you for your help!

In my experience, this is fairly normal. I had to e-mail endlessly before I got a (positive) response and I was going down to the time-wire too. Point out the time deadline, tho they should know this!

thanks for your reply, scholastica.

Hi, dotdottung! Yes, I think you should keep chasing him, but do not depend on only one supervisor. Try to find others with interests in your research area.

If there's no answer from two emails, then try to either call or find contact details of a departmental administrator, and ask what's the best way to contact Prof X, explaining the forthcoming deadline etc.

I'll seriously rethink doing my PhD under the supervision of an academic who failed to reply my email after two initial contacts. Things do, and can, happen: there could be problems with her/his email; s/he may have become suddenly hospitalized; s/he may be away (e.g. field-working in some remote locations of the world where there is limited or no access to email facilities--automated response should have been set up in this case); s/he may no longer be in that university. Short of these, or any similar reasons, if s/he has simply ignored/failed to reply your emails, it could be a sign that s/he would treat you in much the same way when you start your PhD with her/him. Your worst nightmare would be to send materials to your supervisor to read and provide feedbacks but fail to get any responses from her/him, even after several reminders. As HazyJane remarked, try and contact the departmental secretary or administrator and find out whether or not this academic has been around. Best of luck.

Email him again, but definitely consider emailing other potential supervisors.

Thanks a million! I will try to email him again and look for other potential supervisors at the same time.

I had similar experience few days back...... I took up advice given on this blog and sent him a follow up email asking him politely if he had received my earlier email. Lucky for me he revered back and things are falling in line now!!
But be cautious how you frame your email. And still he fails to reply back then I guess you start finding new supervisor its futile to waste your time and you might miss your deadlines for applications!!