Join the Lab

KU Undergraduates

If you are a KU undergraduate interested in joining the lab, send me an email and we can set up a time to talk about your experience, interests, and long-term goals. Not all research experiences are the same, so it’s important to think about what you would like to get out of the time you invest in the lab. Generally I expect students to be able to commit to around 10 hours a week during the semester. This is a big committment, but moving projects forward takes time, especially if you are learning new techniques for the first time. Depending on the number of students in the lab at the time you join, there may be funding available to pay you for the hours you work in the lab. If you have a work-study allocation as part of your financial aid package, please do mention that as well.

To get a sense for what previous undergraduates in the lab have worked on, you can check out some of their posters:

• 2018 — Urban Biogeography of Fungal Endophytes in Metrosideros excelsa Across San Francisco — Emma Gibson
• 2020 — Symbiosis Between Arabidopsis thaliana and Colletotrichum tofieldiae for Enhanced Phytoremediation of Indoor Volatile Organic Compounds — Emre Ovet
• 2020 — Phylogenetic Relationships of Foliar Bacteria Within Cover Crops in an Organic Cropping System — Marcello Kuan, Derek Newberger, Christina Tran
• 2021 — Hidden Consequences: The Effects of Daikon Radish on the Microbial Communities of Purple Vetch in Cover Crop Mixtures — Marcello Kuan

Prospective Graduate Students

The Environmental Studies Program at KU doesn’t have a research-based graduate program. However, it may be possible to join the lab through the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology graduate program.

The most important thing to consider when joining a lab as a graduate student is fit with the other members of the lab and alignment of research interests with the group. For serious potential applicants, we can set up meetings with other folks in the group and have a discussion about potential research projects. These discussions should happen before you apply.

Prospective Postdoctoral Fellows

I do not currently have funding to hire a postdoctoral fellow, but I am always willing to talk to interested folks who want to put together a proposal for fellowship funding.