Undergraduates
There are several opportunities to get involved with research in the lab. Positions are often available for volunteers, paid assistants, work study students, and course credit (Independent Studies and Research Opportunity Programs). Please contact me well in advance of any deadlines so that we can discuss areas of common interest and whether we can pursue funding for your projects.
Graduate Students
I am interested in recruiting both Master’s and Ph.D. level graduate students. The University of Toronto is a fantastic community for graduate students interested in ecological and evolutionary genetics. Toronto is a safe, tolerant, cosmopolitan city with tremendous cultural resources and attractions.
I am looking for graduate students who are independent, creative, and willing to take the initiative. Students may work on projects related to my research or on projects of they have designed themselves. My general philosophy is to give students as much freedom as possible while remaining available for advice, suggestions, and trouble-shooting. I strongly encourage students to approach problems from multiple angles and to integrate diverse perspectives—for example, evolutionary and ecological, theoretical and empirical, or molecular and ecological approaches. I also believe that all students should be well grounded in the classic and current literature of their field, and graduate with strong quantitative and statistical skills. A current emphasis in the lab is combining ecological data with the genomic resources available for Arabidopsis thaliana to understand the evolutionary genetics of life history traits.
Funding at the University of Toronto is provided by a combination of institutional support, fellowships, and support from my NSERC operating grant. All prospective students are strongly encouraged to apply for external funding from NSERC and the Ontario Graduate Scholarship Program. Details on NSERC and OGS application procedures can be found here.
Please feel free to contact me for more information. Details on the application process are available from the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology website.