While rotations are not required for our program, many students choose to spend their first year rotating through up to three different labs (one per quarter, Autumn/Winter/Spring) to explore a range of techniques and research areas.  Benefits to conducting rotations include more opportunities to hone your research interests, networking, and learning laboratory skills.

How to Join a Lab

To join a faculty member’s lab for a rotation, you must contact that faculty member directly.  Your temporary advisor may assist you in identifying faculty whose research may be of interest to you, but ultimately it is your responsibility to connect with the faculty to find a spot in their lab.  While this can be intimidating, it is good practice in networking and relationship building.

Choosing a Permanent Lab

The lab that you would like to choose as your “permanent” lab should be that of your Supervisory Committee Chair.  Again, you are responsible for directly asking the faculty member to be your Chair.

Once this relationship is established, you can begin asking additional faculty to join your Supervisory Committee.