Undergraduate Research Opportunities
Motivated undergraduate students interested in conservation or evolutionary genetics are encouraged to inquire about research opportunities in the lab.
Having interested and excited students makes our lab group more fun, productive, and exciting. Over the years we have worked with many excellent undergraduates in the lab – many of which have gone on to exciting jobs and great grad programs! If you are an undergrad at USC Sumter, Morris, Central Carolina, USC, Midlands Tech (or, elsewhere and in Sumter for any reason!) and are interested in plants, insects, or ecology more general – do get in touch!
Please be sure to sure to check out our basic policies below to make sure you know what you are getting yourself into.
Goals:
Our lab aims to create a supportive, welcoming, and intellectually challenging environment to foster the development of technical skills, scientific writing and analysis, as well as critical thinking.
While undergraduates can, and often do, become coauthors on papers, that is certainly not the primary goal of undergraduate research. We do encourage undergraduates to write up and present their research at conferences, but we do not require them to do so.
General Policies:
Your primary responsibility is your classwork. Your lab work is a supplementary experience and should not get in the way of achieving success in the classroom. To this end, we ask that you do not volunteer for more hours per week than you can handle, and feel free to speak up when you need time away from lab to focus on your studies.
Students can volunteer to help with any project that is currently ongoing. Once they are familiar with lab techniques and have a mastery of the required skills, they are encouraged to pursue their own projects. Coming up with an interesting research question is one of the most important skills a scientist develops and we are always excited to help new lab members develop thought provoking questions.
Funding
From time to time there may be funding for undergraduate research for specific projects. In addition, we encourage students to apply for a variety of funding opportunities, especially those that are offered through USCs Office of Undergraduate Research like the Magellan and Mini-Magellan, as well as the Palmetto Undergraduate Research Experience grant offered through Palmetto College at USC Sumter.