Summer Undergraduate Research Positions
Every summer, 3-5 undergraduates join the lab and participate in research in several capacities. If these are of interest, please contact Mary (oconnor@zoology.ubc.ca) with a brief statement if your interests, availability, and personal goals for undertaking a research experience. Typically we interview in Jan-Feb and make decisions in March for the summer.
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  1. Volunteers. Volunteers are often seeking experience to build their CV for research positions later. So they need to learn 1-2 (or more) skills, and experience in the research process. These positions are between 6 - 12 hours / week (negotiated in advance), unpaid, and tasks are clearly defined: feeding animals, sorting samples, measuring temperatures, etc. 
  2. Work-learn. These positions are paid (20 hours per week in the summer), and current or recent students are eligible. We always have 1, sometimes we have 2 of these.
  3. Directed studies. This can be 3 or 6 credits, and is an independent research project (designed in collaboration with Mary or a current graduate student or postdoc to fit with ongoing research efforts). These are not paid, but can be done with work-learn (not overlapping hours, but in addition to).
  4. NSERC USRA. This is a full time, paid, 1/2 technician and 1/2 time for research (e.g., for an honours project and/or contribution to an ongoing lab experiment). This requires a departmental competition and high GPA. Min 86% to be considered, and ~87 or higher to be competitive.

Prospective Graduate Students
If you’re interested in applying to work with me, here is an overview of my expectations, and what I will explore as we chat about grad school:​

  1. You have done research and have some written product. Could be a report or thesis, but ideally is co-authorship on a paper. 
  2. You can articulate why you want to go to grad school, why you want to join my group, and what are your thoughts for after grad school.
  3. You can discuss one or two research problems that really interest you and that you have thought about.
  4. You can work independently yet also can be an active contributor to our lab group.

Please email your CV, transcripts, and a statement of your research interests to oconnor@zoology.ubc.ca.

​If you are looking for more information about grad school in general, please check out this blog post on "The unwritten rules of getting in and getting on in grad school".