Opportunities

Join us?

Undergraduate students:

We routinely take directed studies and honours students from UBC Biology, Neuroscience, Integrated Science, Psychology, and other programs. If you are interested in working with us, please send an email to Ben with a brief description of past laboratory experiences (no specific experience is required!), timeline, and a short description of what you hope to get out of your time in the lab. This will help me determine whether there is a good fit between your interests and any of the ongoing projects spearheaded by graduate students and postdocs.

For the fall of the 2026-2027 academic year we will have a better sense of what projects might be open in early August.

Graduate students:

At the graduate level, our research group is currently full and is not accepting new students at this time. Specific opportunities will be posted here if they become available.

In the past, our lab has taken M.Sc. and Ph.D. students through the following programs: Zoology, Neuroscience, and Genome Sciences and Technology.

Postdoctoral researchers:

Candidates at the postdoctoral level should email Ben a CV, contact information for three references, and a brief proposal for a postdoctoral project. As a postdoctoral candidate, you will be expected to identify and apply for external funding (e.g. HFSP, NSERC, CIHR, Michael Smith). Before reaching out, you should research these mechanisms and present a timeline for applying to those for which you are eligible.

Citizen Science:

We recently began a project, led by Dr. Dan Peach (now at University of Georgia), Joshua Chen, and Danica Shannon, aimed at identifying mosquitoes using genome sequencing and DNA barcoding. We want to sincerely thank you all for the wonderful response to this project, and provide a quick update. We’ve received thousands of mosquitoes from all over BC and for the coming year are only accepting samples from the Central Coast, North Coast, Stikine, Peace River, and Kootney regions. We are currently processing the samples that have been sent in, but due to the overwhelming numbers that were submitted this is taking longer than anticipated. Thank you for your submissions and your patience!