Postdocs

We’re always interested in talking to qualified postdoc candidates. Particularly those with backgrounds in Statistics, Computer Science, Physics, or any other field where you do applied math for a living. Neuroscience experience is not required, though neuroscience interest is.

Graduate students

We are not recruiting graduate students for Fall 2024. However, the lab will be open to rotating students.

Duke provides a wonderful environment for students interested in pursuing the kind of interdisciplinary research we do. As a result, P[λ]ab accepts graduate students through multiple programs:

• Neurobiology. The Department of Neurobiology offers a PhD through its graduate training program. Research in the department focuses on biological and mechanistic approaches, typically at the cellular and molecular or systems and circuits level. This is John’s home department, and the lab regularly hosts students for rotations or PhD mentorship.

• Cognitive Neuroscience Admitting Program. Unlike most PhD programs, CNAP is not tied to a single department. Rather, it gives students the opportunity to explore interdisciplinary research in cognitive neuroscience before ultimately affiliating with a department like Psychology & Neuroscience, Neurobiology, or Electrical and Computer Engineering. CNAP is administered by the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, which includes faculty whose interests range from speech and development to neurons and computation. Students do three semester-long rotations and are often jointly mentored. The typical CNAP student has a strong interest in cognition and is looking to pursue research that crosses traditional departmental boundaries. John is a core faculty member of CCN.

• Biostatistics and Bioinformatics. The PhD in biostatistics is a rigorous program that focuses on statistical theory and its application to biomedical research. The program is small, and like most programs at Duke, highly competitive. Compared to neuroscience PhD programs, the number of required courses is high, and many admitted students enter having completed a master’s degree. John has a secondary appointment in the deparment, and interested candidates should mention him in their applications.

• Psychology and Neuroscience. The department offers a PhD program with emphases in multiple areas, including Cognition and Cognitive Neuroscience and Systems and Integrative Neuroscience. John has a secondary appointment in the department and can accept students.

• Electrical and Computer Engineering. The department offers a PhD program and has an exceptional faculty in Signal and Information Processing. John has a secondary appointment in ECE and can accept students. The program is by direct admission, so interested students should reach out to John in advance and mention the lab in their applications.

If you plan on applying, keep a few things in mind:

• It’s best to contact John in advance if you have a strong interest in our lab. Some programs may be a better fit for you than others. Please also indicate which program(s) you are targeting.
• Graduate students cost money. Sadly, we don’t have enough funding to support all the talented students who might be interested. Again, contacting John early will let you get our buest guess as to how things stand, but given that students are funded through a variety of mechanisms (grants, fellowships, departmental resources) and often don’t choose a lab until their second year, it can be difficult to project into the future. In general, students should target programs and schools with a variety of potential mentors.
• We really prioritize students with quantitative skills. PhD students in the lab will spend the bulk of their time coding, analyzing, and deriving and so should expect to take additional courses in statistics and machine learning, even if those are not required by their program. We value previous experience in neuroscience, but we are particularly looking for:
  • Demonstrated mathematical ability (usually coursework).
  • Strong coding skills (public code, open source contributions, version control, testing).
  • Experience analyzing data (statistical modeling, simulation, machine learning).

Full-Time Research Associates

We sometimes advertise positions for research associates/data scientists. These roles are best-suited to post-baccalaureate students who plan to go on to graduate school or careers in data science. Applicants should send a cv, cover letter, and code sample (GitHub/BitBucket/Gitlab profile preferred) to John for consideration. Again, we prioritize applicants with strong coding and quantitative skills.

Undergraduates

P[λ]ab offers undergraduates several opportunities to contribute to the work of the lab:

• Through an independent study.
• Through a senior thesis.
• Through work-study or undergraduate research assistantships.
• Through several summer research opportunities. (N.B.: John really doesn’t know much about these, so if this is a route you’d like to take, it’s up to you to figure out what programs would allow you to work with us.)

A few points to note:

• There is very little busy work in the lab. Many of the traditional grunt tasks assigned to undergraduate researchers either don’t exist (collecting and organizing data) or are highly technical (setting up and running cloud environments). All of our projects involve computer programming. Most involve some math. To be a successful undergraduate researcher, you must be able to contribute meaningfully, and that requires a certain level of technical skill at the outset.
• That said, if you are interested in working with us and willing to put in the time, we have a list of resources for self-study. John is also willing to meet and discuss what informal mentoring along these lines might look like.
• For reasons of equity, we pay all our undergraduate researchers. We might ask you for a brief trial period, but we do not in general offer unpaid internships. This means, in practice, that the bar for accepting students into the lab is high (though cf. the previous point).

High School Students

While we encourage students at all levels to get involved in research early on in their academic careers, having high school students work with the lab poses a couple of serious challenges:

1. Duke takes its responsibility to ensure the protection of minors very seriously, which entails tight restrictions on their involvement in research labs. In most cases, the benefits to us and the students do not outweigh the costs.
2. Because of the very high bar for contribution in the lab and the fact that we do not offer remote positions, it is nearly impossible for high school students to participate in a way that produces a meaningful research experience for them or a measurable contribution to the lab. As a result we do not accept high school students into the lab except through select Duke-affiliated programs. For instance, we are open to hosting students through DUNE, and those interested in our work should note this during the application process, but in general, we encourage high school students to seek out structured research experiences tailored to their career stage.