Opportunities and Lab Culture
I (Wendy) seek to create an environment in my lab in which we all feel comfortable bringing our whole selves to work or school. For this reason, I expect all students to excel in a manner that supports their personal short term objectives and long-term career goals. I try to support trainees to lean into their strengths as well as to overcome obstacles that they or others have placed in their way. As noted below, I try to match the degree of teaching versus feedback to your level of demonstrated expertise. I also try to use the times I have experienced privilege as well as the times I have experienced exclusion to create an environment in which everyone can learn, thrive, and have fun.
My lab is organized to maximize your involvement with mentoring at all levels. While I directly mentor all of my lab members, each student also has a more senior lab member mentoring them directly, and is encouraged to provide such mentoring to a junior lab member once they have become established. I encourage these mentoring relationships as well as peer-to-peer mentoring and team work in weekly mini-group meetings, where lab members share their latest results, interpretations, obstacles and plans.
My goal is that each person obtain rigorous training early so that I can trust that they are doing good work, but then to encourage increasing independence, especially for senior members. I always want to hear about your results and plans, but as you progress through your training, I will be doing less instructing and more listening and providing ideas for you to evaluate and then take or leave.
I also meet annually with all lab members for an individual development plan meeting, in which we discuss your short-term and long-term career goals, what you need to do to meet these goals, and what I can do to help you. These meetings use a worksheet such as an individual development plan to help us address important issues.
If you are interested in joining the Thomas lab, email Wendy Thomas to explain what type of position you would like in the lab, why you are interested in this particular lab and/or project, and include your resume or CV. If your interests match our opportunities, we will schedule you for an interview with Wendy and/or a lab mentor.
To work in the Thomas lab as an undergraduate student, you need to enroll in an undergraduate research course (such as a senior capstone or thesis or Bioen 499 or 406) OR have an award that pays you to do research (such as a work study award or an undergraduate research award). We also need to identify a more senior lab member mentor with a project idea that matches your needs, so please also tell us if you are looking for a short-term project to learn about research working closely with your mentor, or a long-term project where you will transition to independence, such as a capstone, thesis or equivalent experience.
To work in the Thomas lab as a graduate student, you need to be enrolled in one of the following programs: Bioengineering, Biological Physics, Structure and Design, Mechanical Engineering, Molecular Engineering, or Molecular & Cellular Biology. In addition to providing the information we request of all potential trainees, tell us which program you are in or which you are considering applying to, and ask about funding.