Jody Hey                  Evolutionary Genetics

  Professor    -     Department of Genetics     -   Rutgers University

This page summarizes some of the issues associated with being an undergraduate student, or a graduate student, or a postdoctoral fellow,  in my laboratory.  Usually my lab has a small number of students of each type, and the overall environment is interactive and fairly tight-nit.   If you wonder what it is like, you can email me, or email current or former lab members - go to contacts .       Jody Hey

Links

Undergraduates         Graduate Students      Postdocs 

Other Evolution Labs at Rutgers

Undergraduates

For Rutgers Undergraduate Students, who are majoring in the life sciences, and are seeking research experience.

If you are interested in evolution, and have obtained a good grade in your primary Genetics class, then it may be possible for you to do a  research project in the laboratory.  Preference is given to students who are majoring in Genetics. Students are only taken on a for-credit basis.  As Juniors this means taking one or both of the Junior-level life science research courses (numbers 307 in the Fall and/or 308 in the Spring).  For Seniors it means taking either the basic Senior-level research course (numbers 406 in the Fall, 407 in the Spring) or the Honors-level research course number (408 in the Fall, 409 in the Spring).   Students are not accepted for less than 3 credits of research in any one semester.

It is important for students to begin making arrangements for research several months prior to the beginning of the semester in which the research will be done.  At the least, you should begin to find a research advisor when you are planning your courses for the following semester, before you register for your next semester's classes.

As part of their research projects, students will write a scientific paper summarizing their work and their findings.  For Honors-level research or for a full Senior year of research (6 credits in both semesters) this is a major dissertation-style paper.  Research students  are also expected to attend weekly lab meetings, and to read papers that are discussed at these meetings. 

For further information,  go to the Rutgers Life Sciences Homepage

Graduate Students

Potential Graduate Students 

If you are considering applying to Rutgers for graduate school in the life sciences, and might want to work under my supervision,  here is some basic information.

First, my laboratory typically has a fairly small number of active researchers (e.g. 3 to 7 grad students, undergrads, and postdocs at any point in time).

Apart from an advisor,  it is also important for graduate students to have other faculty members to talk to and learn from.  Rutgers has a number of faculty with research programs in evolutionary genetics. Here is a minimal list of those faculty with links to their pages -> Other Evolution Labs at Rutgers 

Students do not need a masters degree, in order to apply to a Ph.D. program.  However I do not accept students who are seeking a masters degree.

I am a member of two graduate programs at Rutgers.   The Program in Ecology and Evolution is a large and diverse program with faculty spanning a wide-range of research areas in population and conservation biology, including evolutionary genetics.   By tradition, students who apply to this program are accepted with an initial academic advisor.  This advisor is generally the presumptive research advisor for students, though students are able to change advisors if they need to later.  If you think you might apply to this graduate program, and may want to work with me, I recommend that you email me and tell me of your interests, so I know to look for you when the admissions committee sends out its list of acceptable students.   Admission standards are high for this program, as are my own standards in deciding which students I would consider advising. 

Most students in the  Program in Ecology and Evolution are supported (i.e. are paid salary and receive a tuition waver) on research grants, in which case they work as research assistants on their advisor's or another faculty member's grant-funded research, or on a teaching assistant line, in which case they work as teaching assistants in undergraduate life science courses at Rutgers.

 I am also a member of the joint Graduate Programs in Molecular Biosciences. This is a large umbrella-type graduate program that includes many subdisciplines within molecular biology.  Newly admitted students receive a fellowship for their first year.  During that year, they take courses and also do research projects (rotations) in three labs of their choosing.  The purpose of the first year is to identify a general research area and advisor for the remainder of the Ph.D.   For the subsequent years, after the first, most students in this program are fully supported on research grants.

If you are thinking of applying to this graduate program, and  may want to work with me,  I recommend that you email me and tell me of your interests.  If our interests are compatible, and if you are accepted, then we would arrange for you to do one of your first year rotations in my laboratory.

Which graduate program to choose?  The Graduate Programs in Molecular Biosciences has the very attractive feature that first year students are on fellowship.  However this program has a very strong molecular biology focus - more than you may need for a dissertation project in my lab.  However if your interests are on the molecular side, then this is probably the program to focus on.  The  Program in Ecology and Evolution has a more population-biological focus, and it is easer to take courses in evolution and ecology through this program. If your interests lie more in this area, then this is probably the program to apply to.

If you are a foreign student,  it can be difficult gaining employment at Rutgers immediately upon your arrival. If you wanted to work with me, and even if I was open to that,  it is unlikely that I would be willing to support you on grant-funded research immediately upon your arrival. However it is also difficult for new foreign students to work as teaching assistants immediately upon arrival to the USA.  For many foreign students, the only way to be admitted for the first year of graduate school is to be able to show a high enough bank balance (for visa purposes) and to support yourself for the first year.  Foreign students can come into the Graduate Programs in Molecular Biosciences  and receive a fellowship for their first year.

Finally, in order for me to be a good advisor to a student, it is important that I be able to support a student on a grant-funded research project.  This means that whether or not I think I can be an advisor for a new student depends strongly on what I feel my prospects are for having funding for them in the next few years.  In some cases, when I don't have funding, a student may receive a teaching assistantship and obtain salary and tuition waiver by teaching.  This is ok for a  year or so, but it is difficult for students to do a credible, current  Ph.D. dissertation, if they are also teaching in every year that they are in graduate school. 

Postdocs

 If you have or will soon receive a Ph.D. in some area relevant to evolutionary genetics, and are wondering about doing a postdoc in my lab, feel free to email me.   In these situations  (as with graduate students),  the critical uncertainty can often be funding - i.e. salary money.   If you already have, or are going to receive a postdoctoral fellowship from some other source,  then this makes things less complicated, of course.  If you would like to write a postdoctoral  fellowship application, and would like to work in my lab if you get that fellowship,  then in many cases I would be glad to help prepare that application. 

Most postdocs in my lab have been supported off of research grants from the NIH or the NSF.  In general I ask potential postdocs for their CVs and for three letters of recommendation.  For positions on research grants, I try to accept the candidates with the strongest applications.