Prospective Students

Generally speaking, the size of my lab at present time is not limited by a desire to have a specific number of students; on the contrary, the lab is enriched by having more students with diverse interests and backgrounds. However, the size of my lab is dictated both by my financial ability to support students, as well as by the time I have available to provide adequate mentorship.  

Currently, I do not have funding available for students applying in Fall 2023 for the 2024/25 academic year.

The School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences requires students to have at least 3/4 of their degree fully funded (stipend+tuition+fees). However, SAFS offers competitive fellowships to the top ~5% of each applicant pool, and I am also able to take students with their own funding (e.g. NSF Fellowships, Nancy Foster Scholarships, etc.).  Thus, I encourage students interested in our research to explore these avenues and others, and to contact me if you are interested in joining us.  When contacting me, it is helpful for you to have some general idea of what your research interests are, and for you to send a CV in the initial email.  If I don't respond within a week or two, ping me again!

I also encourage students to apply for the NSF Graduate Student Research Fellowship program, which could fund your graduate degree. I would be willing to help brainstorm ideas on proposal ideas if they are very closely aligned to fish systematics, biodiversity and evolution.

CLICK HERE for more info on how apply for the graduate program at UW’s School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences.

Our stance on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion:
Having a diverse research team is critical to the success of our lab. Simply put, we operate best as a group when we have a varied set of backgrounds, experiences, and contributions. To achieve that, I especially encourage students and researchers from all backgrounds to participate in our lab, including people from any cultural background, race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, personality, and people with disabilities. To that end, we recognize that academia as an institution is riddled with systemic racism and other forms of prejudice that both actively and passively discriminate against people of color and other marginalized communities. Regardless of our intentions, we are guilty as individuals, as a lab, as a School, as a College, and as a University, of not doing enough to combat this. We strive to do better. Thus, a goal of our lab is to be actively engaged in increasing equity and inclusion in every facet of our lab’s research – including field work, lab/collections based research, outreach, and education in the classroom.

Feel free to view our lab policy.