“I want to work as a student-hourly in a research lab on campus”

Find a research lab where a Principal Investigator (PI) is looking for student-hourly help
(see below). There are ~45 research labs in the SVM, and many more in the School of
Medicine and Public Health, School of Pharmacy, College of Letters and Sciences,
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the School of Engineering.

Before contacting the PI, make sure you know how many hours you might have available
per week during the semester (nights? weekends?), as well as during vacations. PIs like
reliability and continuity. Remember, you are going to be working on their research
project, not yours. When you contact them, make it clear that you are interested in their research topic. All of them will have a web page describing their interests.

Faculty Research Labs

Browsing faculty research labs can give you an idea of what type of research goes on in that lab. On the SVM website under Research Programs, you will find additional projects that are ongoing here. If you know of a researcher in the SVM and cannot find them in either of these lists, check out the four individual departments that make up the SVM. All faculty are listed here. Many of the researchers in the SVM are also your instructors, so you can chat with them about their research after a lecture or lab. Otherwise, send them an e-mail and arrange a time to meet with them.

If you know a research area in which you are particularly interested and you want to find
out who is working in that area on campus (e.g., Immunology, Spinal Cord injury,
Oncology, etc.), go to the Experts Datapage and type in your area of interest in the Search box.

Another way to find people working in a particular research area is to go to the campus
websites for graduate training in that area (e.g., Cell and Molecular Biology,
Neuroscience Training Program, Microbiology, Environmental Toxicology, etc.). A full
list of all the graduate programs with links to the individual programs can be found here.

You can also look for job opportunities at the Job Center.

Write a brief e-mail (~4 sentences) introducing yourself as a Veterinary student,
expressing your interest in their research/the position, outlining the time you have
available including vacations, and whether you would also be available the following
year. Attach your CV. If you have never written a CV, ask around amongst your
classmates to see a few examples of CVs.

Talk to:
Betsy Elsmo, 2013
Nina Zitzer, 2013
Zachary Joseph, 2013
Rebecca Kohnken, 2013