Dr. Wilson: Applications of Genomics/Evolutionary Biology to Wildlife & Fisheries Conservation

Responsibilities include general lab maintenance and assisting graduate students and other researchers with laboratory protocols from sample organization to data collection and analysis. Student researchers will be expected to keep an organized and detailed lab notebook. Some projects may also provide opportunities for preparing museum specimens and taking of morphological data within the Nebraska State Museum.

We are looking for students with an interest in conservation genetics and biological sciences, wildlife, or fisheries. Potential students should be detail-oriented and excited to learn new skills. Student researchers must be willing to work in a team setting and alongside other students to help solve problems.

The SNR conservation genomics lab and State Museum Zoology Division has fostered an environment where students can be creative, support each other, and can explore career paths. Students supporting students provide the laboratory members with a foundation for personal and professional support network as they continue their professional career in STEM. As such, our lab is a team-oriented environment which is predicated on group learning. Incoming students will be working in a lab composed of young researchers at various stages of their career from other undergraduates just starting out to post-doctoral researchers and faculty members.

Students typically start assisting more experience researchers or help with smaller projects such as molecular sexing birds or using classical DNA sequencing techniques for species ID. As students' skills progress, students are afforded leadership roles by training other students in laboratory methods regardless of class standing and is based on experience.

Secondary contact: Sarah Sonsthagen, ssonsthagen2@unl.edu