"Help to educate, mentor and advise students. Promote their welfare and allow them to make their own decisions"

- From " What is Ethics in Research and Why Is it Important?"  

by: Prof David Resnik, Bioethicist, NIEHS, NIH, USA

We offer a diverse range of opportunities for curiosity driven young minds at various levels. SKB Lab offers equal opportunity as defined by the Monash Equal Opportunity Policy.

If you are an undergraduate student seeking research experience

If you are a current undergraduate student looking to gain lab experience or assess whether research is what you are interested in and discover yourself, you have couple of options to explore. Monash offers several undergraduate scholarships that allow you to experience research during winter and summer breaks. These are competitive fellowships and we encourage students to apply for these.

A second option for you to gain experience is to carry out a Research Unit GEN3990 or BIO3990 with us. This research unit allows you to work in a lab for a semester and would give you 6-credits as a part of your undergraduate degree programs.

Often we also provide options for volunteering into projects and work with PhD students/postdocs in the lab. These are open to enthusiastic students, who are keen to explore research pathways. If you are interested in exploring any of these options get in touch with us.

If you are seeking to do honours Research in the lab

If you have completed or about to complete your undergraduate degree and would like to pursue Honours, we have options for you. First, we welcome students not only from Monash but also from other Universities too. Our previous Honours students have gone on to pursue an academic career (PhD/Postdoc ~60%) or research jobs (Research Assistant / Industry ~40%). SKB Lab does not treat Honours entry into the lab as a PhD entry. We treat these two programs differently. We encourage students to pursue PhD options not just in our group, but elsewhere too, while we do not disadvantage those who might want to continue for a PhD in our group itself. Our Honours options could involve experimental projects, or computational projects or a combination of two based on the interest of the student. If you are interested in Honours project, please come and discuss with us.

If you are seeking to do a PhD with us

PhD in SKB Lab

PhD is not just a research pathway of becoming an academic. In fact, only a very small percentage of individuals, who pursue a PhD go on to become an academic and carry out research. Therefore, we would always encourage students to think carefully first as to "Why do you want to do a PhD?". If you are very clear with that thought process,  you are aware and understand the inherent difficulties,  you recognize the resilience required to pursue PhD, and you are motivated and committed then, SKB Lab would be a great opportunity for you. Our philosophy of "Science is fun" will be realised when you pursue a PhD in our group. Our excitement of new discoveries, celebrations of so-called "small" achievements, understanding of scientific method/philosophy, which is beyond simply publishing papers would enrich your PhD experience. You will have oppotunities to develop as an independent scientist and would learn the art of recognizing a significant problem, asking the right questions, designing appropriate experiments and executing those to fruition.

Domestic (Australian/Newzealand Citizens & permenant residents) students

Monash has two rounds of application deadlines for PhD scholarships, which are May 31 and October 31st for Domestic applicants. The application form, however, would require an invitation from us to apply, which means that there would be pre-selection occurring at the level of the lab group. Therefore if you are interested in a PhD with us please contact early enough. You will go through several rounds of interviews, which may involve presenting your work, discussing with members of group and discussions designed to assess curiosity, motivation, capabilities and skills, interest and enthusiasm to explore uncharted waters, resilience, out of the box thinking etc. Students are also encouraged to assess the lab for their fit of scientific philosophy, ethics and lab environment (in short lab culture) etc during this process. While academic performance would be looked at, we value several other things in addition to academic performance, which would help make an informed decision prior to inviting you to apply. In summary, contact any time and earlier the better. However, please note that an invitation to apply does not mean a scholarship, since those decisions are not done by the lab and we play no role in that independent process.

International students

Monash has two rounds of application deadlines for PhD scholarships, which are March 31 and August 31st for International PhD applicants. Similar to domestic students, Internatonal students too require an invitation to apply and they will go through a pre-selection process similar to domestic students. For International Students, most of the interview process would be done through appropriate online options based on the availability with the student. Students would also have an opportunity to interact with other lab members in the absence of the supervisor to assess lab culture, ethics, philosophy.  Please note that an invitation to apply does not mean a scholarship, since those decisions are not done by the lab and we play no role in that independent process.

If you are seeking to do Postdoctoral research

We welcome researchers from anywhere in the world to carry out postdoctoral research with us. There are multiple opportunities for postdoctoral fellowships. Once in a while, we advertise for specific postdoctoral positions. However, there are additional opportunities for postdoctoral researchers. We are happy to support postdoctoral researchers to write fellowship applications for International postdoctoral fellowships from HFSPO, / EMBO, or other National/International agencies if you are interested in the research area of SKB Lab. In Austrlia, if you are competitive and interested in applying for the ARC-DECRA or NHMRC schemes, we can discuss the possibility of hosting you at Monash University. Previous postdoctoral researchers in the lab has been successful in obtaining ARC-DECRA, ARC-Future Fellowship as well as Interntaional Fellowships from other organisations.  Please contact us if you are thinking of applying for any of these fellowships and looking for a host lab.

If you are an Overseas student looking for internships

We are happy to host International researchers and/or students at various levels. We have previously hosted internships/visits by researchers supported by their respective Governments (e.g., Higher Education Commission of Pakistan) or their local funding agencies. We have also hosted students for "virtual internships" especially if they are interested in computational biology projects.