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​Graduate Studies (MSc/PhD)

 

A Graduate Student position in the Sloboda Lab is a training position for an academic research career in an equal opportunity environment. I will ensure that all students are provided with opportunities to learn about scientific practise as well as learn technical laboratory and animal skills required to complete their Graduate training. My aim is to provide all students with the skills needed to achieve scientific excellence and in a manner that will secure a good postdoctoral position in the future. Training as a Graduate student is a difficult and arduous process; one that may take many years to complete so one of the most important things that all students need to consider is where they will do their graduate work (cool website on this here). This is no small task as you need to ensure that: 1) you are excited about the subject matter (let’s face it you could be doing this for 5 years!), 2) you like your supervisor (ditto…just think can I speak to this person daily for the next n years?) and 3) you are motivated to work independently. Although as a Graduate Student you will be part of a great team, Grad work is often a solitary process, of reading, thinking and planning. It is an independent study process, where I will guide you in your research; but I expect my students to take ownership of their projects, to think for themselves and solve small problems independently. Obviously, the level of student independence depends on the student, the project and your level of training. All Grad Students in my lab need to have completed some statistical coursework – without knowledge of statistics, we cannot test our hypotheses! This can be done in the first year of MSc studies, but if you were applying to do a PhD – I would expect you to have already completed some stats training. All students are expected to apply for external funding and unfortunately due to financial constraints; international students need to have external funding. Finally, please be sure that before you contact me for Graduate work, that you meet all the criteria required to do graduate work at McMaster University. Details can be found here. If you are interested in Graduate work in my lab, and meet the above criteria, please feel free to email me a CV and a transcript and indicate your research interests and career goals. If you are chosen for an interview you will be required to meet with both myself and the members of my lab and I will require references.

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