Interested in Joining the Lab?
Upcoming opportunities
Updated information and guidance on the 2025 graduate admissions cycle: my lab continues to enroll PhD students through the Brown University Biology Graduate Program via EEOB, but I am posting updated guidance about application procedures that are evolving to match the program's trajectory. Please rely on the official EEOB Graduate Program website for specific details about application procedures and requirements. As the volume of inquiries and applications continues to grow, admissions decisions are increasingly made based on input from a faculty committee that will review all applications received by the December 1, 2024 deadline. Applications are considered independently by this committee, whether or not an applicant has corresponded with the prospective faculty mentor to seek support for their application. More details on what to expect and how to prepare an effective application for the program in general, and my lab in particular, are provided below.
Updated information and guidance on the 2025 graduate admissions cycle: my lab continues to enroll PhD students through the Brown University Biology Graduate Program via EEOB, but I am posting updated guidance about application procedures that are evolving to match the program's trajectory. Please rely on the official EEOB Graduate Program website for specific details about application procedures and requirements. As the volume of inquiries and applications continues to grow, admissions decisions are increasingly made based on input from a faculty committee that will review all applications received by the December 1, 2024 deadline. Applications are considered independently by this committee, whether or not an applicant has corresponded with the prospective faculty mentor to seek support for their application. More details on what to expect and how to prepare an effective application for the program in general, and my lab in particular, are provided below.
Postdocs
I welcome prospective postdocs to contact me about collaborative research ideas at any time. Many of our currently funded and ongoing research projects could provide a strong foundation for collaborative research fellowship proposals for external funding; I encourage interested candidates to contact me a couple months in advance of funding deadlines so that we can collaborate on proposal development.
Potential sources of external funding include NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship, Smith Fellowship, Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowships, HHMI Hanna Gray Fellows Program, Life Sciences Research Foundation, Helen Hay Whitney Foundation, USDA NIFA Fellowships. We have also hosted multiple international research visitors who have been successful earning grants and fellowship from eligible programs in their home countries. In addition to these external funding programs, postdocs interested in joining my lab will be strong candidates for the Voss Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Institute at Brown for Environment & Society.
Please also contact me with interest regarding Brown University Postdoctoral Fellowship Programs:
I welcome prospective postdocs to contact me about collaborative research ideas at any time. Many of our currently funded and ongoing research projects could provide a strong foundation for collaborative research fellowship proposals for external funding; I encourage interested candidates to contact me a couple months in advance of funding deadlines so that we can collaborate on proposal development.
Potential sources of external funding include NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship, Smith Fellowship, Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowships, HHMI Hanna Gray Fellows Program, Life Sciences Research Foundation, Helen Hay Whitney Foundation, USDA NIFA Fellowships. We have also hosted multiple international research visitors who have been successful earning grants and fellowship from eligible programs in their home countries. In addition to these external funding programs, postdocs interested in joining my lab will be strong candidates for the Voss Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Institute at Brown for Environment & Society.
Please also contact me with interest regarding Brown University Postdoctoral Fellowship Programs:
- The Presidential Postdoctoral Fellowship at Brown: The Presidential Postdoctoral Fellowship program seeks to recruit a diverse cohort of promising Ph.D. graduates to spend up to 2 years at Brown University. Brown encourages all interested applicants to apply, regardless of race, national origin or gender. The program continues to be a priority for Brown in bringing diverse scholars to the university with the ultimate goal of changing the professoriate here and beyond.
- The new Dean's Postdoctoral Diversity Fellowship at Brown: The Dean’s Postdoctoral Diversity Fellowship is a two-year research fellowship that was established by the Division of Biology and Medicine at Brown University to help grow, support, and retain a diverse scientific workforce. The fellowship program prepares scientists from groups historically underrepresented in the basic, biomedical, and behavioral sciences for careers in academia and other sectors. Candidates must be nominated by a Brown University faculty member.
Graduate Students
Graduate students in my lab may engage in basic research and in research with real-world conservation or biomedical impacts. Research may occur in the lab and/or field. To learn more about the graduate program at Brown University, please visit the Graduate Program website in Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology (EEOB) and read our Graduate Student Handbook. Graduate students will apply to join the lab through EEOB, and those who pursue research with a significant conservation component will benefit from unique opportunities within the Institute at Brown for Environment & Society (IBES). Please refer to the official BioMed Applications site for details on how to apply.
Before submitting a formal application, please consider the ways that one or more of our lab's active research projects might represent an outstanding match to your professional interests as well as the most impactful ways that you might fit into the lab as well. You should read some of our recent Publications and refer to our Research page for additional context. At present, we are most keen to collaborate with graduate students who are interested in combining genomics, data science, and field ecology to answer major questions about ecology, biodiversity, and/or conservation. If this sounds good, then I encourage you to apply to the EEOB graduate program.
Your application statement should clearly identify me as your primary prospective advisor and explain why you consider the lab to be a good match for your research interests. Describe with specific detail what you consider to be your core scientific interests and goals by identifying one significant problem that you might like to work on as a graduate student and explaining why. Whether you hope to build a career in a particular area of ecology, genomics, or data science (or their intersections), your research interests should be understandable to the EEOB faculty at large -- note that our interests and areas of expertise span a diversity of subdisciplines in the field.
I continue to welcome prospective students to contact me by email -- either before or after submitting a formal application -- with a brief description of their research interests, experiences, and career goals. However, this is no longer a requirement because our decisions about admission begin with a review by an independent admissions committee that seeks to identify the most competitive applications before arranging campus visits. Because the purpose of an inquiry email is often misunderstood, I recommend checking out the posts here, here, here, or here in addition to any other useful explainers that you may find online. Please be aware that the volume of inquiries emails that we receive during an admissions cycle is so large that we may not be able to reply to all of them in a timely way -- please do not mistake this as a sign of disinterest or feel discouraged in your decision to apply!
Prospective students will be encouraged to collaborate on applying for external fellowships. Relevant opportunities include NSF's Graduate Research Fellowship Program (due in October), the Ford Foundation's Predoctoral Fellowship (due in December), and the Hertz Foundation's Fellowship (due in October); many other potentially suitable fellowship programs may be available for consideration as well. International students may be eligible to apply for a Fulbright Scholarship to attend grad school in the USA (deadlines and procedures vary depending on country).
Guaranteed funding. Graduate students who are admitted to our program at Brown are guaranteed 5 years of funding to pursue their PhD. Job security!
Competitive stipends & benefits. Brown offers some of the highest stipends for biology PhD students nationally -- possibly the highest relative to cost of living in Providence. Recipients of NSF GRFPs receive 'top up' payments in recognition for earning this prestigious award, which raises salaries up even more.
#GRExit. Please note that Brown's EEOB program does not consider GRE scores in any official capacity.
Application fee waiver. Brown University offers application fee waivers to prospective students. I encourage all prospective students to consider applying for an application fee waiver; I strongly believe financial hardship should not present a barrier for consideration.
Prioritizing Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion. Our lab prioritizes an inclusive, respectful, and intellectually challenging environment. We strive for equity and we value the diversity of perspectives that can inform our contributions to ecology, evolution, and the environment—including the diversity of lived experiences among racial, ethnic, national, religious, and economic backgrounds as well as gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, disability, veteran status, and other aspects of identity (and their intersection). Although it is not a required part of the application to join our graduate program, I invite prospective students to share experiences or offer suggestions related to the important work of advancing Diversity, Equity & Inclusion in Science as part of their application essay. I value your unique perspective, experience, and/or plans to engage in activities that would enhance diversity and equity in our lab, department, university, and/or discipline. Your perspective can be informed both by your lived experience and your academic activities whether or not you choose to focus on or disclose personal aspects of your identity.
Graduate students in my lab may engage in basic research and in research with real-world conservation or biomedical impacts. Research may occur in the lab and/or field. To learn more about the graduate program at Brown University, please visit the Graduate Program website in Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology (EEOB) and read our Graduate Student Handbook. Graduate students will apply to join the lab through EEOB, and those who pursue research with a significant conservation component will benefit from unique opportunities within the Institute at Brown for Environment & Society (IBES). Please refer to the official BioMed Applications site for details on how to apply.
Before submitting a formal application, please consider the ways that one or more of our lab's active research projects might represent an outstanding match to your professional interests as well as the most impactful ways that you might fit into the lab as well. You should read some of our recent Publications and refer to our Research page for additional context. At present, we are most keen to collaborate with graduate students who are interested in combining genomics, data science, and field ecology to answer major questions about ecology, biodiversity, and/or conservation. If this sounds good, then I encourage you to apply to the EEOB graduate program.
Your application statement should clearly identify me as your primary prospective advisor and explain why you consider the lab to be a good match for your research interests. Describe with specific detail what you consider to be your core scientific interests and goals by identifying one significant problem that you might like to work on as a graduate student and explaining why. Whether you hope to build a career in a particular area of ecology, genomics, or data science (or their intersections), your research interests should be understandable to the EEOB faculty at large -- note that our interests and areas of expertise span a diversity of subdisciplines in the field.
I continue to welcome prospective students to contact me by email -- either before or after submitting a formal application -- with a brief description of their research interests, experiences, and career goals. However, this is no longer a requirement because our decisions about admission begin with a review by an independent admissions committee that seeks to identify the most competitive applications before arranging campus visits. Because the purpose of an inquiry email is often misunderstood, I recommend checking out the posts here, here, here, or here in addition to any other useful explainers that you may find online. Please be aware that the volume of inquiries emails that we receive during an admissions cycle is so large that we may not be able to reply to all of them in a timely way -- please do not mistake this as a sign of disinterest or feel discouraged in your decision to apply!
Prospective students will be encouraged to collaborate on applying for external fellowships. Relevant opportunities include NSF's Graduate Research Fellowship Program (due in October), the Ford Foundation's Predoctoral Fellowship (due in December), and the Hertz Foundation's Fellowship (due in October); many other potentially suitable fellowship programs may be available for consideration as well. International students may be eligible to apply for a Fulbright Scholarship to attend grad school in the USA (deadlines and procedures vary depending on country).
Guaranteed funding. Graduate students who are admitted to our program at Brown are guaranteed 5 years of funding to pursue their PhD. Job security!
Competitive stipends & benefits. Brown offers some of the highest stipends for biology PhD students nationally -- possibly the highest relative to cost of living in Providence. Recipients of NSF GRFPs receive 'top up' payments in recognition for earning this prestigious award, which raises salaries up even more.
#GRExit. Please note that Brown's EEOB program does not consider GRE scores in any official capacity.
Application fee waiver. Brown University offers application fee waivers to prospective students. I encourage all prospective students to consider applying for an application fee waiver; I strongly believe financial hardship should not present a barrier for consideration.
Prioritizing Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion. Our lab prioritizes an inclusive, respectful, and intellectually challenging environment. We strive for equity and we value the diversity of perspectives that can inform our contributions to ecology, evolution, and the environment—including the diversity of lived experiences among racial, ethnic, national, religious, and economic backgrounds as well as gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, disability, veteran status, and other aspects of identity (and their intersection). Although it is not a required part of the application to join our graduate program, I invite prospective students to share experiences or offer suggestions related to the important work of advancing Diversity, Equity & Inclusion in Science as part of their application essay. I value your unique perspective, experience, and/or plans to engage in activities that would enhance diversity and equity in our lab, department, university, and/or discipline. Your perspective can be informed both by your lived experience and your academic activities whether or not you choose to focus on or disclose personal aspects of your identity.
Undergraduates
Members of our lab come many departments: Anthropology, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology (EEOB), Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences (DEEPS), Computer Sciences, and Molecular Biology, Cell Biology & Biochemistry. As members of the research group, students can conduct research in our DNA lab, on the computer, and at field sites in Rhode Island and around the world.
When to consider opportunities in the lab. Earlier is better, but it’s never too late. Often students begin considering opportunities in their sophomore/junior years. Timelines may vary depending on department, experience, and personal histories. Not all students will work in the molecular lab, but those who do will have to complete university trainings in advance; we have created an annual calendar to help coordinate the trainings and authorizations.
Why join this lab. The reasons are many. I welcome students to just “check out” what it’s like to do research in our lab if interested in a topic that we study or in developing a particular skillset. I do not require prior experience with advanced genetics, ecology, or statistics—there are opportunities to learn! I provide support for students in the lab at every stage, from just getting involved, to applying for research funding, to leading an Independent Study or Honors Thesis.
Where do students go from here? Prior graduates have gone on to win Fulbright Scholarships, enter graduate programs in biology and the environment, and accept job offers ranging from molecular biologists at biotech startups to associates at nature-based conservation organizations.
How to get involved. If you think you’re interested in joining the lab, please spend a bit of time learning about our research projects and publications. Then please contact Dr. Kartzinel by email to introduce yourself. Include your academic year, concentration, and a brief description of why you think our research interests might overlap. Many students get involved by attending our Lab Meetings, which are are opportunities to discuss current research. By attending Lab Meeting, you will get to know existing members of the lab and learn about upcoming research opportunities.
Please take note of the amazing work led by grad students and postdocs in the group—they are outstanding mentors and you should feel free to discuss possibilities with them! Past and current undergraduates are also a great source for advice.
Undergraduate research funding. Please keep in mind that expenses will vary depending on what type of research you wish to do, and what funded opportunities already exist in the lab. I can help identify needs and opportunities. Applying for funding to support your field and lab work can be an important part of the research process. We have had lots of success with applications to external scholarships (e.g., Fulbright Scholarship, Udall Scholarship, Hollings Scholarship, Roger Williams Park Zoo) as well as programs that are unique to Brown (e.g., Voss Undergraduate Environmental Research Fellowship, Royce Fellowship, UTRAs). I am also occasionally able to fund undergraduate teaching assistants to work with me on courses that I teach (please see Courses@Brown for details).
Members of our lab come many departments: Anthropology, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology (EEOB), Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences (DEEPS), Computer Sciences, and Molecular Biology, Cell Biology & Biochemistry. As members of the research group, students can conduct research in our DNA lab, on the computer, and at field sites in Rhode Island and around the world.
When to consider opportunities in the lab. Earlier is better, but it’s never too late. Often students begin considering opportunities in their sophomore/junior years. Timelines may vary depending on department, experience, and personal histories. Not all students will work in the molecular lab, but those who do will have to complete university trainings in advance; we have created an annual calendar to help coordinate the trainings and authorizations.
Why join this lab. The reasons are many. I welcome students to just “check out” what it’s like to do research in our lab if interested in a topic that we study or in developing a particular skillset. I do not require prior experience with advanced genetics, ecology, or statistics—there are opportunities to learn! I provide support for students in the lab at every stage, from just getting involved, to applying for research funding, to leading an Independent Study or Honors Thesis.
Where do students go from here? Prior graduates have gone on to win Fulbright Scholarships, enter graduate programs in biology and the environment, and accept job offers ranging from molecular biologists at biotech startups to associates at nature-based conservation organizations.
How to get involved. If you think you’re interested in joining the lab, please spend a bit of time learning about our research projects and publications. Then please contact Dr. Kartzinel by email to introduce yourself. Include your academic year, concentration, and a brief description of why you think our research interests might overlap. Many students get involved by attending our Lab Meetings, which are are opportunities to discuss current research. By attending Lab Meeting, you will get to know existing members of the lab and learn about upcoming research opportunities.
Please take note of the amazing work led by grad students and postdocs in the group—they are outstanding mentors and you should feel free to discuss possibilities with them! Past and current undergraduates are also a great source for advice.
Undergraduate research funding. Please keep in mind that expenses will vary depending on what type of research you wish to do, and what funded opportunities already exist in the lab. I can help identify needs and opportunities. Applying for funding to support your field and lab work can be an important part of the research process. We have had lots of success with applications to external scholarships (e.g., Fulbright Scholarship, Udall Scholarship, Hollings Scholarship, Roger Williams Park Zoo) as well as programs that are unique to Brown (e.g., Voss Undergraduate Environmental Research Fellowship, Royce Fellowship, UTRAs). I am also occasionally able to fund undergraduate teaching assistants to work with me on courses that I teach (please see Courses@Brown for details).
