SAFE Labs

CompGeoLab_2026:

PhD students

• Be independent in coming up with your research topics and ideas for what to do next. Many of these will be tied to the lab’s ongoing projects but this is the time to start thinking for yourself.
• Help junior members in their research and studies.
• Study broadly, beyond your research topic. A PhD is a wonderful time to explore different topics, research fields, career pathways, and ideas. Good ways to do this are watching seminars (both in and out of the department), talking to your fellow PhD students, reading papers/blogs from other fields, and attending talks/posters at large conferences.

Postdocs

• Lead your project and be on top of any logistics and organization that is required to undertake it. Postdocs are independent researchers and taking on responsibilities like this are very beneficial for getting an academic position later on.
• Mentor junior lab members and complement the support that Leo provides.
• Help in teaching and outreach efforts of the lab. This does not mean teaching a full course or replacing Leo in any capacity. It means providing a lecture or two about your expertise in a course, leading a short workshop, helping Leo organize outreach, etc. All of these are very good things to have on a CV when applying for an academic job.

CCMLab_2026:

1. Teaching/Explanation session - Experimenter provides Research assistant with information regarding the experiment and the data they are looking to collect. This will allow the RA to understand the point of the experiment.

2. Research Assistant Shadowing - RA shadows a testing session conducted by the main experimenter. Here, the RA is expected to take notes on the data collection procedure and questions that the participant may ask.

3. Practice with Main Experimenter - RA will run a practice data collection session on the main experimenter. This allows the RA to practice the script and allows the experimenter to correct any mistakes.

4. Supervised Data Collection Session - The RA will conduct a data collection session on a real participant with the supervision of the main experimenter.

5. Once comfortable, the RA can now collect data on their own! :)

VORTEXLab_2026:

It is expected that during your time in the VORTEX Lab, you will have to learn some coding basics to push forward your research and run your statistics. Expectations vary depending on the level of the trainee. For instance, at minimum:

• Undergraduate students will be expected to be able to run standard code already written and manipulate some variables to explore data;
• MSc students will be expected to create new scripts to run custom analysis, or edit existing scripts to deal with data in new formats specific to their thesis studies. MSc students are also expected to be able to code their statistics and graphs using RStudio.
• PhD students will be expected to do all of the above and act as primary mentors to junior students learning the basic steps. Depending on career aspirations and learning objectives, I trust that PhD students will decide at what level of coding they want to push themselves.

CNIDevoLab_2025:

Our team is composed by researchers with different roles and backgrounds. We expect everybody to contribute to scientific progress according to their skills; we encourage all members to supervise and mentor less experienced teammates. Depending on the length of stay with us and on the experience level, everybody is generally expected to contribute to the lab organisation and general interest activities, such as ordering and specific animal care. All team members receive regular supervision from the PIs. We encourage members to seek further training if necessary (several options are provided by CNRS, for example).

As a general guideline, postdocs are expected to be more autonomous in their research, to conduct and analyse their experimental work, and to write scientific publications.

GalupaLab_2025:

The table below summarises my expectations, but they can be discussed. Importantly, a “N” does not mean that such person/role cannot take such responsibility; only that they are not expected to, but they might be welcome to if they want to – just discuss it with me. In most of such cases I added a star to “N” > “N*”.

Responsibilities	Staff Scientist	Postdoc	PhD	Undergrad	Assistant/Engineer
Supervision of other lab members	Y	Y	Y	N	N*
Having an independent project	Y	Y	Y	N	N*
Experimental work	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Analytical work	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Paper writing	Y	Y	Y	N	N*
Presentations at conferences	Y	Y	Y	N	N*
Presentations at group meetings	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Participation in group meetings, including journal clubs	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Applying to fellowships/grants	Y	Y	Y	N	N
Cleaning schedules (e.g. tissue culture room)	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Placing orders	N	N	N	N	Y
Keeping the lab tidy	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y

OttLab_2025:

Our team is composed by researchers with different roles: postdoctoral researchers, graduate students, undergraduate (Master or Bachelor) students and research assistants. These roles, which may correspond to different career stages and seniority, typically come with different duties, responsibilities and expectations. These will be discussed at hiring and onboarding. Typically, postdocs and graduate students are expected to independently carry out research projects ranging from experimental work to data analysis and paper writing, as well as take part at the lab’s and institute’s regular meetings (see below). Postdocs are additionally expected to assist the PI in writing grants and reviewing papers. Graduate students will receive a larger degree of training and supervision, for example, via the Humboldt Graduate School (see below). Undergraduates and research assistants are not expected to independently carry out projects and will be supervised by a graduate student or postdoc. All full-time lab members are expected in helping to maintain the lab’s infrastructure and animal colonies.

ReinhardLab_2025:

Our team is composed of postdocs, PhD candidates, undergraduates and technicians. Each role comes with different responsibilities and training opportunities. These are outlined in a table accessible both in the public and internal Lab Handbook.

RossiLab_2025:

Our team is composed by researchers with different roles: postdocs, PhD students, Research Assistants undergraduate students. Expectations for each role, and what they can expect from other lab members, is detailed in the table at this link. The table is meant as a guide, not a limitation: exceptions will happen (e.g. sometimes a principle project can be collaborative, rather than independent; a productive research assistant or an undergraduate may contribute to writing a paper), but this guide will be accurate in most cases: please discuss with Federico if you have any questions of concerns about it.

KiharaLab_2026:

【係】

• 液体窒素・溶媒 Ｂ４
• 宴会・娯楽 Ｍ１
• 実験室の管理・廃溶媒 Ｍ２
• 研究機器 Ｄ・柴田
• 注文・依頼測定 木原

English translation:

[Duties]

• Liquid nitrogen and solvents: B4 (fourth-year undergraduates)
• Parties and recreation: M1 (first-year master’s students)
• Lab management and waste solvent: M2 (second-year master’s students)
• Research instruments: D (doctoral students) and Shibata
• Ordering and external measurement requests: Kihara

MizunoLab_2026:

Is prior knowledge necessary? There is no particular requirement for prior knowledge. After being assigned to the lab, there is a weekly “study meeting” in addition to the seminar, where faculty members and seniors provide a comprehensive lecture on the basic knowledge necessary for research.

What about English proficiency? English proficiency is not a requirement at present, but it is essential for advancing research. After being assigned to the lab, faculty members will provide direct guidance according to the student’s wishes.

TreurLab_2025: Currently, the Comorbidity & Causality research group consists of 1 Associate Professor, 1 Assistant Professor, 7 PhD students, and 1 research assistant. As a baseline, we follow the job description and specific responsibilities as described in the Dutch academic job profile (‘functieprofielen’) from the ‘CAO Nederlandse Universiteiten’, which can be found here.

For Research Assistants, responsibilities generally consist of providing help with data collection, data administration, or data analysis. For specific projects, it may be required that RAs participate in conducting literature review and/or help with writing a scientific paper. Supervision will be conducted by the researcher(s) responsible for the project that the RA is assisting on.

For PhD students, responsibilities vary depending on their specific project, but at the minimum, include data analysis and interpretation and independent writing of scientific papers for their thesis. We follow the thesis requirements documented by Amsterdam UMC. Writing of major grants is not yet required, but we encourage writing of small (travel/research visit) grants. Supervision will be conducted by the primary supervisor(s).

For post-doctoral researchers and Assistant Professors, responsibilities depend on their specific project and where funding comes from. In general, we encourage increasing independence and setting up of independent research lines, particularly for Assistant Professors. We require and stimulate all post-doctoral researchers to actively seek and apply for funding opportunities. We also require and stimulate (co-)supervision of the PhD students in the group.

INSIGHTLab_2026:

PI: Acquiring funding; Establishing research lines; Supervising lab members; Establishing collaborations; Giving feedback; Evaluating performance; Participating in scholarly communities.

PhD student: Reading and synthesizing relevant literature; Conducting independent research under supervision and with feedback; Publishing approximately 1 paper per year, with the goal of 4 papers for a 4-year PhD project; Following agreed upon postgraduate education; Networking with likeminded scholars, and exploring potential collaborations and future employment.

Research Assistant: Performing well-defined research tasks; Reading assigned/agreed upon papers; Optionally contributing to papers as co-author.

EpiForecasts_2026:

Support group members scientifically, emotionally and financially.

• Be available both in person and via electronic communication, including regular meetings to discuss work and anything else group members would like to discuss.
• Provide a broad perspective on work within the context of the group and the general direction of science.
• Provide timely feedback on drafts of manuscripts, talks, grant proposals, etc.
• Help identify next career steps, whether inside or outside academia, and provide support towards them.
• Identify training opportunities and conferences and support group members in making the most of them.
• Point out grant and fellowship opportunities and support applications to appropriate ones.
• Care for group members’ mental and physical well-being, and prioritise it above anything else.
• When changing priorities, communicate this to others whose work is affected.
• Model the group’s values: share problems and incomplete work openly, ask for help, and show that this is how we work at all levels.

GallianoLab_2026:

Participating in at least one public engagement event is mandatory for all lab members, but really, nobody wants to stop at one. It is fun to talk to the public about neurons and smells, and it is actually a great way to improve our communication skills (and artistic ones, if making neurons out of pipe cleaners counts as art).

RadzisheuskayaLab_2025:

We have a shared Outlook lab calendar that can be used for equipment booking, indicating vacations and joint events.

We have several general lab support duties distributed among all the group members. The up-to-date responsibility list can be found here: link not public. It is important that you let the responsible person know about something running low or equipment broken well in advance.

In addition, we have a weekly rota for cleaning the lab and restocking and a monthly rota for hood cleaning. These rotas are sent via Outlook Calendar.

You will be required to occasionally supervise summer or MRes students or help new lab members with their integration process. The allocation of supervision is made by volunteering or according to the most suitable project.

CoenLab_2025:

Our team is composed by researchers with different roles. Expectations for each role, and what they can expect from other lab members, is detailed in the table below. Please contact Pip if you have any questions or concerns about this table. This is a guide and not a limitation. Exceptions will happen (e.g. sometimes a principle project can be collaborative, rather than independent, or an undergrad may contribute to a paper), but this guide is accurate for most cases. The corresponding table of responsibilites can be found here.

SuperLab_2026:

Reshanne promises to…

• Support you scientifically
• Give you feedback on a timely basis, including feedback on project ideas, conference posters, talks, manuscripts, figures, grant proposals
• Be available in person and via email / Teams on a regular basis, including regular meetings to discuss your research
• Give her perspective on where the lab is going, where the field is going, and tips about surviving and thriving in academia
• Support your career development by introducing you to other researchers in the field, promoting your work at talks, writing recommendation letters for you, and letting you attend conferences as often as finances permit
• Help you prepare for the next step of your career, whether it’s a postdoc, a faculty job, or a job outside of academia

As a PhD student, you are expected to…

• Develop your PhD thesis research. Your dissertation should have at least 3 substantial research projects that answer a big-picture question that you have
• Know the literature related to your topic inside out by the end of your PhD
• Enjoy challenging yourself continuously - and keep learning (Python, data analysis, writing and presentation skills, …)
• It is likely that much of your work will be collaborative, so you need to be able to take feedback from collaborators on board. You need to be able to do this in a professional way: e.g., respond to it, do not ignore or forget about feedback, explain if you disagree but do so in a respectful manner
• If you are stuck on a problem or don’t know the answer to something, I expect you to try to find solutions before we meet about it. When/if we meet about it, you should be able to explain how you have already tried to solve your problem
• Keep a record of our meetings (what we discussed and decided on) where we can both access them (Teams)
• Co-supervise BSc students who work on your projects
• Present your work at lab meetings, departmental events, at other labs (if invited), and at conferences
• Think about what you want for your career (academia – research or teaching, industry, science writing, something else), and talk to Reshanne about it to make sure you’re getting the training you need for that career
• Make sure you meet all departmental deadlines (e.g., for your progression and thesis) – and make sure Reshanne is aware of them
• Prioritize time for research. Side projects and teaching are important, but ultimately your research gets you your PhD and prepares you for the next stage of your career

AeryJonesLab_2026:

• Project Ownership: Every PhD student and postdoc has their own project. First projects for each trainee are initially proposed by me and then designed and implemented with my input. Postdocs may propose their own first project if they choose. Second projects are then proposed by the trainee. You are the driving force behind your project, taking ownership of it and all related elements. Plan ahead and be proactive.
• Project Assistance: Technicians and undergraduate students will help with one or more ongoing projects in the lab. Technicians can expect to contribute as a co-author on at least one paper. Technicians are expected to help manage the lab as well. Undergraduate students will be considered for co-authorship if their contribution meets our guidelines discussed below.

ARFC_2026:

It is your responsibility to work with Katy to identify a research topic, identify research milestones and goals, plan your timeline toward progress, plan for conference submissions, prepare for manuscript submissions, prepare for your thesis proposals and defenses, etc. Get a calendar, consider a task manager, create a GANTT chart… whatever works for you. If at some point it seems like you don’t have a plan, I will suggest all of these things.

CarpenterSinghLab_2026:

Provide support for your development. Provide training in scientific project planning and execution, specific techniques and methods. Lab members usually attend at least one scientific course, conference, tutorial, or workshop per year and have membership in a society that benefits their work.

CLICLab_2026:

• Training:
• Our primary goal is to provide you with the training you need in order to become a great scientist!
• We will have check-ins at the beginning, middle, and end of each semester where we discuss your goals for the RAship, and whether you think you are getting the training you need.
• If there are any specific things you would like to learn more about (coding, writing, psychological theories), we can make these explicit goals and try to orient your time here around them.

DevPsyLab_2026:

Below are the eligibility criteria for advancement in lab:

• Has been an active and engaged RA for at least 4 full semesters
• Has shown a personal interest in the research being conducted in lab/research in general
• Meaningful and engaging research and leadership opportunities can be helpful in building a CV and research background, but it also can involve considerable work and responsibility. Therefore, prospective Advanced RAs should be self-motivated and have consistently shown that they are reliable and capable of additional responsibility.

I meet the criteria, what should I do next?

After you have met all the criteria and feel that you are ready to pursue this opportunity, it is your responsibility to set up a meeting with the Lab Coordinator and Dr. Petersen, and to determine what types of responsibilities and projects you would like to lead. You should be prepared to come to this meeting with a thought-out idea of what projects and roles you are interested in given these new responsibilities and privileges.

HenryLab_2026:

New undergraduate researchers should join the lab during the January IAP period or during the summer months. This allows for adequate time for focused training in experimental methods, safety, and data management before fully integrating into ongoing research projects.

Students are paired with a graduate student or postdoctoral mentor who will provide day-to-day guidance, while the PI ensures that each student’s experience contributes meaningfully to their academic and professional development.

IshiharaLab_2026:

1. Lab Management (40% effort)

1. Purchasing and ordering
2. Shipping and receiving
3. Inventory management of chemicals, plasmids, and mammalian cell lines
4. Expanding and freezing cell lines for lab master stock
5. Instructing and assigning common lab duties among group members
6. Instructing lab safety and regulation compliance for group members

2. Scientific projects (40% effort)

1. Building and testing new reagents
2. cloning
   • PCR, restriction cloning, Gateway cloning
   • sequence verification via Sanger and whole plasmid sequencing
3. transgenesis of mammalian cell lines
   • plasmid preparation for transfections
   • gene delivery methods: lipofection, nucleofection
   • gene integration methods: PiggyBac recombinase, CRISPR-Cas9
   • selection methods: antibotics, clone picking, FACS
   • genotyping
4. Experimental assays and analysis

• Spheroids, neural organoids, cardiac organoids, etc.

3. Training new lab members (10% effort)

1. Sterile techniques and cell culture
2. Molecular biology and cloning
3. Immunofluorescence procedures and microscopy
4. Preparation of other reagents
5. Lab duties

• Lab floor cleaning
• Preparation of common reagents
• Glass wash and autoclaving
• Chemical and bio-waste disposal

4. Professional development (10% effort)

1. Learning new technical skills (e.g. programming)
2. Other career development opportunities

KleinerLab_2026:

Established training procedures in the lab for equipment and proteomics pipeline: watch (watch an experienced person), do (with supervision of an experienced person), teach (teach another, less-experienced person)

Established standard operating procedures (SOPs) to maintain continuity within the lab. SOPs are updated on a regular basis with input from multiple people in the team.

McCainLab_2026:

I expect that you will pursue research that has some overlap with my expertise and interests. Otherwise, I will not necessarily have the best perspective to guide you successfully. If your interests shift away from the core lab research, I expect that you will inform me and we can discuss options.

McNeilGroup_2026:

Here we suggest some year-specific goals for graduate students because it is oftentimes difficult to assess your progress because there are few concrete milestones in graduate school. It’s easy to feel like an imposter when you don’t know how to assess yourself.

Year 3

Start thinking about your future career and explore different career paths. Attend career workshops and give informational interviews. Start networking with people who have this career, as their advice and support will be really helpful.

Attend different professional development activities. The university and department put on a lot of events for resume building, public speaking, scientific writing, etc.

Continue attending seminars and reading the literature!

Attend an external conference (ACS) and present your work.

Get involved with grant-writing, paper-writing, and/or helping write a Perspective or Review article.

Mentor an undergraduate or a rotation student.

Post-docs

Don’t be afraid to try new things! You are supposed to grow a ton during your postdoc time so look for opportunities to develop new skills and research directions.

MsEELab_2026:

Our team may be composed of researchers with different roles at any given time: undergraduate students (whether enrolled at Cornell or visiting from elsewhere), graduate students at the Master’s or PhD level, postdoctoral researchers, and research technicians or scientists. These roles, which may correspond to different career stages and seniority, typically come with different duties and responsibilities. The responsibilities of different lab roles are shaped by the distinct kinds of goals the role might have.

MsEE lab maintains a lab mentorship philosophy statement outlining more details on proposed structures, purposes, and expectations (including role duration and publication output) of MsEE Lab members.

PeelleLab_2026:

By the time you’re done, you will have to know how to do statistics and plots in R, share your work with me using Rmarkdown, use Matlab scripts for data analyses, know enough Python to navigate presentation in PsychoPy, and make figures and posters using Adobe Illustrator or a similar graphics program. You will also preregister your experiments when appropriate (which it almost certainly will be) and share your data and analysis scripts publicly. The learning curve can be a little steep on these but it’s well worth it. (If these aren’t compatible with your goals or interests, my lab is probably not a good fit for you!)

POISLab_2026:

Generally, you’ll start with simpler tasks (e.g., testing surveys, putting up flyers), then progress to more involved tasks (e.g., meeting participants, managing data) as you demonstrate competence. I’m hesitant to risk a poor study experience for a participant or mismanaged data, hence the task scaffolding.

• You’ll be directly supervised by a graduate student or me. If you find yourself without a lab member you regularly check in with, please let me know. Part of this is for quality control, but the other part is making sure you’re developing the skills you need/want for the next step of your career.
• Related to the point above, you should be receiving regular feedback from your lab supervisor. If you don’t know how you’re performing, please talk to your lab supervisor or me about it. It’s totally reasonable to expect your lab supervisor to give you regular feedback on what you’re doing well and what to work on.
• Let your lab supervisor know what you want to get out of your RA experience. That will help them figure out what kinds of tasks and support to give you. For example, you might want to learn more about how to apply to a clinical psychology Ph.D. program or get feedback on your CV—great. Tell them that.

SteinschneiderLab_2026:

I am happy to provide support as you develop your programming skills. In particular, I will fund online training modules (e.g., Data Camp) if you want to pick up a new language. I also require that students use Git and Github for version control and to promote open science (see open-science).

The lab often uses high performance computing (HPC) in support of our research. We have a local cluster (Hopper), and also use cloud resources (NSF ACCESS, Google Cloud, Amazon Web Services).

I have compiled several tutorials and other useful materials in the resources folder of the lab manual. Please start there and read through those materials as a starting place for training excercises.

SUMMITLab_2026:

Training: Conducting research on adolescent substance use is complex as it requires training in developmental theory, developmental methods, addiction science, addiction research methodology, treatment research including studying mechanisms of behavior change, diversity science, and advanced longitudinal quantitative methods. I am committed to providing hands on training experiences in these areas to all of my mentees.

Thrash_2026:

Provide mentorship, guidance, and support to those who work in the lab, including, but not limited to, technical training for lab protocols and equipment, experimental design, project strategy and planning, manuscript preparation and submission, logistics, job searches, poster and oral presentations, teaching, letters of recommendation, and curriculum choices.

UofSCExerciseOncologyLab_2026:

Masters students in our lab will be trained on all things exercise oncology, with a specific emphasis on resistance training and programming. This will include, exercise testing and measurement techniques, body composition analysis, training program design and research methods. You will be trained in a way that is in line with our culture and philosophy; which is to do the best work you can, whilst respecting those around you.

VuraWeisLab_2026:

Constant Roles (rotating every 6 months excluding LSOs): ➢ Laser maintenance: keeping track of issues or updates needed for the laser (using box note and/or white board), cleaning the laser lab, advocating for laser maintenance at planning meetings ➢ Laser planner: runs laser planning meeting and scheduling laser plans, updating group laser and group meeting calendar ➢ General maintenance: updates and acquires general lab supplies as needed (eg sticky pads, silicon nitride membranes, etc). Does NOT acquire specific chemicals ➢ TED Maintenance: keeps track of TED, advocates for cleaning/fixes, acquires supplies ➢ Lab safety officer(s): ■ General/chemical LSO: maintains and updates safety standards in the lab space (outside laser lab), checks eye washes/fire extinguishers/etc, attends monthly LSO meetings, proctors annual safety review, resource for safe lab practices in the group ■ Laser LSO: maintains and updates laser glasses, keeps track of laser safety training and logs, resource for safe laser practices in the group ➢ Social chair: solicits ideas for group activities, coordinates group activities ❖ Temporary Roles: ➢ Conference coordinator: when the majority of the group is attending the same conference, one of the attendees will be elected to serve as the point person. They will coordinate with the attendees (and the IMP office as necessary) on registering for the conference, hotel reservations, and travel plans.

WexlerGroup_2026:

Documentation Scribe

Mission: Grow and curate the Wexler Group knowledge base.

Responsibilities:

• Lead a semester‑long initiative to expand internal documentation and tutorials.
• Proactively solicit contributions and track progress with gentle nudges.
• Enforce information architecture and cross‑linking standards.
• Present a quarterly report on documentation coverage and gaps.

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Expectations & Rotation

• Roles are assigned at the start of each summer and can be swapped by mutual agreement.
• Each gig should require no more than 1–2 hours per week on average.
• If you hit a roadblock, ask for help early — no one is expected to know everything.
• When you rotate out, prepare hand‑off instructions so the next person can ramp up quickly.