Join the Lab

PhD Students and Postdoctoral Scholars

The BMBL is currently focused on supporting undergraduate students, and is not currently accepting PhD students. While I don’t have existing funding to support postdoctoral scholars, I welcome conversations on external funding we could apply for together. My lab is especially suited for postdoctoral scholars interested in continuing onto Primarily Undergraduate Institutions (PUIs).

Undergraduate Research in the Baruch Microbial Biogeochemistry Lab

Spring 2027: I am currently taking only 2–4 independent study students. You can express interest in future semesters or a senior thesis using the interest form below.

Thank you for your interest in working in my lab! In the Baruch Microbial Biogeochemistry Lab (BMBL), we use microbial cultures and the tools of stable-isotope biogeochemistry to ask how photosynthetic microbes, and the carbon they make, shape natural environments today and in Earth's past. Undergraduates carry out this research, in our lab at Baruch and at partner institutions. We work on two themes:

You can read more about both on the Research page.

Since Spring 2024, the lab has hosted 18 undergraduate researchers. Students in the lab present their work at Baruch's Creative Inquiry Expo, and many have presented posters at the Northeast Geobiology Symposium, a regional conference held at Yale, McGill and Rowan Universities. I place special emphasis on what comes next, and I mentor students directly through applications to post-graduate programs. Lab alumni have gone on to fully funded master's programs, Bridge-to-PhD fellowships, PhD programs, and jobs in environmental organizations.

Two ways to work in the lab

Only when funding is available

Paid research assistant

Research assistants are paid hourly to work on an ongoing lab project, such as growing and sampling cultures, preparing samples, or analyzing data. They take part in lab group meetings and present their work at Baruch's Creative Inquiry Expo.

These positions depend on grants and awards (past positions were funded, for example, through Baruch's ExCEL Faculty/Student Research Award), so I can only hire when a project has funding for student pay. When a position opens up, I look first at students who have filled out the interest form below.

Hiring process:

  1. We talk about the project, your schedule, and the hours the funding supports.
  2. Student research assistants are paid through the Research Foundation of CUNY (RF). Baruch's Office of Sponsored Programs and Research (SPAR) will send you the RF onboarding paperwork, which includes the I-9 employment eligibility form (with identity documents), tax forms, and direct deposit.
  3. You'll complete the I-9 with SPAR. All paperwork has to be finished before you can start working and be paid.
  4. Once you're hired, you track your hours on timesheets.

If you are a CUNY undergraduate interested in climate research, also look at the CUNY Research Scholars Program – Climate Scholars. It is a separate, CUNY-wide paid research program that you apply to directly, and it places students in research labs across CUNY.

Typically available regardless of funding

Independent study (for credit)

An independent study is a one-on-one research course. You join an ongoing project in the lab, or develop a closely related project of your own, and carry it through a full cycle of scientific work: framing a question from the primary literature, planning and running a method, analyzing and interpreting the data, and communicating the result in writing and in a public presentation.

Courses and credits: ENV, BIO, or CHM 5000-level (5000, 5001, 5002), with the prefix following your department. Lab independent studies are usually 4 credits; the number of credits is set on the proposal form.

What's expected:

  • Weekly lab group meetings, where you discuss the papers you read that week and report on your progress (20% of the grade)
  • Individual meetings with me to plan experiments, work through data, and revise drafts
  • Research work at the bench, on instruments, or on the computer. Growing cultures takes one to two months, so experiments start early in the term.
  • A scientific poster and oral presentation at Creative Inquiry Day (30%)
  • A 3–4 page final report in the format of a research paper (50%), which can become the basis of a future paper or honors thesis

How to set up an independent study

Who is eligible: Baruch students with a GPA of at least 2.0, in good standing with no unresolved INC grades, who have completed ENG 2100 and 2150 (or equivalent). You can take up to two independent studies in a semester and up to five while at Baruch. Independent studies are not offered in the summer.

  1. Reach out a semester ahead. Fill out the interest form below. If there's a good fit, we'll meet to talk about a project.
  2. Write a proposal (the prospectus). This is a brief 1–3 page essay that (1) introduces the topic and your goals, (2) describes how you'll reach them, (3) describes the final products, and (4) gives a preliminary reading list (plan on 6–10 papers). I'll comment on drafts, so plan for at least one round of revision.
  3. Fill out the Weissman Independent Study Proposal form (also on the Weissman Forms and Applications page) and send it to me with your proposal.
  4. Approvals. I sign as your mentor, the Chair of Natural Sciences approves it, and the department submits it to the Weissman Associate Dean's Office for final approval.
  5. Deadlines. Proposals are filed in the semester before: August 15 for fall and January 15 for spring (per the form).
  6. Register. Approval usually takes about a week and comes through before classes start. The Associate Dean's Office will email you when your independent study is approved and registration permission is entered. Then enroll yourself through Schedule Builder by the regular registration deadline to avoid late fees.

Honors thesis

An honors thesis is a two-semester research project, ENV 6001H and ENV 6002H (Honors – Environmental Sustainability I and II), that you carry out under a faculty mentor and write up as a thesis. Students who complete an approved thesis graduate with departmental honors. A thesis is a big commitment, the equivalent of at least two upper-level courses, and it is great preparation for graduate school.

In my lab, thesis students usually start with an independent study or a research assistant position first, and then build their thesis on that project. Culture experiments take months, so it helps to start early.

Who is eligible: Under the College's guidelines, you need a 3.5 cumulative GPA and a 3.5 GPA in the discipline of the thesis, plus at least two 3000-level courses in that discipline. Most students write a thesis in their senior year.

  1. Start the conversation early. Ideally as a sophomore or junior, and at least a full semester before you would begin the thesis. Fill out the interest form and mention that you're interested in a thesis.
  2. Find a mentor and a project. We'll agree on a question that can be done in two semesters, often one that builds on your earlier work in the lab.
  3. Write the prospectus in the semester before you start. It describes your objectives, your approach and methods, where and when the work will be done, and a detailed bibliography. It goes with the “Application and Prospectus for an Honors Thesis” cover sheet.
  4. Approvals and deadlines. The prospectus needs approval from me, the department chair, and the College Committee on Undergraduate Honors. Submit it to the committee chair by April 1 for a fall start or November 1 for a spring start (revisions due May 1 or December 1). The committee chair registers you for 6001H once it is approved.
  5. First semester (6001H). You do most of the research. Near the end of the semester, you and I each send the committee chair a progress report. If your progress is on track, you receive a “Y” grade and are registered for 6002H.
  6. Second semester (6002H) and readers. At the start of the second semester, we set up a committee of at least two additional faculty readers. You finish the analysis and write the thesis, revising it with my feedback and the readers'.
  7. Final submission. Once all readers approve, you send the thesis and a cover page signed by me and the readers to the committee chair by the last Monday in April (or the first Monday in December if you finish in the fall). Thesis students also present at Creative Inquiry Day, and approved theses are shared through the Baruch library.

For the full rules, see the College's Honors Thesis Guidelines (PDF) and the Newman Library's Undergraduate Honors Theses guide, which has help with proposals, research, and writing.

Interest form

Interested in any of these options? Please fill out the form below. It asks for your contact information, relevant courses, CV, which option and research theme you're interested in, and when you'd like to start.

Having trouble with the embedded form? Open the form in a new tab.

The information you share is used only to consider students for research in the lab.

What happens next

After you fill out the form, please email me to let me know you’ve submitted it, and I will reach out to you.

I typically decide which students to take by the first week of December for the Spring semester, and by July 15 for the Fall semester.

Questions? See the Contact page.