Join the lab

Our lab is interested in recruiting enthusiastic students into our group. Our main focus of interests are:

  1. Species interactions (broadly speaking)
  2. Anthropogenic impact on ecological interactions and
  3. Biodiversity science.

Eco-geographically speaking, our areas of interest are largely (but not exclusively) located in biologically-rich regions, that is, tropical ecosystems of different types (ranging from seasonally dry to wet forests). More recently, we have expanded our interests to the conservation of bio-cultural diversity—the intertwined area of traditional ecological knowledge of biodiversity, including the eco/evo study of wild relatives of crops. 

Some of the field stations where we work:

 

In addition to research, our lab welcomes students interested in science education and outreach beyond the university setting.

 

Undergraduate students

Our lab includes and welcomes undergraduate students interested in participating in the lab’s research and education efforts. This is a collaborative learning environment, so it does not matter how much previous research experience you have. 

If you would like to learn more about the lab, you are welcome to join our Lab Meetings as well – please get in touch with Rodolfo or with any of the graduate students. 

If you would like to conduct research in the lab, please email Rodolfo or any of the graduate students, who will be very happy to discuss potential ideas.

Research in the lab won’t have any expenses. If needed, current undergraduate students can apply for grants to support their research. The Biology Department and Stanford in general provide multiple sources of support to interested students, particularly over the summer. 

Other sources of funding for undergraduate research (this is something we can discuss together once you have reached out to Rodolfo or other lab members):

 

Graduate students

We typically consider accepting one student annually, to start in fall quarter (September). Our philosophy is to provide ample flexibility to accommodate the students’ own interests. In some cases, students might prefer to identify a ramification of one of our ongoing projects, in other cases (the predominant situation), students develop their own interests and choose an independent research topic, invariably within the main areas of our three broad, collective interests indicated above. Typically, the students take the leadership in their independent projects and I serve as a collaborator to them.

For more information on application process please visit these Stanford sites:

 

All PhD positions are fully funded by the Department, covering your tuition, a stipend, and health insurance.

A GRE score is not required to apply to the Biology PhD program.

The first step in our application process is to get in touch with the lab PI (rdirzo@stanford.edu), with a short description of your main research interests, and your CV as an attachment.

We highly encourage you to get in touch with the Graduate students in the lab, which will be happy to provide you with more information about the lab and the Stanford application process. 

*Application deadline for the 2021-2022 cohort is December 1st, 2020.

You can find more information about applying to grad school here.

 

Post-doctoral fellows

Postdocs with their own support, or interested in developing proposals for research in our lab are welcome to consider our lab as an academic home. Please email Rodolfo with your main interests. For more information please visit:

 

Postdocs in the lab have typically applied to the following funding sources: 

NSF, Marie-Curie Global Fellowship, Swiss National Science Foundation, Human Frontier Science Program, DFG, CNPq, CAPES, FAPESP… 

Get in touch if you need recommendations.

 

For international students, postdocs and visiting scholars please visit:

International graduate students are fully funded by the Department.

Feel free to contact the international graduate students in the lab (Lucas and Luísa) if you have any questions.

 


Please feel free to contact us if you are interested!

rdirzo@stanford.edu