School of Botany and Zoology

Information for Honours and Postgraduate Students Nicotra Lab:

The information below should give you an idea of how the lab works and what it is like to be a student in my lab. It also gives links to important resources for potential students. Read carefully so that you know what you're in for if you decide to join the lab.

Potential Honours students:

• If you'd like to talk about the possibility of doing Honours with me, please come by and have a chat - no strings attached.
• You should also have a look at the departmental Honours web site and the scholarship options.
• You might also like to contact some of my current and past Honours students to get a first hand idea of what it's like to do Honours in the lab.

Potential PhD students:

• As a PhD student in the lab, you would be in the Graduate Program in Ecology, Evolution and Systematics or maybe in Plant Sciences. Please read through these web pages - they contain a wealth of information and will no doubt answer questions you didn't even know you had.
• To do a PhD you will most likely need a Scholarship - please read the info here carefully, especially if you are an overseas student - so that you know the requirements and what the competition for scholarships is like.
• You might also like to contact some of my current and past PhD students to get a first hand idea of what it's like to work in the lab.
• My colleagues Scott Keogh and Mike Jennions have put a lot of effort into compiling resources for potential students, you might like to visit their web site for more information.

The way we work:

We are a large, diverse and friendly group of people who are excited about doing good science. As a lab, we meet most weeks to catch up on what people are up to, discuss recent papers, or to hear about works in progress. If you are a member of the lab, you are expected to attend these meetings and to prepare appropriately. I also meet with my students individually on a regular basis through most of the year to keep up to date on progress and talk about their ideas.

I will invest time, effort and resources in your project, and in return expect you to work hard and be professional. Science is fun, but it is also a lot of work. Your project should be your primary focus while you are in the lab, and you should be aware coming in that this is not going to be a 9-5 job.

In general, I spend more time guiding Honours students through their project than I do PhD students, particularly at the project design and writing-up stages. The following is particularly aimed at PhD students, although has relevance to anyone undertaking research in my lab.

One of the most valuable skills, no pun intended, in science is grant writing, and I will strongly encourage you to apply for small grants to fund your research. Many student projects would not be possible without external funding - my students have been quite successful in getting funds for their work from a range of sources.

I will also strongly encourage and support you to publish your work as you go. Your future prospects are much better if you can come out of your PhD (or Honours degree for that matter) with publications under your belt. You will be first author on work resulting from your thesis, so long as you write it up within an agreed time frame.

As a general rule we work on the "2/6 rule" when deciding who should be an author of a paper. If anyone makes a significant contribution to two of the following six steps then a joint authorship is warranted. (The six steps are (i) initial idea; (ii) obtaining funds, (iii) provision of resources, (iv) collecting data, (v) analysing data (vi) writing & publishing the paper).

I expect students to be communicative and co-operative, to interact with members of the lab, other people in Botany and Zoology and to build networks with scientists in Australia and overseas.

I also expect students to present their findings at appropriate scientific meetings and to communicate their findings to the wider community through media outlets as the opportunity arises. Where possible, I will help provide resources to enable you to attend such meetings as well.

A PhD is a big undertaking, and when you complete your PhD, you will be the expert in your field of study - not me. I consider my responsibility to be to advise, support, and encourage you to do the best project possible in your field. I will ensure that you have the opportunity to develop your skills, for example, in experimental design, data collection and analysis, writing, teaching and giving talks - but I will expect you to be the major source of ideas and motivation. You will have to take the lead role in your project, and you will determine what it becomes.