Opportunities

Prospective postdocs

If you are interested in doing a postdoc in the Hillesland lab, please send Dr Hillesland an email explaining your interests and how you think doing research in the lab will help you in your career. At the moment we do not have funding to hire another postdoc but we could work together to submit applications for fellowships and grants to fund your work.

Prospective graduate students

Unfortunately at this time I am not part of any programs that grant doctoral degrees. If you are an excellent and motivated student, you may be able to participate in this research through my collaborations with other researchers at the University of Washington and elsewhere.

Prospective undergraduate researchers

There are several different ways to be involved in research in the lab. They are outlined below:

Investigative biology student:

In the winter I teach investigative biology. This class offers the most intensive and structured research experience. Students are expected to spend an average of 15 hours/week working in groups to complete, analyze, and present the results of an original research project. To get the most out of this experience, I suggest you make sure you organize your course schedule so you are not taking too many courses at the same time as you are taking investigative biology. Ideally, you would take Microbiology I (fall), Micobiology II (winter), and Investigative biology (spring) in your sophomore or junior year, then follow up with one or two quarters (or more) of independent research. This sequence is designed to teach you the background knowledge and skills that will maximize your success with research in the Hillesland Lab. If you do it in your sophomore or junior year, you will have time to capitalize on that training with additional independent research.

Laboratory research assistant (sophomores and juniors preferred). We are also looking for students that have some experience in programming.

In this position, you will work with one or more students and possibly a postdoc on one of the projects described on the research page. Because it takes a long time to train someone to do the research in our lab, I expect undergraduates to commit to at least 2 quarters of research (number of course credits per quarter can be negotiated). Research assistants are expected to present a poster at the UW Seattle undergraduate research fairs. Applications for Mary Gates Scholarships are very strongly encouraged.

If you are interested in applying for a laboratory research assistant position, you must send Dr Hillesland an email with answers to the following questions: Why are you interested in doing research?

  • Which aspects of the Hillesland lab research are you most interested in and why? Research projects

  • How many hours per week, on average, do you think you can devote to research?

  • How many quarters would you be able to participate in research?

  • Provide evidence that you are responsible and will follow safety rules, follow through on coming into lab at agreed upon times, communicate when you cannot come in, etc. Examples of evidence could be a job, volunteer work, class participation/attendance.

  • List any skills you may have that would help us determine which projects you can work on. For example some projects would require basic skills in writing programs or doing other computational work. It is ok if you do not have skills to list. We will train you in the skills you need to use (except programming).


Dishwasher/Laboratory assistant

This is a paid, work-study position that involves keeping laboratory glassware clean and ready for use. It also involves making anaerobic media for experiments. It may be possible to move from this position into other laboratory research positions, depending on performance, interest, and the number of open positions.

We may hire for this position in winter/spring 2022.