Our department uses a rotation system to enable you to gain first-hand and detailed knowledge about working in the laboratory of a faculty member. During your first official day on campus, you will attend a Departmental Poster Session where you can talk to students from every lab in the program about their projects and the kind of work going on in each group. Based on this, you will choose a lab for your first rotation where you will spend about 5 weeks as a temporary group member. This is your first taste of what an active lab here is like and you get to see a group in its day to day operation.
You will do three rotations during the first semester, so you will experience a diverse set of experimental approaches and laboratory environments. After the 3 laboratory rotations, you will choose a lab for your dissertation work. Once you have been accepted into a group, you will concentrate on your research project for the rest of your time in graduate school.