Moreau Lab Expectations and Mentoring Guidelines
(last updated October 2024)

Fostering a welcoming and supportive scientific environment is very important to me and I actively work to make our lab and the broader scientific community a more diverse and inclusive place for everyone. All forms of racism and discrimination are not welcome or permitted in our lab. We welcome diversity in all its forms including all religions, parents, international, first generation, LGBTQIA+, Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC), Latinx, disabled students, other groups traditionally underrepresented in science, and everyone else. Ultimately, I want to foster a welcoming community that will help us all be more successful in our research.

There are many ways to be successful in science and my goal is to help you develop the skills and provide opportunities to help you succeed in your career. The traits that I believe make the most successful researchers are passion, curiosity, commitment, dedication, and endurance. Research in our lab leverages a variety of tools and locations to complete our research. This can vary from fieldwork to molecular biology to collections curation and specimen-based research to manipulative experiments asking questions from genome evolution to phylogenetics to biogeography to trait evolution to symbiosis to host-associated gut bacterial interactions. However, almost exclusively includes ants as the focal study group.

I believe we all grow from listening to others and getting feedback on our own work. This includes learning about research outside of our specific fields, so I encourage members of my lab to attend departmental talks, present their research at scientific conferences and venues on campus, and get feedback on your proposals and manuscripts. We also have an engaged group in the lab that meets regularly to share progress and gain feedback during weekly lab meetings. There are also some shared responsibilities in the lab including lab cleaning and animal husbandry.

If you are interested in working with us in the Moreau Lab here are some specific guidelines for each academic position in the lab:

As Your Mentor:
Ultimately, I am here to guide, support, and cheer for you not only during your time in my lab, but for your entire career. We will learn from each other and together during your time in my lab and I believe being intentional about communication is one of the best ways for us to learn from and about each other. I believe regularly scheduled one-on-one meetings for the members of my lab is one of the best ways to share ideas and troubleshoot issues (topics for discussion during one-on-one meetings can include updates on research, experimental design, interpreting results, fieldwork, funding opportunities, collaborations, career trajectories, mental health check ins, and even casual conversations), while also having an open-door policy during non-defined meeting times. By this, I truly mean you are welcome to come by my office any time, and if my door is open, I would love to chat. Two-way communication is essential, including replying to emails in a timely fashion, participating on our lab Slack channel, using our shared Google calendar, and discussing issues immediately. My preferred form of communication is email, but I will typically reply to any form during working hours and any form if there is an emergency. To request a letter of recommendation please ask me as far in advance as possible. For letters of recommendation it is helpful to me to have links to the opportunity, your updated CV, the proposal or at least a brief description of what you are proposing if I have not provided feedback on the proposal, the deadline my letter is to be submitted, and any important information about you or your abilities you would like me to amplify. My overall goal is for you to have an exciting, educational, fun, and productive time in my lab that helps you grow skills and opportunities for you to succeed long after you leave my lab.

Postdoctoral Researchers:
As more established and independent researchers I aim to help you cultivate your skills and develop your research program with your future career goals in mind. I will help you identify avenues for potential funding to join my lab and work with you to develop a project with shared overlap in scientific interest between us. As a member of the lab and department I expect you to participate in opportunities to engage and interact with our colleagues, including lab meetings, departmental seminars, and networking opportunities. Postdocs in our lab often have leadership roles in our group, which often leads to collaborations with other members of the lab, mentoring experiences, and opportunities for developing your outreach and communication skills. I will work closely with you to build your professional profile and assist you in identifying your career path. You should expect to work 35-40 hours per week on your research and other academic related activities with most days in person. I do realize that during this time in my lab you are likely to also be writing job applications, and I recognize this as something this part of your job and I am happy to provide feedback if helpful. I also realize that time off is important and will follow all university policies regarding vacation time (two weeks), but if more time off is needed we can discuss options to help you be productive during your time in the lab. I only ask that we discuss your time away in advance. As your time in our lab will be research focused, I expect peer-reviewed publications to result from our collaboration.

Graduate Students (Entomology grad resources and EEB grad resources):
Your number one priority as a graduate student is your research, which includes experiments, analyses, and writing up your results for collaborative peer-reviewed publications. I expect you to maintain this as your priority, but also recognize this should definitely not be your only activity during graduate school. I generally do not hand thesis projects to graduate students, but instead work with you to identify research avenues that excite you and are likely to lead to new discoveries. You should read widely from the scientific literature, but also use these readings to narrow down your interests and discover gaps in our knowledge for you to pursue. As a junior colleague I expect you to participate in all departmental and lab-related activities and seminars and contribute to the greater scientific community. You should expect to work 35-40 hours per week on your research, teaching, and other academic related activities with most days in person. I typically try to support your participation in at least one scientific conference per year where you will present your independent research, although you should seek funding too. It is a good idea to begin applying for research funding early and often, and our lab maintains a list of funding opportunities and successful proposals to help in this process. I expect to be informed about all of your professional activities (i.e. teaching, seminar invitations, grant applications, conference participation, outreach, etc.), which helps me to advocate for you and also assist in navigating successful decision making. To aid in this conversation graduate students are expected to set a research goals/timeline including all other academic activities each spring for the next academic year which we review together. If fieldwork will be part of your thesis research it is important that we discuss safety, equipment, gear, permitting, and any other concerns well in advance so we can ensure you are well prepared before your fieldwork. You should aim for the goal of publishing most of your thesis research during your time in my lab. This typically consists of three peer-reviewed papers and Ph.D. students in my lab typically begin publishing in about their third year. Discussions of authorship are important and should happen early. Authorship should be earned, but we typically err on the side of generosity. I also want to make sure we are arming you with the skills you need for a successful career path including outside of the academy as there are many diverse ways to use your advanced degree in science. Mentoring undergraduates is encouraged and is a great way to gain mentoring experience, but it is important that we discuss what research activities they will participate in and what your availability is to formally mentor them. Time off is important for rejuvenation and I will, of course, follow all university policies regarding time off (two weeks), but I am also open to other time off needs as long as we discuss them in advance. I only ask that we discuss all time away in advance.

Undergraduates:
As an undergraduate intern in our lab I hope to help you discover what conducting research is and about the diverse career options in science. To better help you in this regard it is important that you are interested in the research questions and techniques we use in our lab. Although you may not start immediately doing independent research in our lab, my goal is to expose you to scientific methods and biodiversity research in our molecular lab and/or in the Cornell University Insect Collections. All undergraduates are either paid hourly or take research credit hours and preference is decided by you. Most undergraduates in the lab work closely with more senior members of the lab (postdocs and graduate students). We highly value your contributions to our lab and we have had undergraduates join us at national scientific conferences, participate in international fieldwork, and even be authors on and of peer-reviewed scientific publications. Communication is essential so we can help you discover research skills and questions, while always prioritizing your classes and education. I encourage undergraduates to attend and participate in our weekly lab meetings when your schedule permits. Opportunities in our lab are only limited by your passion and dedication.

Volunteers:
Even if you are not a current student I welcome dedicated and committed volunteers of any age or educational/career background to help curate and contribute to our world-class biological collection in the Cornell University Insect Collection.

If you are interested in potentially joining the Moreau Lab, please email me and we can discuss possibilities (corrie.moreau@cornell.edu).