Early Birds

We will post a more formal announcement here in March sometime as we refine our summer 2018 needs. But for the early birds:

Each year, we select volunteer research assistants to work with us in the laboratory during the summer. Some of the projects are designed for graduate students’ dissertation research (e.g. predator-prey interactions, ocean acidification, water quality). Other projects help to support the lab and include water quality assessments, hard clam condition assessments, and restoration projects in Great South Bay, Shinnecock Bay, and Peconic Bay.

What do we look for in volunteers? You can work at least two days per week from May/June through August, give or take. You can swim and are in good physical shape. You don’t mind if your work environments include inside, outside, on land, on the water, and in the water. You enjoy hands-on activities – as in, hands in water, hands in mud, hands covered in algae and seagrass, hands on live marine invertebrates. You are flexible about who you work with, as it’s unlikely you will work exclusively on one project. You may or may not have a car, a plan for summer housing, water gear (e.g. wetsuit, mask, boots), or a dive certification. These last things are not required but are really helpful (in order of helpfulness!) to those who have them.

If interested, please contact Diana at diana.chin@stonybrook.edu or Steve at heck.stephen@gmail.com. Including a CV/resume would be great!

You don’t have to be a Stony Brook student, though many of our volunteers are. (High school students, please take note: the minimum age to be considered for a volunteer position with us is 17.) Stony Brook students can use their volunteer hours towards research credit hours with Dr. Bradley Peterson. We can also help highly motivated Stony Brook students with independent research projects apply for URECA so that they are paid for conducting their own summer research (the 2018 deadline for URECA is March 9!). A URECA project usually has something to do with one of the graduate students’ research, which makes things easier, but that’s not a requirement. If you’re interested in this, go ahead and contact us at the email addresses above.

One thought on “Early Birds

  1. Hello! Is this the correct place to ask about volunteer research assistant positions at the Marine Community Ecology Lab? If so, do you know if you will be accepting in person volunteers for this summer (2021), and if so how might I be able to get involved? I am an undergraduate sophomore Stony Brook marine vertebrate biology student and I would be excited to learn new skills and assist in various research projects.

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