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Complete the LEoPARD application and commitment form

The Laboratory for Evaluation of Pharmacological Agents in Remediation of Disease (LEoPARD) — a biochemistry-focused undergraduate research group at Saint Michael’s College in Colchester, Vermont (Burlington metro area) — is always seeking ambitious undergraduate students who have a strong interest in laboratory-based work. At present, students can apply to fill the following three (3) categories of increasing involvement and demand:

Student-technicians (3¹ or more hours/week during the academic semester);
Student-researchers (6² or more hours/week during the academic semester);
Student-investigators (12³ or more hours/week during the academic semester).

Descriptions and requirements for these various positions can be found below.

Complete the LEoPARD application and commitment form

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Student-technicians

The student-technician position is intended for students who have a preliminary interest in the workings of a laboratory environment, and who may eventually be keen to pursue more intensive research at a later time — but for whatever reason, are not yet willing and/or able to take on a substantial role in research at this time. Student-technicians may be assigned independent work directly by Dr. Dieni, and/or may be assigned supportive work — in assisting student-researchers and student-investigators by completing preparatory work, monitoring and replenishing the inventory of reagents, and maintaining the research lab in a state of cleanliness and readiness. While the student-technician role is inherently introductory in nature, interested students are nevertheless expected to join LEoPARD with a serious commitment to furthering its goals, and must be willing to devote significant time and effort to that end.

Note carefully that the number of student-technicians that will be allowed to work in LEoPARD at any given time is determined by the number of student-researchers and student-investigators in the group at that time. This is because real research progress takes substantial time and dedication — which, by definition may, not be cognate with the role of the student-technician, who might choose be a low-intensity and temporary contributor. The number of student-technicians is therefore capped such that there will never be a ratio of less than 1.5:1 of student-researchers and/or student-investigators to student-technicians. For instance:

If there is only one (1) student-researcher or student-investigator in the group, there can be no student-technicians. Why? Even one student-technician would cause an undesirable ratio of 1:1.
If there are a total of two (2) student-researchers and student-investigators, then there can be only one (1) student technician.
If there are a total of three (3) student-researchers and student-investigators, there can be up to a maximum of two (2) student-technicians.
If there are a total of four (4) student-researchers and student-investigators, again, there can be up to a maximum of two (2) student-technicians. Why? Having three (3) student-technicians would cause an undesirable ratio of 1.33:1.
If there are a total of five (5) student-researchers and student-investigators, there can be up to a maximum of three (3) student-technicians.

Prospective student-technicians must meet the following requirements:

Must be able and willing to dedicate a minimum of 3¹ hours per week towards on-site lab work (i.e. not remote work);
- ¹Student-technicians whose work involves living cells — including (but not limited to) bacterial cells, fungal cells, or mammalian cells — must be cognizant that their schedules will be largely dictated by the life cycles of the cells, and may require more than 3 hours of work per week.
- During a non-summer break period (e.g. Thanksgiving week, Christmas/New Year’s break, etc.) — if the student has access to local housing in the Burlington metro area and can feasibly travel to and from campus — they are welcome and encouraged to work additional hours.
Must be able and willing to schedule and attend additional meetings as required;
Must have a clear understanding that, aside from academics, their duties with LEoPARD will not be compromised by any other commitments to non-academic pursuits including (but not limited to) other employment, residence life, volunteering, athletics (including practice, games, travel time for away-games), etc.;
Must have a preliminary yet earnest, genuine open-mindedness for lab work. Prospective student-technicians need not be already committed to a career in lab work — but should be willing to give this work their dedication for the time that they remain in LEoPARD.

Complete the LEoPARD application and commitment form

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Student-researchers

The student-researcher position is intended for ambitious students who want to take on a more substantial role in research — and who are very open to the idea of making research part of their long-term career goals (e.g. graduate studies, cutting-edge work in a biotechnology company, prominent roles in drug discovery and clinical trials, etc.). Student-researchers will execute and analyze the results of the core experiments in LEoPARD’s various research projects, with the utmost care and meticulous attention to detail — in pursuit of the ultimate goal of publishing discoveries in the peer-reviewed scientific literature. Students who are interested in the student-researcher role are expected to join LEoPARD with the highest commitment to furthering research — if not for the rest of their careers, then at least in their time with LEoPARD — and must be willing to devote considerable time and effort towards this goal.

In contrast to the role of a student-technician — which is arguably more of a “temporary” or “undecided” role — a prospective student-researcher should come to LEoPARD with far greater sense of commitment, and a willingness to prioritize research over other activities in their life (aside from academics, of course!). A prospective student-researcher should carefully consider their ability to make an upfront two (2)-semester commitment (e.g. a commitment for both the Fall and Spring semesters) — or, whenever possible, an upfront full calendar-year commitment (i.e. 12 months; pending the availability of summer research).

Prospective student-researchers must meet the following requirements:

Must be able and willing to dedicate a minimum of no less than 6² hours per week (and often, considerably more than the minimum) towards on-site lab research (i.e. not remote work);
- ²Student-researchers whose work involves living cells — including (but not limited to) bacterial cells, fungal cells, or mammalian cells — must be cognizant that their schedules will be largely dictated by the life cycles of the cells, and may require significantly more than 6 hours of work per week.
- During a non-summer break period (e.g. Thanksgiving week, Christmas/New Year’s break, etc.) — if the student has access to local housing in the Burlington metro area and can feasibly travel to and from campus — they are welcome and encouraged to work additional hours.
Must be able and willing to work “odd hours” (e.g. evenings, weekends) during the Fall and/or Spring semester — as necessitated by laboratory protocols and/or the scheduling of intensive research time-blocks around coursework;
Must be able and willing to occasionally dedicate time to out-of-lab research (i.e. work that takes place out of the lab, processing data, plotting graphs, searching out and reading references from the peer-reviewed literature, writing manuscripts and poster presentations, etc.);
Must be able and willing to schedule and attend additional meetings as required;
Must be willing to carefully consider an upfront two-semester commitment or equivalent (e.g. Fall 2022-Spring 2023, Spring 2023-summer 2023, summer 2023-Fall 2023, etc.) — or ideally, a calendar-year commitment (i.e. 12-months, pending the availability of summer research);
- Student-researchers who make a 2-semester or 12-month commitment and who renege on their commitment will not be considered for a letter of reference/recommendation.
Must have a clear understanding that, aside from academics, their duties with LEoPARD will not be compromised by any other commitments to non-academic pursuits including (but not limited to) other employment, residence life, volunteering, athletics (including practice, games, travel time for away-games), etc.;
Must have an earnest, genuine interest for research — an interest that is stronger than might be expected from a student-technician. Whereas student-technicians should only have a preliminary interest in lab work, prospective student-researchers should already have a more fleshed-out idea that this is something they want to do for the longer-term. They need not be a research expert, or already definitively committed to a career in research, but should be willing to give research nothing short of their uncompromising dedication for the time that they remain in LEoPARD.

Complete the LEoPARD application and commitment form

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Student-investigators

The student-investigator position is reserved exclusively for ultra-committed researchers who have proven themselves over at least one semester with LEoPARD and who are wholeheartedly certain — for all intents and purposes — that they want to engage in research amidst their long-term career goals. Student-investigators will not only execute and analyze the results of the core experiments in LEoPARD’s various research projects — but will also assist in the planning and coordination of projects, training of newer personnel, and the mentoring and directing of both student-technicians and student-researchers. Students who have spent a minimum of one semester with LEoPARD as a student-researcher, and are interested in promotion to student-investigator, must be willing to entirely dedicate their time and effort towards this singular goal with little or no competition from other pursuits; please be advised that this level of dedication is not for everyone, and not to be taken lightly!

Prospective student-investigators must meet the following requirements:

Must be willing and able — upon promotion to student-investigator — to make make a non-negotiable, full-calendar year commitment, or until they graduate — whichever comes first — to research with LEoPARD (not including the one semester they have already spent with LEoPARD);
Must have spent at least one prior successful semester with LEoPARD as a student-researcher;
- In the one (or more) prior successful semester(s), the prospective student-investigator must have shown a talent for research and a strong desire to put research interests above other priorities.
Must be able and willing to dedicate a minimum of no less than 12¹ hours/week (and often, considerably more than the minimum) to on-site lab research (i.e. not remote work);
- ³Student-investigators whose work involves living cells — including (but not limited to) bacterial cells, fungal cells, or mammalian cells — must be cognizant that their schedules will be largely dictated by the life cycles of the cells, and may require significantly more than 12 hours of work per week.
- During a non-summer break period (e.g. Thanksgiving week, Christmas/New Year’s break, etc.) — if the student has access to local housing in the Burlington metro area and can feasibly travel to and from campus — they are welcome and encouraged to work additional hours.
Must be able and willing to work “odd hours” (e.g. evenings, weekends) during the Fall and/or Spring semester — as necessitated by laboratory protocols and/or the scheduling of intensive research time-blocks around coursework;
- Additionally, the student-investigator must realize and embrace that in addition to evenings and weekends, it is necessary to have days upon days — or, more accurately, weeks upon weeks — of uninterrupted research to make any substantial progress. Thus, if student-investigator has access to local housing in the Burlington metro area and can feasibly travel to and from campus, they are highly-encouraged to make every reasonable effort towards in-lab work for a significant portion of “break” periods such as the October two-day break, Thanksgiving, Christmas/New Year’s period, Spring Vacation, and others as applicable. Without posing a risk to their academic performance or their health, a student-investigator should make every effort to treat their role as a “real-world” job;
- Barring exceptional circumstances, during their calendar-year commitment, the student-investigator may not be absent from the lab for a contiguous period of any longer than 28 calendar days — or they will be reassigned from their student-investigator role to a student-researcher role instead.
Must be able and willing to dedicate significant time to out-of-lab research (i.e. work that takes place out of the lab, processing data, plotting graphs, searching out and reading references from the peer-reviewed literature, writing manuscripts and poster presentations, etc.);
Must be able and willing to schedule and attend a weekly 1-hour research progress meeting, and other meetings as required;
Must not be involved in other non-academic pursuits to any significant extent, including (but not limited to) other employment, residence life, volunteering, athletics, etc. — without prior discussion and express permission from Dr. Dieni;
- Given that the student-investigator will likely not be involved in employment outside of LEoPARD due to the high level of dedication required to this role, it is strongly recommended that prospective student-investigators are eligible to pursue intensive research through one or both of the following pathways:
  - 1) Prospective student-investigators should be competitive or otherwise eligible for funding sources such as work-study, internal and external research scholarships, stipendiary allocations to external grants, and others as appropriate. Prospective student-investigators who are under financial duress and who would otherwise anticipate a strong need to pursue employment in order to fund their basic necessities (e.g. tuition, housing, food, etc.) might want to first discuss their interest in being a student-investigator with Dr. Dieni before taking any steps;
  - 2) Prospective student-investigators should try to dedicate as many elective credits in their degree program as possible to research. This will allow a shift in focus from credit-based coursework to credit-based research, with a possibly more favourable reorganization of their weekly schedules to accommodate the long hours required for research.
Must have above-average writing skills — or a willingness to develop their writing skills — and an interest in writing anything and everything from laboratory standard operating procedures (SOPs) to manuscripts for peer-reviewed publication;
Must have above-average presenting skills — or a willingness to develop their presentation skills — and an interest in speaking about their research at a variety of internal and external venues;
Must have above-average leadership skills — or a willingness to develop their leadership skills — and an interest in training, mentoring, and directing student-researchers and student-technicians who are junior to themselves.

Complete the LEoPARD application and commitment form

Students interested in any of these roles should contact Dr. Dieni.

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