Employment

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Employment in the Black Lab

The Black Lab hires personnel at several levels of education including undergraduate lab aides, technical staff, PhD students, and postdoctoral associates. The application procedure varies with the position.

Undergraduates interested in working as an employee, for course credit, or as a summer intern should email Dr. Black with their transcripts, cv, and a description of their interests and educational goals. Note that these positions turn over slowly and many more apply than can possibly be accommodated. We also take students through many different summer internship programs at UCLA. These require application to the individual programs and not to the lab directly.

Research Technician positions come up rarely. Applicants should submit their cv with bibliography, and two or more letters of reference from previous employers. If they are just graduating, applicants should submit their college transcripts and letters from their instructors.

Prospective PhD Students wishing to work in the lab need to apply to one of the UCLA Graduate Programs in Bioscience (http://bioscience.ucla.edu/). Once accepted into a program, students in their first year will rotate through several labs before joining a lab for their thesis work. We also take students from the UCLA-Caltech Medical Scientist Training Program (http://mstp.healthsciences.ucla.edu/). Although not every year, our lab often has space for one or more students.

Applicants for Postdoctoral Associate positions should email Dr. Black with their cv, bibliography, a description of research interests, and two or three letters of reference including that of their PhD mentor. The lab is engaged in a wide range of projects and it is helpful to describe what areas interest you most. Depending on the project, a background in computation, biochemistry, or neuroscience can be appropriate, although experience in protein or RNA biochemistry or structural biology is often favored. Note that this is not an advertisement for a specific position.