General Info:
In general I am interested in supervising honours and PhD students in any area of research in which I feel confident that I can give useful advice and supervision. This includes morphological and molecular phylogenetics of reptiles of course, but I also have broad interests in behavioural ecology, straight animal behaviour and ecology and I'm interested in having students work in these areas as well. I know the most about reptiles, but I am happy to consider other systems too. For example, my PhD student Bob Wong is working on fish.
Honours Students: I'm happy to talk about any ideas which students have for potential honours projects, but in practice it is generally easiest (for me) if honours students do projects that are either directly or indirectly associated with projects I am already doing. Have a look at my research interests section and then come and talk to me. For details on BoZo requirements to get in to honours, click here.
PhD Students: I believe strongly that PhD students should do projects which genuinely interest them and that they should take the lead role in everything to do with their project - this includes coming up with the original ideas. There will be no pressure from me for my PhD students to undertake projects associated with my own ARC funded research. Of course I will give you all the help and advice I can as far as the animals, techniques and theory goes, but I feel my main job as a supervisor is to make sure that students come out of my lab fully equipped (in a very broad sense) to be successful in their chosen field. So I'll harass you to apply for grants, give talks, get teaching experience and write, write, write! You will need these skills for anything that you do. Click here for the ANU Guidelines for Supervision and Candidature of Doctoral Research Students. Click here for scholarship info.
Expectations of my lab members: We are a large, productive and happy lab that is doing good science. The benefits of such a lab to its members are substantial because you have that many more keen and interested people to interact with and to offer help and advice on all aspects of your project. But to make this really work, all members of the lab have to be active participants. I find that the best students are those who are serious about their science and careers, whether they be in academia or other areas of biology. Therefore, I have high expectations of all the people in my lab to make sure that we (including me) are getting the most out of our work interaction and experience. I have outlined these minimum requirements below so that you know what you will be getting yourself into before you approach me as a potential student. If you believe you cannot meet these minimum expectations, then don't ask me to supervise you. I'm serious about this and I'll ask you (and your referees) about each of these expectations before I agree to anything.
1. I expect my students to be professional and dedicated to their research project. First, science is fun and interesting. Second, I and the other members of the lab will invest considerable effort to ensure that you have a good working environment and I will make a considerable effort to provide the resources and advice that you require to successfully complete your project. So, to put it bluntly, I'm not interested in supervising unmotivated people. I will only take honours students who are determined from the outset to do a first class job and put in a first class effort. I will only take PhD students who are determined to come out at the end as an expert in their field and make a real scientific contribution. If I know more about the science behind your project than you do when you are done, then something is very wrong.
2. It's easy for students to loose motivation for writing papers after taking a well earned break following submitting their thesis, but I believe in the saying "your work hasn't been done until it's published". Therefore, everyone in the lab is expected to actively publish the results of their research as soon as it's done and ready. I will bug you to get the papers done irrespective of whether I have collaborated with you on the research. Usually, this only means spending 2-3 additional weeks for honours students after the thesis has been handed in. I encourage PhD students to write papers as they complete chunks of their research, so it only takes them 4-5 additional weeks to finish off the last papers. Again, this is critically important to your careers.
3. I will hound both honours and PhD students to actively try and raise funds to support their research by applying for small grants. This experience and skill is very important for your future careers and the funds will allow you to do your planned research without having to cut corners because of financial restrictions.
4. One of the most important parts of science is communicating your results, so all lab members have to present their research at scientific conferences. Generally, we all make the trip to the annual meeting of the Australian Society of Herpetologists (ASH) to give talks on our research, and many of us also go to other larger meetings. I consider giving a talk at ASH a time honoured tradition (this includes my honours students, if the timing is right). If I can, I'll try and help you out financially to attend the ASH meeting.
5. We try and have semi-regular lab meetings. During this meeting we first go around the table and everyone gives a short (1 minute or so) blurb on what they did research-wise since the last meeting so that everyone is up to date each other's projects. We then spend a little bit of time on general lab business (ie., who is leaving a mess in the molecular lab, etc.) and then one member of the lab gives a talk on their research while the rest of us listen and drink beer. We sometimes substitute this time for practice talks for conferences or for offering constructive criticism on manuscripts or grant proposals. If you are in town (ie., not in the field) then attendance and participation at our lab meetings is expected.
6. Everyone in the lab is expected to be an active member of BoZo. This is a great department and you have a lot to gain by interacting with all the other BoZos.