The Boots Lab is committed to working towards an inclusive future where BIPOC, women, and LGTBQIA+ scholars are treated equitably in all realms of society. We recognize that our field has a long history of racial injustice and are acting to promote antiracist ideas and policies to fight inequality in our lab, the biological sciences, and academia. We encourage people from minoritized backgrounds to apply to any of our open positions and will work to support you. For more information, see our Statement of Values and Resource Guide.
Postdocs
I am happy to discuss funding options, including (1) co-authoring a grant proposal that could support your postdoctoral research, or (2) developing and honing fellowship applications for you to acquire your own salary support. If you wish to do postdoctoral research on topics relevant to my lab, then feel free to get in touch to discuss such funding options.
Graduate Students
I am always on the lookout for new PhD students. I encourage my students to pursue their own research ideas, within the context of the the infectious disease questions our lab examines. We are broadly interested in infectious disease processes, ranging from pure theory, to modeling particular diseases alongside empirical work in the field and lab. Students have the opportunity to combine these approaches or specialize, with the question rather than the system being most important.
If you are interested in getting a PhD in my laboratory, I would encourage you to contact me at the start of the Fall semester to introduce yourself. When you do so, you should tell me a little bit about your background, why you are interested in working with me, and what kinds of research you are interested in. Before contacting me, be sure to familiarize yourself with our research to understand what you are expressing an interest in. While PhD students are not expected to pick up ongoing projects in the lab, your interests should at least align with the general themes of the lab.
Berkeley Undergraduates
We are happy to welcome undergraduate researchers to our lab. Our undergraduate researchers primarily work with our moth-baculovirus lab system, but undergraduates interested in mathematical modeling or bioinformatics should also contact the lab to check for opportunities. We regularly recruit through the URAP and work-study programs and can support students doing research for credit, including on independent and honors projects.
We also suggest that students interested in the Boots lab also take Professor Boots’ class IB 114: Infectious Disease Dynamics to learn some of the concepts behind our research.
To get involved, please apply for the appropriate position or email Mike Boots (mboots@berkeley.edu) and Signe White (pswhite@berkeley.edu) with your research CV and a short statement about your interests and goals for the lab.
Boots Lab - UC Berkeley 