My goal is to foster an environment of consistent scientific excellence and personal development that supports every lab member in reaching their full potential, and helps us have fun while doing great science. We have a supportive and open lab, and I welcome potential students regardless of race, religion, gender identification, sexual orientation, age, or disability status. As long as you are a hard worker and creative thinker who is respectful to others, you are welcome here. If you are interested in joining the team, read on.
(Please also have a read through our current lab manual (PDF) to make sure the lab is a good fit.)
Postdoctoral fellows
Northeastern University has an excellent set of resources across disciplines which make it a very strong place for continuing your training. Candidates who are interested in applying for external funding (e.g., an NRSA) should contact me to discuss possibilities. Please send a CV and a cover letter that includes your thoughts on future projects, what you hope to gain from the lab, and what you would bring to the lab.
Unfortunately I do not have time to respond to generic emails requesting sponsorship for projects that are not related to ongoing work in the lab (unless projects come with large sums of money and very little work).
PhD students
I will be reviewing PhD student applications for Fall 2025.
I accept PhD students through the Psychology program. In general I do not schedule meetings with potential PhD students before the application deadline. Instead, I consider all the applications as a group after the deadline has passed. I do this so as to reduce the bias that might come from knowing some students better than others. However, please don't hesitate to email me if you have specific questions about my lab or the program.
When you apply, please make sure to list my name in the application portal so that your application gets routed to me.
If you complete your PhD in my lab I very much want you to succeed and come out with transferable skills in experimental design, data analysis, critical thinking (!), and communication (writing, speaking). This outcome requires some balance between giving you independence (to pick projects you are interested in) and supporting you with lab resources (which requires you study something that fits in to my lab's overall research plan). We will work on picking dissertation projects together, but they will probably be related to topics that feature in recent lab publications - if these areas do not appeal to you, my lab is probably not a good fit.
I know applying to graduate school is an extremely expensive process and I do not want cost to prevent you from applying. Some points to know:
Application fees: We offer application fee waivers on a case-by-case basis. Please email me if the fee is an undue financial burden and we will make the case for a waiver.
Flight/hotel expenses: If you are invited to an in-person interview, Northeastern will pay for your flights and stay directly, so you do not need to worry about paying out-of-pocket and then filing for reimbursement.
Interview clothes: Come as you are to interview with me, I do not judge your merit based on looks or clothing.
There may also be opportunities to work collaboratively if you are in biomedical engineering, linguistics, computer science, or another related discipline, provided you have a primary advisor in your home department.
If you're thinking of joining the lab as a PhD student, keep in mind the following (from the lab manual):
By the time you're done, you will have to know how to do statistics and plots in R, share your work with me using Rmarkdown, use Matlab scripts for data analyses, know enough Python to navigate presentation in PsychoPy, and make figures and posters using Adobe Illustrator or a similar graphics program. You will also preregister your experiments when appropriate (which it almost certainly will be) and share your data and analysis scripts publicly. The learning curve can be a little steep on these but it's well worth it. (If these aren't compatible with your goals or interests, my lab is probably not a good fit for you!)
Research assistants
We have no openings at this time.
Undergraduate students
Undergraduates with a background or interest in language or neuroscience are welcome—this includes people who come from communication sciences, psychology, premed, biomedical engineering, computer science, linguistics, and so on. Depending on our current needs and your interests, undergraduates assist with tasks such as:
Developing materials for experiments (for example, coming up with lists of words or sentences that meet various criteria)
Organizing lab forms, paperwork, and materials
Updating lab documentation
Computer programming or scripting (experience with Matlab, R, pr Python is particularly helpful)
The analysis or display of data (bonus points if you have interest or experience with graphic design, typesetting, etc.)
Joining the lab as an undergraduate is a competitive process and we do not accept everyone who applies. If you are interested in being in the lab, please fill out this application form and we will contact you for an interview if we have a position and it seems like a good fit.
Your first semester (3 months) in the lab are considered probationary (possibly with "observer" status), after which we will meet and decide whether it makes sense to continue.
Please review the lab manual, particularly the section on undergraduates, to make sure it sounds like a good situation for you before contacting me.