Research Rotations
Research rotations are designed to allow you to sample three to five different CMB laboratories before you chose your mentor. Two months of performing experiments and getting to know the members of the lab provides you with the information you need for choosing a thesis lab. Rotations also provide a valuable education as you learn a variety of skills and techniques, experience different intellectual environments, and meet grad students and postdocs in different labs around the Baylor campus.
You can rotate every term, as well as the summer before you start graduate school if you come early to sample additional labs. We require a minimum of three rotations prior to making a lab choice, which gives you the option of joining a lab as early as late winter during your first year.
How do you find the information you need about what labs to choose for rotations? During Terms 1 and 2 of your first year, you will have the opportunity to hear faculty members present a brief overview of their research. Twice a week, three to four faculty will discuss their research with first-year CMB students. These short talks, along with information that each faculty member has on the CMB web pages, provide insight about specific research programs.
In addition, because CMB faculty are the graduate faculty who are the most active in teaching, you will also be exposed to individual CMB faculty as you take first-year classes. Virtually every faculty member who teaches in the Core Curriculum courses is a CMB member. Listening to someone teaching in their area of expertise really gives you an idea of how that person approaches science and thinks about problems.
Finally, CMB students are a cohesive and interactive group, which means that the more senior students are in close contact with the more junior students (a consequence of the small class size and the weekly CMB seminar course). Senior students provide informal advice about labs (science, mentoring, etc.), help with preparation for the qualifying oral exams, and (in one case) also teach salsa dance lessons.