van Breugel Lab

Why work with me?

New discoveries are increasingly being made at the interface of traditional disciplines. To facilitate making such discoveries, my lab is highly interdisciplinary, bringing together tools from engineering, data science, and neurogenetics to study fundamental questions in neuroscience and behavior. Why? We want to understand how the brain works, specifically, we want to discover how the brain integrates different types of sensory information, like visual cues, odors, wind, acceleration, etc. It turns out that insects, specifically the fruit fly, are a great model for developing this more general knowledge. We can observe the flies as they explore relatively large environments, we can use neurogenetic tools to remotely turn on specific neurons, and we can create virtual reality environments to put sensory modalities in opposition.  

To really understand something, however, you have to build it. So, we also work on building simulations and physical robots to implement some of the concepts we learn. This allows us to test the feasibility of our hypotheses, generate new ones, and create practical applications.

In my lab you will have the opportunity to learn a broad range of skills, including 2-D and 3-D real-time tracking, high speed video, flow visualization, field experiments, neuro-genetics, python-based analysis, data driven modeling, experimental design, fly-husbandry, laser cutting and machining, machine learning, etc. These skills will allow you to take your research in many different directions to answer the questions you think are most interesting. They are also skills that are valued outside of academia.

What type of background should you have?

 You should be interested in how animals and brains work, and/or how to build novel engineered systems that integrate different types of sensory modalities to solve difficult problems. We are a diverse group, and looking for diverse academic backgrounds.

• Have a degree in engineering (controls or machine learning ideal), biology, or neuroscience

• Have some programming experience (ideally python)

• Have some prior research experience

• Have ideas on what you want to do

Why come to UNR?

 The University of Nevada, Reno is an exciting place to be if you’re interested in how the brain controls behavior, or autonomous robotic systems. We have a new and growing neuroscience program, and an established ecology and evolution program. In engineering there are a variety of faculty working on autonomous systems and robotics.

Graduate school and post-doc life is about more than just the research. Reno is a fantastic place to live. If you like the outdoors, you will like Reno. There are fantastic mountain biking trails 5 minutes from campus. Lake Tahoe is 45 minutes away, and skiing, biking, hiking, paddleboarding, and climbing opportunities abound. In the winter you can ski on a powder day before going to class. In the summer you can go climbing, biking, or running after work. It’s almost always sunny, but rarely too hot. It snows just enough to be nice, but not obnoxious. In town we have great breweries, festivals, coffee shops, art cooperatives, restaurants, and a riverside park. I am here because I believe it is one of the most enjoyable places to live in the country.

Interested in joining in on the fun?

If you’re interested in applying for a position, please contact me and include some information about:

• Your research interests (and any ideas for projects you want to pursue)

• Any previous research experience that you have

• Your academic background (an unofficial transcript is great if you have one)

• Why you’re interested in coming to Reno for graduate school

• A copy of your CV and copies of any first-author publications or conference papers/abstracts.

My approach to advising and expectations for students

(adapted from Itai Halevy, Margaret Zimmer, Claire Masteller, Mariam Aly, Joel Schiengross)

As an advisor, I view it as my responsibility to:

• Promote a happy, welcoming, and inclusive work environment where your ideas are valued and all lab members are treated fairly and with respect regardless of ethnicity, race, religion, sexual orientation, gender-identity, nationality, or socio-economic status.

• Work with you to develop, pursue, and complete a research project that you find exciting and motivating, complements your skillset and research interests, and tackles a fundamental problem in neuroscience, behavior, robotics, or ecology.

• Teach you the skills you need to do your research. Be it programming, building things, neuroscience, fly husbandry, etc.

• Hold regular, one-on-one weekly meetings so that we can work together, have open dialog (about research and any other issues you want to discuss), and make sure your research is advancing.

• Read and provide detailed feedback on your manuscripts and proposals within two weeks (often less), provided I’m not traveling.

• Provide financial support throughout your entire graduate school tenure including your tuition costs, salary, and research expenses, and conference travel. This support will come through a mix of teaching assistantships (typically not to exceed 3 years for PhD students) and research assistantships (which will allow you to work full time on research).

• Share my passion for science. I’m here because I love what I do and I’m continually fascinated by how animals work, and what we can learn from them.

• Be honest, open, and encouraging in our discussions.

• Always act in (what I believe to be) your best interests, and openly discuss my reasoning with you when solicited.

• Provide future career guidance and advice (if you want it) on opportunities both in and outside of academia.

• Be flexible. I understand everyone has a life outside of science, situations change, and over the course of your graduate school career you’re likely to go through good times and bad times. So long as you communicate with me, I’ll do everything I can to reasonably adjust to difficult situations, and offer help or advice if it is appropriate for me to do so.

• Listen to you and be open to feedback. I care deeply about my advising and the success of my students. One of the best ways for me to become a better adviser is to receive open, candid feedback from students on what works and what needs improvement.

As a graduate student, I expect you to:

• Let me know what you expect from me. Every student is different, and an advising style that works well for one student may not work well for another. One way for me to be a better adviser to you, is if you give me feedback and let me know what’s working and what’s not, and how I can help you meet your goals.

• Be honest, professional, and respectful. Maintaining a happy and inclusive work environment requires all of us to participate. We are a team and I expect all members of our group to adhere to commonsense principles of respect (see, for example, the UNR Code of Conduct). It should go without saying that there’s zero tolerance for harassment, discrimination, or scientific misconduct.

• Put your physical health, mental health, and family first. It’s hard to do great science when you’re not healthy or have problems at home. Make sure to take enough time away from the office to maintain a healthy work-life balance, so that your time spent on research is efficient, productive, and, most importantly, enjoyable.

• Read the scientific literature. You can’t advance the field unless you know what’s already been done. Spending time reading papers is one of the simplest things you can do to gain new ideas and become a better scientist. With a bit of effort, you’ll quickly become one of the world’s experts on your research topic.

• Fill your knowledge gaps via coursework or independent study. It’s hard to learn everything you need to know to pursue a graduate degree during your undergraduate education. I expect students with gaps in their knowledge base to take courses or teach themselves to get up to speed. You’ll also want to take additional upper division and graduate level courses tailored to your research interests that depending on your interests may include data science, programming, neuroscience, controls, machine learning, ecology, dynamics, fluid mechanics, and more.

• Be enthusiastic, motivated, curious, creative, prepared, and take ownership of your work. I will help guide you throughout your graduate school career, but I expect students to be self-motivated and to genuinely want to be here. Experiment on your own, try to design your own experiments, see if you can come up with your own hypotheses (and then test them!), and come to our meetings prepared with ideas backed by logic. Be willing and ready to work hard, because there’s no getting around the fact that graduate school, while immensely rewarding, requires a lot of hard work and dedication! The greatest measure of success for both of us will be your knowledge surpassing mine on your research topic in conjunction with you developing the confidence to challenge me (and the scientific community at large) when we’re wrong.

• Plan. Spend time thinking about what you want to get done this week, this month, over the next year, and in the next decade. Let’s talk about your plans together to make sure they’re feasible, and don’t be afraid to revise things as necessary when new discoveries or dead-ends inevitably force plans to change.

• Submit at least 1 manuscript (Masters students) or 3 manuscripts (PhD students) before you leave UNR. For better or worse, progress in academia is measured by publications, and I expect you to transform your scientific discoveries into coherent papers to share with the greater scientific community. This is ultimately for your benefit, as your future employers will evaluate you on your publication record should you choose to stay in science.

• Be an active member of our group and one or more of the following groups: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Integrative Neuroscience, Ecology Evolution and Conservation Biology. This includes participating in group meetings, department seminars, journal clubs, and being present in the lab enough that people know you’re part of the team. You have a lot to learn from your peers (and your peers have a lot to learn from you!), so we all benefit when people show up in the office and can interact. That being said, I understand family obligations, sleep habits, and a myriad of other reasons might make it practical for you to work non-traditional hours or work remotely at times – that’s fine so long as we communicate.

• Be willing to apply for external funding. While I will make sure you have financial support for your duration at UNR, I expect eligible students to apply for external funding (e.g., NSF GRFP, others depending on your focus area). This should not be a huge time sink (< 6 weeks/year), and I’ll help you in identifying opportunities and crafting your proposals.

• Don’t be afraid to ask for help. I’m happy to help out (and so are your student colleagues), but we can’t help if we don’t know there’s a problem.

• Mistakes happen. Every scientist has a story about when they inadvertently destroyed their experiment, or had a mistake in a published manuscript. When that happens to you, let me (and your collaborators) know so we can work together to pick up the pieces and get you back on track.

• Be flexible. Science is not a 9 to 5 job, and sometimes you’ll have to work long hours in the lab or field, or to meet a deadline. Take this in stride, and when the hard times pass, reward yourself with a vacation. Ultimately, being a graduate student is a lot like being self-employed; you’re working for yourself, and what you get out is proportional to the effort you put in.

• Be proud of your work and our group. You should hold me to my responsibilities listed above, and if there’s anything about the way we run our group that makes you uncomfortable, don’t hesitate to talk to me. Don’t feel comfortable talking to me? Reach out to another faculty or department member so they can relay the message.