To join our lab
We always welcome motivated bachelor and master students to spend their internship in the lab. Working with animals can be demanding, requiring long hours and also long periods, but rewarding nonetheless.
Students must guarantee willingness and responsablity in working in our lab and respect the regulation for ethic and conduct. We usually have visiting students from abroad, thus we encourage students to speak English in the Lab. Moreover, the majority of literature on animal cognition is in English.
Training and testing days strictly depend on the research project and cannot be modified depending on the student necessities. Moreover, students must always come once a day, even when not testing, for taking care of the animals. Some projects also require testing on the weekend.
The access to the Lab must be preceded by a period of preparation for work with animals and to the obtaining of official authorization which usually require a time-window unsuitable for bachelor student. However, we welcome very motivated students who whish to conduct a research traineeship/thesis with us.
The experiments on invertebrates are all performed in "Esapolis' living insect museum" (via dei Colli, 21, Padua, Italy). Most of the data are collected during spring and summer (March to August), given the fact that we work on indigenous, field caught species, which tend to disappear or go into diapause during winter.
Anyway is important for interested students to contact the lab before March, in order to start familiarizing with methodologies and equipment, write the experimental project and set up their work.
The students will also be involved in the communication of sciences, in public events held in the museum (like the researcher's night) or in internal journal clubs, in order to develop their presentation skills.