Undergraduate Research Program

Our lab accepts a limited number of undergraduate volunteers each semester. These positions are unpaid and flexible, with no set schedule. Before volunteering, students are required to complete a series of safety courses. More information on the required training courses is listed below.

Volunteer Program - How It Works

Once all training requirements are met and submitted, volunteers are added to our email list and will start receiving weekly sign-up sheets with available research opportunities for the following week. Students may sign up for as many or as few sessions as their schedule allows. Many visits last 5+ hours, so students are not always expected to be present for the entire visit. However, if a student signs up for a certain time, they are expected to be there for at least one hour.

The lab's research schedule varies largely from week to week. Most weeks there will only be a few study visits, but there will be some weeks where there are plenty of timeslots to choose from and some with no undergraduate opportunities at all. This is why it is important to check the sign-up sheets weekly and keep an eye out for opportunities that line up with your availability.

New volunteers begin by shadowing experienced lab members. Gaining hands-on experience takes time, and students are generally expected to commit at least one full semester before earning that level of responsibility. Volunteering in our lab requires patience, reliability, and consistency, but for those who invest the time, it’s a valuable and rewarding experience. Once they have shown commitment and reliability, many of our undergraduate students progress to work one-on-one with one of our professors on a specific research project.

Required Trainings

These trainings are required for all undergraduate students and will ensure you and participants remain safe while involved with research. All these trainings are free, and you should be able to access them easily. Please see below for more information on each.

Please note: This is only a brief overview of the required courses. Do not attempt to register and complete them on your own using only the information below. To request step-by-step instructions, please complete the form at the bottom of this page.

LSU Environmental Health & Safety (EHS) Training

This online training series provides an overview of lab safety protocols and guidelines that you must follow while volunteering. You can register by using the link above and selecting "EHSA Training Portal". The courses required for undergraduates are listed below:

Basic Laboratory Safety
Hazardous Waste Training
Emergency Response Training
Chemical Safety Orientation
HIPAA
Basic Bio-Safety
Blood-borne Pathogens
Hazard Communication

These courses need to be renewed every 12 months to continue volunteering in the lab.

CITI (Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative) Biomedical Research Training

This training covers ethical standards for research and is required for all lab volunteers. It helps you understand the responsibilities and ethical considerations when conducting research.

The CITI certificate is valid for 3 years.

In-Person Pipette Training

This training is done in-person and takes about 3 hours. Students can only move on to this part of the training after they have submitted certificates for all of the online courses listed above. Once you submit your online training certificates, you should reach out to the lab manager to schedule your in-person pipette training.

In-person training only needs to be completed once when the student first joins the lab.

How To Get Started

The first step in becoming a volunteer is to use the form below to request our official Undergraduate Volunteer Guide, which contains step-by-step instructions on how to register for and complete the online training courses listed above. Once you receive the volunteer guide from the lab manager, you will need to complete parts 1 & 2 of the online training courses listed above (LSU EHS & CITI) and submit the certificates using the online submission form. Once you submit your online training certificates, you should reach out to the lab manager to schedule your in-person pipette training.