It is a great idea to get involved in research as an undergraduate. Classroom work builds essential foundations for scientific learning while working in an actual research laboratory teaches resiliency and creativity and offers a chance to see how actual science is done (not just how it looks in textbooks or movies).
Finding a lab
The Kirchdoerfer lab is great but we certainly are not the only great lab at UW-Madison. Go through faculty webpages linking through department and institute homepages. Some good places to start if you’re interested in the Kirchdoerfer lab’s research:
Institute for Molecular Virology
Center for Quantitative Cell Imaging
Contacting a lab
Most labs do not actively post for new undergraduate researchers, they count on you to reach out to them. Email the head of the lab (Robert Kirchdoerfer, rnkirchdoerf[at]wisc.edu) with a brief paragraph about why you want to join the lab. Be specific! What do you hope to learn? Why do you want to do research? What are your career goals and how will this experience help with them? If there is a specific aspect of the lab’s research that caught your eye, mention that you are interested in it. Lab heads are likely to disregard non-specific cookie cutter requests as spam.
Attach a copy of your resume/CV. Most students are not going to have specific research experience; that’s okay! What I look for in student resumes/CVs are experiences that demonstrate that you can be task oriented, work with others or deal with challenging situations. Previous jobs, volunteer activities or other projects are great things to be included.
Attach a copy of your (unofficial) transcript. We do not use a GPA cutoff to evaluate students for the lab. However, we do keep an eye on whether students may be struggling academically prior to joining the lab. Undergraduate research requires a significant time commitment and we will not intentionally overburden already struggling students.
Hearing back
I do my best to get back to students quickly. Admittedly, often the answer is “No”. This is almost never a reflection on the student. Rather, we have a limited number of spots for new undergraduate researchers (maybe 1-2 per year, sometimes none) and we don’t have the capacity to give everyone an opportunity that would like one. I take down the name of everyone who asks and if a position opens up, I follow up to see if they are still interested.
Just because one lab says they cannot take you on does not mean that you are not destined for great things in scientific research. Keep looking, keep applying. Good luck!
You can find more tips and advice for undergraduates and undergraduate research at the Biochemistry-Microbiology Advising Hub
You can also check out our lab’s expectations for undergraduate researchers here.