## Advisor Style & Mentorship Don tailors his style to the student entirely, so if you're the kind of student who needs a hands-on PI guiding you through a project, or you need him to be hands-off and let you do your thing, he adapts. He's a very kind and caring mentor, always asking about you as a person in addition to your research, and supports your taking time for your health (mental/physical), family, etc... He also supports any academic aspirations - whether it's presenting at a conference, TAing a course, etc... as long as they're within reason. For example, he sends many of his undergraduates to conferences to present their research - something many PIs would not do even for graduate students unless they were about to publich / have published.
## Expectations for PhD Students Don has high expectations for his PhD students - it's definitely a work-hard-play-hard atmosphere but in the most "play" kind of way. He won't pressure you, but you will know if you're not getting enough done based on your meetings. Speaking of which, he meets with all of his students every week for a check-in on progress. Intellectually speaking, he expects all of his trainees to be extremely critical - every paper we read should be dissected from both the positive and negative perspectives as should our own work. Additionally, he expects his trainees to be open-minded, collaborative, and very involved in the lab family culture that he fosters.
## Funding & Support Don is well funded and supports trainees who are not able to attain their own grant/fellowship funding without issue, and on the flip-side will absolutely support students in endeavours to attain their own funding.
## Research The research in his lab is varied and very rigorous! Work within his lab covers the gamut of behavior, electrophysiology, and electromyography, with new experimental and computational techniques constantly being developed for taste and smell research. He is also extremely collaborative with other Brandeis PIs, so there are opportunities for theoretical modelling work, hippocampal research, non-rodent work, etc...
## Lab Culture The lab culture is fantastic: he treats his mentees like colleagues and keeps it light, and that fosters great relationships between the people in his lab. Graduate students and postdocs in the lab truly enjoy each others' company and become good friends, often spending time together outside of lab, and Don continues to foster this in various ways such as lab lunches and lab meetings on his porch in the summer.
Don tailors his style to the student entirely, so if you're the kind of student who needs a hands-on PI guiding you through a project, or you need him to be hands-off and let you do your thing, he adapts. He's a very kind and caring mentor, always asking about you as a person in addition to your research, and supports your taking time for your health (mental/physical), family, etc... He also supports any academic aspirations - whether it's presenting at a conference, TAing a course, etc... as long as they're within reason. For example, he sends many of his undergraduates to conferences to present their research - something many PIs would not do even for graduate students unless they were about to publich / have published.
## Expectations for PhD Students
Don has high expectations for his PhD students - it's definitely a work-hard-play-hard atmosphere but in the most "play" kind of way. He won't pressure you, but you will know if you're not getting enough done based on your meetings. Speaking of which, he meets with all of his students every week for a check-in on progress. Intellectually speaking, he expects all of his trainees to be extremely critical - every paper we read should be dissected from both the positive and negative perspectives as should our own work. Additionally, he expects his trainees to be open-minded, collaborative, and very involved in the lab family culture that he fosters.
## Funding & Support
Don is well funded and supports trainees who are not able to attain their own grant/fellowship funding without issue, and on the flip-side will absolutely support students in endeavours to attain their own funding.
## Research
The research in his lab is varied and very rigorous! Work within his lab covers the gamut of behavior, electrophysiology, and electromyography, with new experimental and computational techniques constantly being developed for taste and smell research. He is also extremely collaborative with other Brandeis PIs, so there are opportunities for theoretical modelling work, hippocampal research, non-rodent work, etc...
## Lab Culture
The lab culture is fantastic: he treats his mentees like colleagues and keeps it light, and that fosters great relationships between the people in his lab. Graduate students and postdocs in the lab truly enjoy each others' company and become good friends, often spending time together outside of lab, and Don continues to foster this in various ways such as lab lunches and lab meetings on his porch in the summer.
Yes, I recommend this PI.