Join the Samelson Lab

Our lab welcomes applicants from any race, ethnicity, religion, national origin, gender identity, gender expression, caregiver and family commitments, political affiliation, sexual orientation, and eligible age or disability status. Furthermore, we are committed to maintaining a supportive and collaborative lab environment.

Read more about our lab compact and philosophy.

We are always in the market for motivated and talented people, even if we do not have an open position currently advertised. We are interested in engaging with you in a conversation about your scientific background and goals for your future career (in academia, industry, or other ventures). We strive to provide excellent training across a wide range of computational and experimental techniques. If interested please send your CV/Resume to Dr. Avi Samelson.

Currently we are looking for graduate students and postdocs!!

Graduate Students

At UCLA, students can apply to a single graduate program and do not apply directly to labs. The landscape of life science PhD programs and their admissions processes can be incredibly opaque, so Hersh Bhargava and Jaime Fraser wrote a guide on Applying to Quantitative Biology PhD Programs that has some good information.

The Samelson Lab welcomes students from the following UCLA graduate programs:

• Neuroscience: The UCLA Neuroscience Interdepartmental Program (NSIDP) strives to give its students the necessary tools and perspectives to become leaders in Neuroscience related disciplines. NSIDP succeeds through a didactic curriculum, individualized advising and strong focus on career development. The major focus of the program is on neuroscience related biomedical research at the basic and translational level.
• Molecular Biology Interdepartmental Doctoral Program: The Molecular Biology Interdepartmental Doctoral Program (MBIDP) provides cutting-edge education and hands-on training in Molecular Regulatory Mechanisms that are shared across organisms and are common within a broad range of disciplines. The philosophy of the program stands on the concept that depth within a specialty and interdisciplinary breadth are critical to shape the minds of the future generations of scientific leaders and develop independent thinkers.
• Biochemistry, Molecular, and Structural Biology: The Biochemistry, Molecular, and Structural Biology Program (BMSB) in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry offers a long-standing tradition of excellence in research and PhD student training. It is well-suited for students interested in biological systems and molecules, particularly those who seek a detailed, mechanistic understanding of biological and biochemical phenomena.
• There are other graduate programs at UCLA that we are open to taking students from, please reach out if you are interested in a rotation! ​​

Postdoctoral Fellows

Inquiries about Postdoctoral positions should be emailed directly to Dr. Avi Samelson. We set our postdoctoral fellow compensation to the Stanford rates and encourage candidates to explore applying for extramural fellowships to support their research.

Undergraduate Students

We currently do not have plans to add any more undergraduate students to the lab. But we are always looking for motivated and talented people, so feel free to send your CV/Resume and a short paragraph (it is easy to tell when your paragraph has been assisted by ChatGPT!) about why you want to join the lab to Dr. Avi Samelson.