students and postdocs

For those interested in joining the lab, the recommended “reading” list is:

• Exploring complexity (see here). Classic introduction to a broad array of complexity science and mathematical biology.
• Stochastic Processes in Physics and Chemistry (see here). The go-to book for learning stochastic methods for biochemical kinetics.
• Approximation and inference methods for stochastic biochemical kinetics—a tutorial review (see here). Great review on stochastic methods for gene regulatory mechanisms.
• Diversity and Complexity (see here). Fun read on the role of diversity across biological and social systems.
• Robustness and Evolvability in Living Systems (see here). One of James’ favorite books in science—emphasizes the importance of robustness across multiple scales of biology.
• The Complex World: An Introduction to the Foundations of Complexity Science (see here). Contemporary summary of the philosophy underlying complex systems science.
• Synergetics: Introduction and Advanced Topics (see here). Another of James’ favorites—a summary of many of the methods used in the $R^3$ lab, accompanied by a deep philosophy of self-organizing systems.
• An Introduction to Mathematical Modelling (see here). A great start to understanding why we use mathematical models, and why they are useful.
• The Night Science Podcast (see here). Inspiring podcast by Itai Yanai and Martin Lercher centered around taking Science seriously as a creative process.
• Why Science Demands a Leap into the Unknown (see here). TED talk by Uri Alon highlighting the non-linear path of scientific progress.

More reading materials, on more specific topics of research, can be provided by the PI.

All people considering joining the lab should be proficient in both basic/intermediate scientific programming and mathematical methods. All members of the lab should take interest in both computational and mathematical approaches to theoretical biology.

Interested graduate or undergraduate students should feel welcome to send James an email declaring their interest. Please include a CV, and please keep the email short and to-the-point. Emails that appear to be AI generated, or overly verbose, may be ignored. Students are expected to engage on topics of joint interest with the PI. Graduate students should apply to either the Ecology & Evolutionary Biology (see here) or Computational & Systems Biology (see here) graduate programs at WashU.

If you are interested in joining the lab as a postdoc, please feel to send James an email containing a research statement and CV. Due to the pressures placed on the academic advancement of postdocs, I advise postdocs come to the lab with their own research plan (which should overlap with the interests of the PI). In this way, postdocs in the $R^3$ lab develop their own research program in collaboration with the PI, which will be necessary for their future employment and career advancement.