Join the lab

If you’re interested in joining the Mackay + Matthews lab, you should just write to us and let us know why you’re interested in joining the lab and in what capacity. All applicants should include: (i) a full CV, (ii) academic transcripts (including information on your ranking in your cohort – e.g., I was 5th out of 75 students in my BSc and 2nd out of 40 in my MSc) and (iii) the contact details of 3 academic referees, (iv) your laboratory experience and technical skills. You should also make it clear why you are writing to us in particular, indicate what you have read of our published work and which part of it you are interested in (and why). We’d note that receive many enquiries from people wanting to come to the lab, and probably 90% of them don’t provide us with any confidence that they have done any due diligence on the lab or that the enquiry isn’t just one member of a mass email campaign (or that they’ve even read this page!). That strategy is not one that will encourage us to respond positively…

Depending on what sort of position you’re looking for, there are other things you should know:

Prospective BSc(Hons) students
Honour students, who do a one-year research-focused course (typically as the fourth year of their undergraduate degree), can start either in Feb or in July. You need to fulfil certain requirements regarding your undergraduate record to be eligible for Honours.

Prospective PhD/MSc students
As a PhD/MSc student, you will need a scholarship to cover your living costs and your tuition fees. For local students, the RTP scholarshiop provides these – the stipend is AUD38,000 per year (for 2024). This is roughly what it costs to live in Sydney in a shared house or similar. There is almost always the opportunity to earn a bit more (~AUD5,000 p.a.) by doing some undergraduate lab tutoring. For international students, the tuition fees are high – getting up towards AUD45,000 per year. You can apply for the RTP scholarship as well. Again, these are *very* competitive, so you will need to have very high grades to have any chance of getting one – roughly in the top 10% or so of your cohort. You will also need to have completed a substantial research project and written a thesis in English (that has been graded) to be eligible. 

Prospective postdocs
Postdoc positions can either work if you can obtain a fellowship of your own or if we are able to pay your salary from grant funds. Generally, our funds are committed each year, but opportunities can arise as people come and go from the lab – or when grants come in. If you are an international applicant, you should explore the possibilities for fellowships from your own country. As a local applicant, the NHRMC Investigator scheme and ARC DECRA scheme are the two main sources of fellowships, although some opportunities do exist from charitable organizations (such as cancer foundations). You should look these up. Im general, they are very competitive so you would need to have a strong track record relative to opportunity. Contact us if you have any questions.