We are  always looking for motivated, enthusiastic students to join our vibrant and active lab.  We are a multicultural, multi-lingual lab group and we pride ourselves on fostering an inclusive, welcoming and supportive environment. We welcome new members from all backgrounds, genders and orientations.

Honours, masters and PhD projects will usually focus on some aspect of insect behaviour or ecology. At the moment, research opportunities fall into several areas:

Understanding colony resilience in social insects and slime moulds. This includes research on ant, bee and slime mould transportation networks, supply chains and social networks. Projects in this area can be  field, lab or computer based, depending on the interests and aptitudes of the student.

The role of native insects in crop pollination, particularly in urban agricultural systems: We know almost nothing about the ecology of native insects (mainly bees and hoverflies) in Australia, so there are many opportunities to develop projects aimed at determining the extent to which native insects are involved in crop pollination. 

Understanding how flower visiting insects choose flowers: We are interested in understanding which factors influence the preferences of flower-visiting insects. To accomplish this, we borrow tools and frameworks from behavioural economics and marketing.

I'm also happy to discuss projects in areas not listed here including (but not limited to): invertebrate conservation, collective behaviour and swarm intelligence, slime mould behaviour and ecology, velvet worm behaviour and ecology, soldier flies as bioconverters.   If you think you might be interested in becoming a student in the lab, the first step is to have a good look at my publications page; this will give you a general idea of the kind of projects I typically work on. Also have a look at the 'People' page, as it lists the projects students in my lab are currently working on. Next, contact me! My email address is: tanya.latty@sydney.edu.au. I am happy to discuss potential projects.

I also have a number of volunteer opportunities. If you are an undergraduate student interested in getting some experience in a research environment, please drop me an email!