Join us!

We welcome inquiries from prospective graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, and undergraduate students.

We are an inclusive and collaborative group motivated by curiosity and learning. We value creativity, wonder, and respect when probing new and long-standing questions in evolutionary ecology.

If you are interested in joining my lab, please reach out to me via email with your CV, and a few sentences on what excites and motivates you, and what about my lab interests you.

Current openings

The Usui Lab will open its doors at Yale EEB in January 2027! We are currently looking for a prospective graduate student (to start in September 2027; applications due December 1) and a postdoctoral researcher (to start anytime from January 2027).

Prospective graduate students: If you are interested in joining my lab, please check out the Yale EEB graduate program for details on how to formally apply. Students will need to contact their prospective advisor before applying to the graduate program (the admission deadline is December 1).

Prospective postdoctoral scholars: We are searching for a postdoctoral scholar who is excited about eco-evolutionary dynamics in plant populations and communities and/or in plant-microbe communities. Research themes include, but are not limited to, how species interactions shape (and are shaped by) eco-evolutionary processes across space and in response to global change, how species interactions shape plant invasion dynamics, and how plant and plant-microbe communities assemble and evolve to coexist.

The postdoctoral scholar will use duckweeds and/or the duckweed-microbe system as an experimental model in the lab and/or in the field, including, but not limited to lab microcosm, outdoor mesocosm, or field-based approaches. We are ideally looking for candidates with expertise in experimental approaches and who are excited to incorporate molecular (e.g., genomic, epigenomic) and/or microbial approaches to ecological and evolutionary research. Please get in touch!