Student opportunities

We are looking for enthusiastic and creative students and postdocs to join the Macaulay Library to pursue questions in behavioral and evolutionary ecology. Are you interested in animal behavior? The evolution of animal signals? The ecological and evolutionary underpinnings of reproductive strategies? The micro- and macroevolutionary consequences of sexual selection? These questions and others can be answered with the archived media in Macaulay Library and other museum collections, and in some cases by field work on birds and other animals. Please see below if you are interested in these topics and would like to join us. We also encourage students interested in curatorial work and public education to join us. Scientific research is increasingly dependent on technology to address these questions, so we encourage engineers and computer scientists to explore these questions with us, too.

We place equal emphasis on doing the research that we love and teaching and training others to become professional scientists and citizens that value science. In addition, students and postdocs in Macaulay Library have opportunities to interact and collaborate with excellent colleagues through our connections to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, as well as good ties to other Cornell Departments such as Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Natural Resources.

Opportunities for Graduate Students and Postdocs

Graduate students and postdocs joining Dr. Mike Webster’s “Weblab” are also part of the Department (or Graduate Field) of Neurobiology and Behavior, and spend time on the main campus as well as at the Lab of Ornithology. Students and postdocs conduct research on a diversity of topics falling within the broad outlines described above. Much of this research is field-based, but some projects rely heavily on using the media specimens and other resources of the Macaulay Library. Although most student projects fall within the major research themes of the Weblab and are focused on birds, we are question-oriented and past student projects have included studies of brood parasitism in ducks, alternative reproductive strategies in sunfish, and even conservation genetics of wild sheep and plants. Contact Mike to learn more.

Opportunities for Undergraduates

We welcome motivated undergraduates interested in obtaining research experience. New students joining the lab are often mentored by a graduate student or postdoc to work on a project. Students often earn course credit for their work. Students who have experience in the lab and show exceptional promise can conduct their own independent research projects. These projects are developed in consultation with the mentor and Mike and often fulfill the requirements of a senior honor’s thesis. Students have also published their work!

The Macaulay Library is an expansive archive of millions of pieces of media submitted by eBirders from around the world. These media are used to build tools like Merlin; used in scientific research; as inspiration for art; and as a learning resource for anyone in the world. To support the work of the Macaulay Library, we are seeking student assistants to help with the following projects listed below. 

For all projects, students are expected to have the following skills:

  • Strong communication and organizational skills.
  • Enthusiasm for birds, birding, and participatory science data collection. 
  • Knowledge of eBird and Merlin.
  • Ability to work independently. 
  • Prior experience with Slack, spreadsheets, word processing software, and data management tools.

Merlin Bird ID

The Machine Learning in Macaulay Library (ML^2) Team is seeking student assistants to help build the annotated training datasets that power the machine learning classification systems of Merlin Sound ID and Photo ID. Students can work on either or both of the following projects:

  • Photo Annotation – Identify birds in photographs and annotate based on a strict protocol, using an online tool.
  • Sound Annotation – Identify birds in audio recordings and annotate based on a strict protocol, using an online tool. Demonstrated expertise in identification of birds by sound is required to work on this.

Depending on the student worker’s interests and availability, additional opportunities related to Merlin may include:

  • Species account review – Select photos and audio from the Macaulay Library to be included in bird species accounts
  • Content translation – If proficient in another language(s), translate species account information into different languages to be included in future updates

Students are expected to work 5 – 10 hours per week, including one weekly meeting with their supervisor over Zoom. Hours may be worked remotely or in person, depending on the agreed upon responsibilities.

Community support and outreach

The eBird and Merlin Engagement Team is seeking a student assistant to create content for eBird and Merlin’s web and social media platforms. Essential job duties include working on: 

  • eBird Reviewer Spotlights – Interview selected eBird Reviewers via email and format their responses into an article to be posted on eBird.org (example here), with the goal of posting one spotlight per month.
  • Macaulay Library Contributor Spotlights – Interview selected sound recordists via email and format their responses into an article to be posted on eBird.org, with the goal of posting one spotlight per month. Interview selected photographers via email and format their responses into a brief social media post with the theme of “the story behind the photograph”, with the goal of one post per week.
  • Posts for eBird and Merlin’s social media accounts – Using images from the Macaulay Library, create birding-themed posts to be shared on Merlin and eBird’s social media accounts, with the goal of one post per week.

Depending on the student worker’s interests and availability, additional opportunities may include:

  • Video content creation – Film and edit videos related to birding, eBird best practices, and major events and updates to be shared on Merlin and eBird’s social media accounts. Film and edit “How to Use Merlin” themed videos to be shared in the help center and on YouTube.

This position will be supervised by Alli Smith and Emily Engle. Students are expected to work 5 – 10 hours per week, including one weekly in-person meeting with their supervisor(s) at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Other hours may be worked remotely or in person.

Macaulay Library archive growth

  • Organize and prioritize analog audio and video for digitization to fill in taxonomic, spatial, behavioral, and temporal gaps in ML archive, digitize analog audio (magnetic reels, cassettes, etc.) and video, process raw digitized audio/video for archival as ML assets using Adobe Audition/Premiere. 

Collections-based research

We are seeking undergraduate students who have an interest in animal behavior. Students will have the opportunity to gain skills in data collection and data analysis techniques using the Macaulay Library collection of sound and video recordings of animal behavior. Students will learn how to collect and utilize media in their research, integrate field and lab methods, and develop computational skills for modern, integrative biology research. Research questions could include, but are not limited to, what is the variation in song in house wrens, do ovenbirds incorporate mimicry in their flight calls, does the song of American robins vary in an individual over its lifetime? Do you desire another topic? With a mentor, you can develop your own research question. If interested, contact Glenn Seeholzer explaining your research interests.

Interested in applying?

  1. Apply to the posting at the link here: https://www.myworkday.com/cornell/d/inst/15158872/992587659.htmld
  2. Email Alli Smith (allismith@cornell.edu) and Glenn Seeholzer (gfs23@cornell.edu) to let us know you’ve applied, and include the project above that you are interested in working on.

Have questions? Email Alli Smith (allismith@cornell.edu)!