Join the team!

Thanks for your interest in our research program.

Post Doc Openings

If you are looking for a postdoctoral experience that will prepare you for a faculty position, consider our research group. I take academic mentorship seriously, helping postdocs learn how to carry out and lead research projects, how to write research proposals, and how to identify intellectual property that is worth commercializing. Contact me about availability of Research Associate positions.

Graduate Student Openings

We welcome highly motivated graduate students that want to make a difference. We are one of the most multidisciplinary research groups on campus with members and alumni from Physics, Applied Physics, Physical, Inorganic, and Analytical Chemistry, Electrical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Materials Science, and Biology. The group atmosphere is very friendly, cooperative, and motivated. There is a strong emphasis on individual professional development, where all participants develop a broad range of skills, learn from successes as well as from failures, and celebrate each other’s achievements. Projects usually involve two to three students, with one serving as the group leader. This arrangement serves to train new students, and more senior students learn to become effective mentors and leaders.

We hire transfer students!

Are you a graduate student who feels unappreciated, not living up to your full potential, or in a research group that has the ‘wrong’ atmosphere? Do you feel you could be more productive and successful in a constructive, informal, non-bureaucratic multidisciplinary group atmosphere that is simultaneously high-intensity, and supportive? If so, contact me. Some of the best members of our research group transferred from other research groups. Are you in a graduate research situation that satisfies your professional goals? Does your advisor care what those goals may be? I ask each of the students entering the group about their goals and ambitions, and then follow up on a yearly basis. My interest is to help you achieve your goal, and can tailor your projects depending on your interests (academia, industry, government research or starting your own company). Feel free to contact me at dantus@msu.edu.

Undergraduate Research Opportunities

Hopefully you are a freshman or sophomore student, undergraduate student mentoring takes quite a bit of time and effort and this is why I prefer not to take upperclassmen. When undergrads join they are paired with a graduate student or postdoc working on a research project, and this is how they learn about the labs. We also have a weekly meeting for group members that have been in the group for less than one year. In these meetings we discuss key aspects about laser technology and how to move ahead in research. When undergraduates make a significant contribution to their research projects they are listed as coauthors in publications. Our group has over 30 publications with undergraduate students (two with high school students). Many of our undergraduate students have continued on in successful careers in graduate school (Harvard, MIT, St Andrews, and several Medical Schools). If this sounds interesting to you, send me an email about working with us. We are an intense but very fun group of people. If you would like to work on a project for credit, I would be happy to work with you to develop a project topic within these guidelines.

PhD Fellowships Available!

For information about applying to the MSU Chemistry Department's Graduate Program click here.

For information about applying to the MSU Physics and Astronomy Department's Graduate Program click here.

Diversity and Under-represented Minority

For under-represented minority and female researchers seeking a scientific research career. Links to information about various resources are provided below:

Association for Women in Science (AWIS).

Committee on the Status of Women in Physics (CSWP).

Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU).

Historically Black Colleges & Universities (HBCU).

National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering (NACME).

National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education (NAFEO).

National Center for Research Resources - Research Centers in Minority Institutions (RCMI).

National Organization for Black Chemists & Chemical Engineers (NOBCChE).

National Postdoctoral Association (NPA).

Society for the Advancement of Chicanos & Native Americans in Science (SACNAS).

The National GEM Consortium (Underrepresented groups in Science and Engineering).