Question 1

Are you accepting a graduate student applicant for Fall 2026?

Accepted Answer

Yes! The SABIN Lab is looking to ideally recruit two graduate students for the Fall 2026 application cycle. Please reach out to Dr. Evans directly (tce0018@auburn.edu) if you are interested in applying to work in the SABIN Lab.

If it seems like a good potential fit, I am happy to schedule a time to meet with prospective applicants to discuss our research and other questions you might have.

Question 2

What would make me a good "fit" for the SABIN Lab?

Accepted Answer

I will start by saying that I think that there are multiple ways in which someone can be a good fit for our lab. In other words, there is no one single graduate student "prototype" . However, I do think there are a number of factors that would make an applicant a good "fit" for our lab more generally.

Overall, I want to work with graduate students who are curious, hard-working, and eager to learn. Additionally, I view our laboratory as an inclusive and welcoming environment in which people genuinely enjoy working with one another. Based on that, we are interested in graduate students who work well with others (i.e., not hyper-competitive) and those who value building a warm/supportive work environment for others in addition to being successful in their own careers.

In terms of skillset, I do not expect graduate student applicants to have experience in all, or even necessarily one, of the methods that we use in the lab (e.g., fMRI, TMS,  experimental paradigms, etc.). At a minimum, someone who is a good fit in the lab would be need to be strongly interested in learning how to use these methods.  However, competitive applicants will usually have either 1) some degree of hands-on experience with one of these methods, or 2) direct experience in other domains that are highly relevant in our research  (e.g., programming, performing clinical interviews, etc.).  All that to say, having experience in one or more of the methods our lab uses is a big plus, but we are also interested in highly motivated students who are eager to learn these methods and/or have training in other skillsets of interest.

In terms of research interests more generally, given the clinical science emphasis of our research, I would say that graduate students who are primarily interested in clinical treatment research would probably not find our lab to be a great fit for their careers.  That being said, graduate students who are interested in developing or implementing novel treatments could certainly find a strong fit with our lab depending on the specific research questions they want to pursue (e.g., more mechanism-focused treatments).

If you have any questions about fit with our lab, you can also feel free to reach out directly (tce0018@auburn.edu) ((tce0018@auburn.edu))and we can set up a time to discuss.

Question 3

Do I need to have MRI/TMS/Etc. experience to be a competitive applicant for your lab?

Accepted Answer

Although experience in fMRI and/or TMS is certainly a plus, there is no requirement or expectation that applicants come into graduate school with these experiences. Additionally, there are several arms of our research that do not involve fMRI or TMS. These studies primarily use methods like self-report data, reaction time measures, and/or eye tracking. Therefore, we are also open to prospective graduate students for whom neuroscience methods are not a central interest. Training mentees is something that I genuinely enjoy and I am happy to provide you with the training that you need to be successful in the lab.

That being said, I would say that prospective graduate students should be interested in experimental psychopathology methods more generally and should be highly motivated to learn (at least to some degree) the skillsets that are important to our work in the lab, whether that is conducting clinical interviews, mentoring junior trainees in the lab, or things like programming.

Overall, I want every mentee in my lab to have a positive training experience during graduate school, which means that realistically you should already have some hands-on exposure to at least one of the methods/skills we use in our lab including, but not limited to: TMS, fMRI, EEG, clinical interviews, statistical analysis, programming, etc. In other words, I believe that applicants who do not have experience in ANY of these skillsets will find it extremely challenging and stressful to learn multiple new skillsets from scratch while balancing the other rigors of graduate training. For example, an applicant who already has direct experience with conducting clinical interviews will have an easier time focusing on learning new skills such as fMRI data processing, whereas it will be more difficult to simultaneously learn to conduct clinical interviews while also learning how to process fMRI data. Therefore, competitive applicants do not need to necessarily have experience in neuroscience methods per se, but these applicants would then need to have some experience in other relevant methods such as clinical interviews, statistical analysis, etc.

Question 4

What if I am mostly interested in a clinical career?

Accepted Answer

Overall, I would say that applicants who have already decided to pursue a career primarily focused on providing clinical services may not have the best fit with our lab's goals given the more mechanistic emphasis of our work. However, I think it is important to note that I am fully supportive of students in our lab who ultimately decide to transition towards a clinical career throughout their graduate training. My support for these transitions comes from the basic reality that people and their goals often change over time, so these types of career pivots are expected and should be supported by mentors. That is true now more than ever given the extremely distressed climate of academic research that we find ourselves living in at the moment. As a result, I encourage all of my mentees, even those strongly interested in pursuing academic careers,  to complete sufficient clinical training to provide more flexibility in their careers.

Question 5

What is your approach to mentorship/mentoring style?

Accepted Answer

Mentorship is one of the aspects of my job that I find most personally rewarding, which I try to reflect in my mentorship approach. Most broadly as a mentor, I view graduate students as junior colleagues who offer exciting and diverse insights both in and beyond the laboratory.  I would describe my mentorship style as personalized and relationship-focused, which I will describe below in more detail below.

In terms of a personalized mentorship style, I recognize that every graduate student is a unique individual, which means that a "one-size-fits-all" approach to mentorship will not work for the majority of graduate students. Some graduate students thrive with more hands-on mentorship, whereas other graduate students thrive with more autonomy.  Additionally, every graduate student has a unique profile of relative strengths/weaknesses, which means graduate students also dramatically vary in what specific area they need the greatest amount of mentorship (e.g., academic writing, career development,  clinical skills, etc.). Even the same graduate student will change and evolve throughout their time in the lab, so what type of mentorship works best for you as a first-year will probably look very different than what type of mentorship works best for you as a fifth-year. As a result, I do my best to tailor my mentorship to meet each graduate student where they are at currently and where they are looking to go in the future.

In terms of a relationship-focused mentorship style,  I believe that the mentor-mentee relationship is just that, a relationship that has basic needs, dynamics to navigate, and is fundamentally built on shared trust. I do not believe that people can effectively grow as clinical researchers (or as people more generally) in a mentor-mentee relationship that is negligent, fraught, or toxic. As a result, I  prioritize establishing and developing healthy, professional relationships with my mentees that are fundamentally built on a shared belief that we each genuinely value one another's success and personal well-being. To this end, I have regular check-ins with mentees, not only about the work we do together, but about how we are doing in our mentor-mentee relationship. At the end of the day, my hope is that we build a strong, positive relationship that we maintain throughout our respective careers.

Question 6

Can I reach out to you with questions about applying to your lab?

Accepted Answer

Please do! You can reach me at tce0018@auburn.edu. Please send along a copy of your CV with your email.

Question 7

What is it like to live in Auburn?

Accepted Answer

That is a good question and one that I am admittedly still figuring out myself having only recently started living in the area myself! Based on my limited experience so far, I think that April Smith's description on her lab website does a great job in providing an overview of what it is like to live in Auburn (https://www.redslab.org/living-in-auburn)(https://www.redslab.org/living-in-auburn).

To give you a sense of my personal perspective, I have lived in both metropolitan (Dallas, Miami, and Boston) as well as more rural (East Texas) settings. As a college town, I find that Auburn falls somewhere between those extremes of the continuum. One of the things I have enjoyed so far about this type of setting is a sense of community that you can "feel" in your day-to-day life, which has been a very positive experience compared to what I am used to during my time living in larger cities.  Also worth noting is that Auburn offers a very large amount of scenic nature and beautiful outdoor activities. Additionally, the cost of living is MUCH lower compared to larger cities like Boston or Miami, which means you can enjoy a higher standard of living during your time as a graduate student. You can also get between almost any two locations in Auburn/Opelika with a 10-15 minute drive, which spares you the mind-numbing misery of gridlock traffic on your daily commute. Despite the relatively small size of Auburn, you can also still find things like craft breweries and cool coffeeshops that you might find in a larger city.

Of course, every location has its upsides and its downsides. To be transparent with you, Auburn does not have the vibrant night life of a city like Miami, the deep historical culture of city like Boston, or a populous art scene. Although you can take a day trip/weekend trip to a larger city like Atlanta for a bigger city experience (a 1.5 hour drive away),  you will not find a metropolitan experience in Auburn. If those types of experiences are important to you during the next 4-5 years of your life (and it is completely valid if they are) then living in Auburn may not be ideal. Also worth noting is that Auburn has a distinct "college town" culture, that may or may not be your personal cup of tea, which is also an important factor to consider when deciding to whether to move here.

All that being said, your mileage may vary in terms of how important each of these factors are to your decision making process, so ultimately there is no "one size fits all" answer as to how much you would enjoy living in Auburn. Of course, this is something I would be more than happy to discuss further with you if it is a point of concern/curiosity and I certainly appreciate that it is an important factor when deciding where to attend graduate school.