Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences

Huck seeks grad students for immersive facility assistantships

Jessica Thompson, a chemistry graduate student, gestures to a display during her 2025-26 assistantship with the Cryo-Electron Microscopy Facility. Credit: Dan Lesher / Penn State. Creative Commons

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences, in partnership with the J. Jeffrey and Ann Marie Fox Graduate School, is seeking applicants for four half-time (20-hour) graduate assistantships within Huck Core Facilities during the fall 2026 semester.

Graduate assistants will be placed in a single Huck core facility, chosen by the student, for hands-on experience with that facility’s technologies and applications. The assistants will contribute to projects involving the development, optimization, or application of methods and technologies within the selected facility. Depending on the facility, responsibilities may also include supporting user projects to broaden technical expertise. Assistantship work must be independent of the students’ dissertation research and may not involve projects from their laboratories.

"These graduate assistantships provide students with a unique, hands-on opportunity to work within our core facilities,” said Craig Praul, director of core facilities at the Huck. “The skills and experience they gain will strengthen their graduate research and enhance their competitiveness in the job market."

The Huck Institutes operates 11 Core Facilities:

Applicants must be full-time Ph.D. students who have passed their comprehensive exam in a relevant field. A letter of support from their faculty adviser is required. Ideal candidates will have prior experience with the selected core facility or a related area, ensuring mutual benefit for both the student and the facility.

The assistantship covers the cost of a grade of 15 half-time stipend, full post-comprehensive tuition and health insurance for one semester, with the possibility of renewal for one additional semester. Applications may be made using the online form. Opportunities may vary by core each semester, and applicants are encouraged to reapply in future semesters.