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Your journey starts here

A graduate degree is not a checklist. It is a journey, and it starts with one email.

What I offer, and what I expect

You will get

A supervisor who is present. Regular one-on-one meetings, honest and constructive feedback on everything you write and present, hands-on access to a working nuclear reactor, and a deliberate apprenticeship in communication, problem solving, and professionalism. My students come first; that is how I run the lab.

You will bring

Curiosity, honesty, and the willingness to work at hard problems without giving up on the first failure. You do not need to arrive as a polished researcher; that is what the degree is for. You do need to care where your work is going: who it will help, what you are building, and the researcher you want to become.

Pathways into the lab

I welcome inquiries at every level, at any time of year. Positions are filled as fit and funding align, so a strong inquiry is never wasted.

Undergraduate

Volunteers and summer research

Get into a real lab before you graduate. Volunteer placements and summer research positions (e.g., NSERC USRA) are a low-risk way to find out whether research is for you; several of my volunteers went on to graduate degrees and awards.

Graduate

MASc positions

A two-year research degree and the most common entry point to the lab. Projects span reactor science, detection, fuel chemistry, and dosimetry, and most come with funding support.

Graduate

PhD positions

For those ready to own a research question for four years. PhD students in this lab publish, present internationally, and graduate into national laboratories, industry, the CAF, and academia.

Postdoctoral

Postdoctoral fellowships

Fellowships are arranged around funded projects and fellowship competitions. If your expertise touches the lab's research areas, I am glad to discuss what a fellowship here could look like.

Serving members of the Canadian Armed Forces are especially welcome; a large share of my graduate students study while serving, and the lab's work feeds directly back into the defence nuclear community.

How to apply: one email, three attachments

No forms, no portals. Send me an email with:

  1. Your CV. Grades matter, but so do jobs, sports, service, and anything else that shows how you work.
  2. A one-page summary of you. Who you are, what you want to work on, and where you see your career going. Please name one of my research areas or a paper that draws you, and say why. It does not need to be polished or final; it needs to be honest, and it needs to show me you have looked at the work. This page tells me more than any transcript.
  3. An unofficial transcript, if you have one handy. A screenshot or PDF from your student portal is fine; official copies can wait until later.

I read every serious inquiry and I reply. If your interests fit the lab, we set up a conversation; if they fit better elsewhere, I will try to point you in the right direction.

Send it to:

Two small but important details for your subject line. When the email opens, it already reads "Joining the Corcoran Nuclear Lab - SLOWPOKE - YOUR FULL NAME IN CAPITALS." Please: 1) keep the word SLOWPOKE in it, and 2) replace the end with your full name in capital letters (e.g., "Joining the Corcoran Nuclear Lab - SLOWPOKE - JORDAN A. SMITH"). Together these tell me a real person wrote the email and make sure your application reaches the top of my inbox rather than the spam pile.

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Email Dr. Corcoran