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Updated May 2026

We’re always looking for collaborators. Cornell offers a stimulating intellectual environment nestled in the natural beauty of the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York. The lab launched in July 2025 within Cornell’s Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, and works on how populations respond to novel environments across space and time — using a mix of plants, insects, and microbes and a mix of empirical and theoretical approaches.

Postdocs

We’re not actively recruiting at the moment, but we’re happy to sponsor strong candidates for postdoctoral fellowships such as the NSF PRFB or Cornell’s Atkinson Postdoctoral Fellowship. If you’d like to explore a fellowship together, reach out to John with a CV and a short note on what you’re interested in.

Graduate students

The Fall 2026 application window has closed. We will be recruiting a PhD student to start Fall 2027.

If you’re interested in joining the Benning Lab as a PhD student at Cornell, please fill out this short form to share some information about your background and your motivation for joining the lab.

Starting in June, we’ll review submissions during the first two weeks of each month. So if you submit before June 1, you’ll hear from John by the third week in June; if you submit in June, you’ll hear from John by the third week of July, and so on. If you don’t hear back within that window, or if you have a question on a different timeline (e.g., a funding-application deadline or an eligibility question), please reach out to John directly.

Read more about Cornell’s application process here. You can compare stipends across similar graduate programs with this great resource created by Michelle L. Gaynor and Rhett M. Rautsaw.

Undergraduate students

Cornell undergraduates interested in research with the lab should contact John directly. Please include a short note on your background, what you’d like to work on, and your year/major.