Open most academic lab websites to the people page and the bios read the same way: name, degree, institution, a sentence copied from a CV about research interests, sometimes ending mid-thought. They’re accurate and completely forgettable. A prospective student skimming five different lab pages in one evening won’t remember any of them, because there’s nothing to remember — no voice, no specificity, nothing that couldn’t apply to a dozen other people in the field.
The CV-summary format is the problem
A bio built by lightly editing a CV entry reads like a CV entry, because that’s what it is. It lists credentials in the order they happened rather than telling a reader anything about how this person thinks or what they’re actually excited about right now. Credentials matter, but they belong in a linked CV, not as the entire content of the bio itself.
A better structure, in four parts
A bio that actually reads as a person usually has four things: what the person is working on right now, described in a sentence a non-specialist could follow; what got them interested in it, in a sentence or two, which is often the most human part of the whole bio; one specific detail — a technique they’re known for, a side project, a genuinely held opinion about their subfield; and, optionally, one line that has nothing to do with research at all. That structure fits in four or five sentences and takes most people about ten minutes to write once they have the prompts in front of them.
Let members write their own
The fastest way to get bios that sound like actual people is to have each person write their own, rather than having the PI or lab manager draft all of them in a uniform style. A short template with the four prompts above removes the “I don’t know what to say” blank-page problem, and the PI can do a quick pass afterward for consistency without rewriting anyone’s voice out of it.
Undergrads and rotation students shouldn’t be skipped
It’s common for lab pages to only list grad students, postdocs, and the PI, leaving undergrads and rotation students off entirely. A shorter version — name, year, one sentence on what they’re working on — takes two minutes to write and does two things: it makes the lab look active and growing to a prospective student browsing the page, and it gives the undergrad something concrete to link to from their own applications later.
Photos matter as much as the text
A bio next to a blurry, cropped conference photo undercuts even well-written text. It doesn’t need to be a professional headshot — a decent phone photo in good light works fine, the same standard that applies to a lab’s broader media kit — but it should be current and show the person clearly.
Keep the page itself easy to scan
A people page with fifteen dense paragraphs is as hard to get through as one with fifteen CV summaries. Short bios with clear breaks between people, consistent formatting, and a linked CV or Google Scholar profile for anyone who wants the full detail keeps the page inviting rather than exhausting to read in one sitting, which matters most for the prospective students it’s usually written for.
The payoff is specific, not immediate
A better bio doesn’t generate an obvious metric the way a blog post view count does. What it does is make the difference, in a prospective student’s mind, between a lab that feels like a group of specific people doing specific work and one that feels like a list of names attached to a research area. That difference is exactly what tips a rotation decision when a student is choosing between labs whose research areas otherwise look similar on paper.
Common questions
How long should a lab member bio be?
Three to five sentences is enough for most members. A PI's bio can run slightly longer, but even that rarely needs more than a short paragraph plus a CV link for anyone who wants the full detail.
Should bios include hobbies or personal details?
One line is usually enough, and it's optional, not required. A short detail like an interest outside the lab makes a bio memorable, but a bio that's mostly personal details with the research mentioned in passing has the balance backwards.
Who should write each bio, the member or the PI?
The member, ideally, since it's their voice and their framing of their own interests. A short template with a few prompts makes this faster for members who aren't sure where to start, and the PI can do a light edit pass at the end.
Do undergrads and rotation students need full bios too?
A shorter version works well: name, year, one sentence on what they're working on. It doesn't need the same depth as a grad student or postdoc bio, but leaving them off the page entirely misses a chance to make the lab feel active and growing.