PhD students
At the moment I am accepting applications of prospective graduate students who are collaborative and hard working, have good quantitative skills and, most importantly, are highly enthusiastic about their studies (after all, being a graduate student requires a lot of hard work and why do it if you are not even excited about it). I encourage graduate students to develop their own projects that may or may not be related to my own research. Research topics range from community ecology to evolutionary ecology and include empirical as well as theoretical work. If you are interested in our research I encourage you to contact me ahead of time so that we can talk about your application and opportunities of being a graduate student at Rice and to give me a chance to answer your questions. You can find more detailed information about the Rice graduate program here (and less serious information about life as a graduate student in general at PhD cartoons). There are several opportunities for students to apply for their own funding even before they start their PhD and I generally encourage students to apply for those (e.g. NSF Pre-doc).
Undergraduate Research
Research is one of the most important parts of undergraduate education in sciences and you should get as much first hand experience as possible. Getting involved in research is exciting because you actively contribute to science and make new discoveries every day. Most of my research is in the area of community ecology (including behavioral ecology), evolutionary ecology and disease ecology. Most of my work is done in aquatic ecosystems including anything from copepods to dragonfly larvae to salamanders. If you are interested in our research and want to participate in our field/laboratory, or theoretical work or if want to develop an independent research project I encourage you to contact me to discuss what research opportunities best match your needs. Some of the different research venues include (but are not limited to):
- BIOS 306 Independent
study/research
Students can take 1-4 research credits and are expected to spend three hours per week for each research credit. Each student is expected to collect and analyze data and write a research paper in a scientific paper format. This can also be a great start to develop ideas for your Undergraduates honors research - BIOS 403/404 Undergraduate
honors research
Together with me you will develop an independent research project that you will carry out, analyze and write up in a research paper. Most students that carry out their honor research projects with me work on questions related to my own work. The projects can be laboratory experiments or field work in the local Houston area or my other field sites or both. Students with good mathematical skills are also encouraged to include modeling work examining exciting questions in ecology and evolution. Most projects require a commitment for two semesters and you should start thinking about them and talk to me early on.
All the work we will do is aimed for publication and/or for presentations at scientific meetings which I encourage you to attend (they are actually fun and a good way to meet some prospective PhD advisors) - Field assistant
There are often times when I will be looking for students to assist me in the field during the summer. This is a great way of gaining research experience, getting your hands dirty, learning more about nature and having fun while doing science. Look out for postings for field assistant positions that come up.
Post doctoral collaborations
Depending on the funding conditions, I will occasionally be looking for post docs for specific projects. In general, post docs will work on specified research projects, but I encourage you to develop and work on independent projects during that time. There are plenty of other opportunities for post docs to get their own funding through fellowships are grants. If you are interested in our research, I encourage you to contact me to discuss different funding venues.