Graduate research opportunities

EEB Graduate Student Opportunities in Research Labs - Fall, 2012

Please refer to the EEB graduate faculty website to learn more about the research of EEB graduate faculty. Many of our faculty are looking for new students every year. Below is a list of faculty who are looking for students in specific areas with their personal statements. Funding is often available on their research projects.

Dr. Mark Bee

Research in my lab focuses on animal acoustic communication. The general questions we address are (1) how do animals encode information about themselves in acoustic signals? (2) how do animals acquire information about other conspecifics through the perception of acoustic signals? (3) how do these processes function in natural habitats and noisy social environments? and (4) how have these processes evolved? Currently, anuran amphibians represent the principal study organisms in the lab, but work with other taxa is always a possibility. I am interested in recruiting a new student to the lab. For more information on my research projects, visit my lab website: http://www.tc.umn.edu/~mbee.

Dr. Elizabeth Borer

I expect to recruit 1-2 graduate students to join my lab in Fall 2011. Research in my lab is diverse, but generally focused on the ways in which fertilization, consumers, and diseases control biodiversity. I have a few ongoing experimental projects at the moment including (1) examining the drivers, impacts, and interactions among generalist grassland diseases and placing these into a broader understanding of disease transmission and (2) determining the general and site-specific outcomes of fertilization and herbivory on herbaceous plant biomass and composition by manipulating these factors at >60 sites around the world. Although I am primarily an experimentalist, my students and I use a diversity of tools (e.g. experiments, meta-analysis, mathematical models) to answer general questions.

Dr. R. Ford Denison

Most student research in my lab has focused on the legume-rhizobium symbiosis, leading to fundamental insights on the evolution of microbial cooperation and possible applications to improving agricultural sustainability. Other student research and collaborations (especially with Mike Travisano) have extended from microbial bet- hedging to the evolution of aging and multicellularity. See http://blog.lib.umn.edu/denis036/thisweekinevolution/about/

Dr. Jacques Finlay

I am broadly interested in the ecology of aquatic ecosystems, and their interaction with surrounding natural and human altered landscapes. I pursue research questions at many scales and levels of organization, using experimental, comparative and stable isotope approaches. I am particularly excited by interdisciplinary, collaborative research that integrates across multiple spatial and temporal scales. My lab has ongoing research projects on nitrogen cycling in the Great Lakes, stream food web ecology, urban biogeochemistry, and mercury transfer in aquatic food webs.

Dr. Jonathan Foley

I am a faculty member of EEB and the Director of the Institute on the Environment. I anticipate looking for graduate research assistants for my group, particularly for a new 'Global Landscapes Initiative' that aims to understand the changing patterns of land use and environmental systems across the planet. Students with strong quantitative backgrounds, interested in working on global scale problems and using computer modeling and remote sensing techniques, should feel free to contact me directly at jfoley@umn.edu.

Dr. Sharon Jansa

Research in my lab focuses on mammalian systematics and biogeography. My students and I are currently focusing on three isolated groups of mammals: South American didelphid marsupials, the native rodents of Madagascar, and the indigenous rodents of the Philippines. Reconstructing the evolutionary history of these groups is the first step towards understanding the biogeographic events that have prompted their diversification. We employ DNA sequence data to infer phylogenetic and population history and our research occasionally delves into the realm of molecular evolution. A Ph.D. position in my lab will be available starting in 2012 to work on the phylogeography and systematics of rodents in Madagascar. For more information see my lab website http://www.tc.umn.edu/~jansa003/

Dr. Karen Oberhauser
Students in my lab study many aspects of insect, particularly monarch butterfly, biology and conservation. Our work involves basic biology, particularly relationships between monarchs and natural enemies (predators, parasites and parasitoids); and anthropogenic impacts of pesticides, landuse changes, and climate change on monarchs and other pollinators. We are also involved in a variety of programs focused on engaging the broader public, particularly K-12 students and teachers, in inquiry-based science. To this end, we conduct workshops, develop educational materials, and run a large citizen science program called the Monarch Larva Monitoring Project. I would be especially interested in taking another student in fall 2012 with interests in host-parasitoid dynamics, and have a proposal pending that would provide research support on this topic. For more details, see my website: http://fwcb.cfans.umn.edu/oberhauser/index.html

Dr. Craig Packer

I will be seeking an additional PhD student interested in working on predator-prey relations in the Serengeti, using imagery captured from over 200 digital camera traps that will be maintained for the next 5 yrs. The new student will test various hypotheses about how prey movements influence the distribution and abundance of lions (and vice versa) across a 1700 km2 area.

Dr. Peter Reich

My teaching and research focus on ecology, global environmental change, and the sustainability of managed and unmanaged terrestrial ecosystems. Our research attempts to find the rules that regulate patterns and processes at multiple scales, and the mechanisms that explain them. Doing so often involves integrating from physiological to community to ecosystem ecology. We work primarily on the forests and grasslands of mid-North America as well as globally on terrestrial ecosystems in aggregate. This includes unique experimental field studies of global change effects on grasslands and forests; synthetic analyses of global plant trait data; and the development of physiologically robust global carbon cycling models. Over the years I have been deeply involved in the search for universal rules about leaf design and related scaling of physiology from seedling to adult, from cell to ecosystem, and from stand to the globe. Current projects include the B4Warmed Experiment that is assessing the effects of experimental warming on boreal forests in northern Minnesota and the BioCON study of biodiversity, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and water impacts on the functioning of perennial grasslands in central Minnesota. Potential graduate students are encouraged to contact me directly by email.

Dr. Eric Seabloom

While my interests are broad, research in my lab has primarily focused on restoration and invasions of grassland communities. I have active project in three main areas and would be interested in 1-2 students for Fall 2012: 1. Community Ecology of Disease: In collaboration with Elizabeth Borer, I am investigating a wide range of basic and applied questions about the community ecology of disease using a hostpathogen community (barley and cereal yellow dwarf viruses).
2. Invasion and restoration grasslands: I am using grassland invasion and restoration processes to test theory related to resource competition, consumer-mediation of host-pathogen interactions, and pathogen mediation of invasions. 3. Behavior- and Consumption-mediated effects of Consumers on Plant Communities: I am studying consumer and plant interaction interactions using field experiments, spatially-explicit models, meta-analyses, and a collaborative experimental field experiment replicated at > 50 sites in 10 countries.

Dr. Andrew Simons

Students in my lab study fish systematics, molecular phylogenetics, phylogeography, and morphology. Current projects include phylogeography of Central Highlands fishes (Halas); evolution and development of trophic structures in North American suckers (Hirt); systematics and species delineation in bonefishes (Wallace); and evolution of tooth morphology in blennies (Hundt). I am interested in recruiting 1 or 2 new students for Fall 2012.

Dr. Ruth Shaw

Dr. Emilie Snell-Rood

Research in my lab focuses on understanding responses of organisms to novel and variable environments. Questions include, 1) why do species vary in learning and cognition, 2) why do plastic developmental responses differ between species, and 3) can we predict how species will respond to new environments? Currently, we are addressing nutritional constraints in the evolution of learning, the costs and benefits of social learning, and physiological plasticity and niche breadth. I hope to recruit one or two students to join the lab in 2012. Please email me (emilies@umn.edu) or visit the lab website for more information (http://www.cbs.umn.edu/labs/emilies/).

Dr. Peter Sorensen

I am interested in recruiting a student for 2012. I am a behaviorist interested in mechanisms that drive the behavior of aquatic vertebrates, fish in particular. Chemical communication is a topic of special interest. We have discovered that hormonal metabolites play key roles in fish sex pheromone systems and that these signals are detected with great sensitivity and specificity. I am presently looking for a student to determine how generic hormonal compounds could have assumed such specific and important roles in what appears to be many thousands of species. I am active in the fields of neuroscience, fisheries and ecology as our work as very broad significance and strongly encourage interdisciplinary approaches. Please contact me directly ( ) and visit our web site: http://fwcb.cfans.umn.edu/sorensen/

Dr. Marla Spivak

My primary research focus is on honey bees, ranging from basic studies on mechanisms of social behaviors to applied studies on bee breeding and health. We are currently investigating the role of propolis, a complex resin that honey bees collect from some trees, as a mechanism of colony-level social immunity. Propolis is widely known for its diverse antimicrobial properties and its value as a human medicine. We also are studying landscape effects on honey bee nutrition and immune system functioning, and on native bee abundance and diversity. Please visit our web site for more information: http://www.extension.umn.edu/honeybees

Dr. David Stephens

I'm interested in recruiting 1 or 2 students for fall 2012. I am an experimental behavior ecologist with two key areas of interest: decision-making and behavioral plasticity. Both of these topics connect our group with other disciplines in behavior such as psychology, neuroscience and economics. Currently, we are focused on a relatively simple model of plasticity that considers the interaction between reliability and uncertainty. Using captive blue jays we are applying our model to the experimental studies of aposematism. In addition, we are using the same model to study the evolution of learning abilities in Drosophila. My lab tries to focus on conceptually important questions, and explore these question via rigorous modeling and experimentation. Stephens' Lab website: http://nash.cbs.umn.edu/lab/

Dr. Robert Sterner

Research by students and others in my lab is diverse but mainly we wonder about the way that organism nutrient content shapes ecology, the field of Ecological Stoichiometry. In the recent past, my lab has hosted research on bacteria, algae, zooplankton, fish, ants, and whole ecosystems. Some fundamental biogeochemical work has focussed on two study sites, Lake Superior, and the Twin Cities Metropolitan Area, while other studies have been lab-based. Past projects have explored the genomic basis of organism response to element scarcity; asked what effects cities have on plankton and biogeochemstry in urban lakes and ponds; and examined the long-term buildup of nitrate and increasing stoichiometric imbalance in Lake Superior; and others. For Fall, 2011, there is at least one (newly funded) opening on a Lake Superior project shared with Dr. Jacques Finlay. This project seeks to understand the sources and sinks of stoichiometrically imbalanced nitrate in Lake Superior.

Dr. Michael Travisano

I study the evolution of complex systems. Current student research includes investigations on the formation of ecological communities, developmental evolution, and the evolution of multicellularity. Our studies are largely experimental, observing ‘evolution-in-action’ using microbial systems. This work is highly collaborative and our extended research group includes EEB faculty Ford Denison, Mark Borrello & Tony Dean, and faculty from the Minnesota Center for the Philosophy of Science and Dept. of Plant Biology.

Dr. George Weiblen

*My lab studies plant and insect systematics, molecular phylogenetics, empirical population genetics, pollination ecology and coevolution. We combine experimental fieldwork in tropical and temperate ecosystems with specimen-based research and DNA sequencing to study the ecology and evolution of plant-insect interactions. Experimental studies of coevolution between figs trees and their obligate pollinators have been a particular focus of our research. Other current opportunities for research in my group involve the analysis of tropical rain forest plant-insect foodwebs using extensive data sets from Papua New Guinea. I am currentlyaccepting students for Fall 2012.

Dr. Marlene Zuk

Research in my lab concerns sexual selection, sexual signaling, and mate choice, and I am particularly interested in the role of parasites and disease in these processes. Students have worked in a variety of systems, including birds, but most of our current research uses insects and other invertebrates in a combination of laboratory and field work. Recently I have become interested in the role of behavior in the establishment of new traits, using a case of rapid evolution in the Pacific field cricket. I am interested in recruiting one or two students for the upcoming year. For more information on my research, see http://www.faculty.ucr.edu/~mzuk/.