Undergraduates -

You can get involved in research in my lab several ways. You could work as a volunteer, as a paid assistant, or for credit (as an independent study student). Students who are interested in doing a project with me should contact me as early as possible, and let me know something about the kinds of things that interest you. For any of these positions you must be willing to take your research very seriously (otherwise, why bother?).

Graduate Students - 

The Ecology and Evolution group at FSU is a great place to be a graduate student. Students here are part of a friendly, interactive and exciting group of biologists, and have easy access to an extremely diverse collection of natural communities for research (and recreation). Please see http://www.bio.fsu.edu/ee/index.html for more information on the FSU Ecology and Evolution program.

I look for graduate students who are creative, interactive, and independent. Students who work with me may choose projects that overlap with my work to various degrees, but I do not require or necessarily even encourage students to work on parts of my own projects. I give students as much independence as possible so they have the freedom to develop their own research interests. My interests lie in the population biology of plant and insect systems. While I would be best able to advise students working on plants or insects, I am willing to advise students working in other systems so long as the student takes the initiative to find system-specific advice from other sources. Students may do their field research locally, or wherever their projects take them. In developing their research ideas, I strongly encourage students to consider links between ecological and evolutionary ideas, and to integrate field or greenhouse experiments with statistical and/or modeling approaches.

The Ecology and Evolution program guarantees five years of funding to all graduate students. Graduate students in my lab will be funded through a combination of departmental teaching assistantships/tuition waivers (see E and E web site), and research assistantships. Competitive University fellowships are also available. I will encourage (and help) all students to apply for internal and external fellowships and grants to support their own work.

If you think you are interested in working with me, please email or write and tell me about your research interests, background in biology (especially including any research you have been involved in), and something about why you want to go to graduate school.