Prospective students

Graduate students

I’m interested in graduate students who want to pursue research on plant-herbivore interactions or plant community ecology within salt marsh habitats.  I am especially interested in students who want to study how interactions change geographically.  I generally provide a relatively structured research experience for MS students and expect PhD students to be relatively independent, but this approach is tailored to the experience, personality and research direction of each student.

My students have been funded by a combination of fellowships, research assistantships, and instructional assistantships.  If you’re in my lab, I’ll work with you to help you get funding to do your work.

The ideal applicant would be self-motivated and have an interest in what I do, some research experience, and good grades and test scores.  Of these factors, motivation and interest are the most important.  The department and university do, however, have some minimum expectations for grades and scores, and doing well in these areas can also be helpful in getting fellowship support.

If you’re interested in working in my lab, I encourage you to contact me directly to discuss your interests before you formally apply.

Undergraduate students

There are opportunities for interested undergraduates to work in my laboratory as research assistants.  I'm most interested in students who can work over the summer as well as during the academic year, and in students who are considering a career in some aspect of the environmental sciences.

I can also sponsor students interested in doing independent research/senior thesis projects.  Research/thesis projects must be relevant to ongoing work in my lab (I can suggest ideas).  Undergraduate students interested in doing a research project should discuss possible projects with me in the spring.  Most projects will require spending a summer doing field research.  Because most of our research is done off-campus, on the coast in TX or GA, it is difficult to fit a research project around classes during the semester.  In exceptional cases, I will consider projects that could be conducted during the semester--these would involve building and analyzing data sets based on published and unpublished sources.  Funding may be available from the University or from my grants to support summer research.

Updated 1/08