GRADUATE STUDIES IN ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION AT EAST CAROLINA UNIVERSITY The graduate program in the Department of Biology at East Carolina University invites applications from prospective PhD and MS students for fall 2013. East Carolina University is the third largest campus in the University of NC system and has an active and well-supported group of faculty working in the areas of ecology and evolution. Currently, we have 72 MS students and 24 doctoral students enrolled in our graduate programs. Students accepted into the Interdisciplinary Doctoral Program in Biological Sciences will receive two years of support with no teaching obligations and at least five years of support total, at a very competitive level. TA-ships are readily available in our two MS programs and Biology faculty members also supervise students in ECU's Coastal Resource Management PhD program. Graduate students will be encouraged to participate in the North Carolina Center for Biodiversity (NCCB) at East Carolina University. Goals of the NCCB include training graduate students in biodiversity research and providing them opportunities to participate in related outreach.
Our students enjoy living in the affordable community of Greenville, NC, participating in seminar series and journal clubs that feature research in ecology and evolution, and having access to several natural areas, universities and research centers located in central and eastern NC. Our faculty members conduct research across the globe and excellent opportunities exist to work in terrestrial, freshwater, wetland and marine systems. Application deadlines vary with particular programs but students applying early will have a greater chance of receiving financial support. Please visit http://www.ecu.edu/biology/ to find out more about our department, faculty and graduate programs. In addition to visiting departmental and faculty websites, please contact prospective mentors directly or our director of graduate studies, Terry West (we...@ecu.edu), for more information. We are happy to arrange visits for competitive prospective students and additional scholarship support may be available for the strongest applicants. Departmental faculty with expertise in ecology and evolution include: Marcelo Ardon: Aquatic ecosystem ecology and biogeochemistry. Chris Balakrishnan: Avian evolutionary and behavioral genomics. David Chalcraft: Population and community ecology; ecological aspects of biodiversity. Robert Christian: Coastal ecosystem ecology and network ecology. Lisa Clough: Marine benthic ecology (Arctic and Atlantic). Ashley Egan: Plant bioinformatics, evolutionary genomics and systematics. Carol Goodwillie: Plant mating system evolution, plant population ecology and genetics. Pat Harris: Fish ecology and life history, fisheries management. Jinling Huang: Evolutionary genomics and bioinformatics. Claudia Jolls: Plant evolutionary ecology and conservation. Dave Kimmel: Plankton ecology. Trip Lamb: Systematics and phylogeography. Joe Luczkovich: Food web ecology and fish bioacoustics. Krista McCoy (joining our faculty Jan. 2013): Ecological development and physiology. Mike McCoy: Quantitative population and community ecology. Jeff McKinnon: Sexual selection, speciation, mainly in fish. Sue McRae: Behavioral ecology and social evolution in birds. Anthony Overton: Larval fish ecology, fisheries biology. Enrique Reyes: Landscape ecology, ecological modeling, coastal management. Roger Rulifson: Fish ecology and fisheries. Matt Schrenk: Microbial ecology, geo-microbiology. Ed Stellwag: Vertebrate evo-devo and cis-regulatory network evolution. John Stiller: Molecular evolution and comparative genomics. Kyle Summers: Evolution of color, behavior in poison frogs; evolutionary medicine. Heather Vance-Chalcraft: Community ecology. Terry West: Human impacts on coastal ecosystems. Baohong Zhang: MicroRNA evolution, comparative genomics, and molecular genetics. Yong Zhu: Comparative evolution and molecular functions of hormones and receptors.
