Re: [ECOLOG-L] familiarity with the National Geographic Grant process?

[Emily Moran]

What I was told by the program is they want projects where:
A) You can get something significant done within a year
and ideally
B) The project is photogenic.

I didn’t have any luck with my proposal (and they don’t give feedback on why) 
but my student got some funding for his tree drought mortality project where he 
arranged to meet up with a photographer to create an interactive map for public 
outreach - the kind of thing where you start at a large scale, then zoom in to 
drone pictures of dead canopy trees, then zoom in again to show bark beetle 
damage, etc.

Emily Moran
UC Merced

On Dec 3, 2018, at 6:49 PM, Zeenal 
mailto:zeen...@gmail.com>> wrote:

Hey Katherine,
I have drafted an application for the same. Wasn't sure whom to actually ask 
for any suggestions or advice. It'd be great to have experienced people helping 
out. Thanks. :)

From: Katharine Leigh<mailto:kl...@cornell.edu>
Sent: ‎04-‎12-‎2018 04:02
To: ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU<mailto:ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU>
Subject: familiarity with the National Geographic Grant process?

Hi all

Just wondering if anyone happens to have familiarity with the National 
Geographic grant 
process<https://www.nationalgeographic.org/grants/grant-opportunities/>. I've 
drafted up an application, and could really use some help with edits. Please 
let me know if you have any advice! Thanks a bunch!

Best
Kat

Katharine L. Leigh
My Linkedin<http://www.linkedin.com/pub/katharine-leigh/9a/175/482/en>

Re: [ECOLOG-L] Help with reaching out to potential graduate advisers

[Emily Moran]

Hi Toni.

From a faculty member’s point of view, the “Sounds great. If you get your own 
funding for that, I’d love to have you in my lab” response means “I don’t 
currently have a grant that would support a student doing that kind of work”.   
When I say something like this, it is to give the student a heads-up that I 
might not say yes - even if there application is good - because I would find it 
unethical to accept a student if I didn’t think there would be financial 
resources available to support them through the whole graduate program (though 
I usually try to explain that more clearly).

Now, that doesn’t necessarily mean you shouldn’t apply.  Many (though not all) 
graduate schools will give admitted students a guarantee of 4-6 years of 
funding from a combination of teaching, grant-funded research assistantships, 
and individual fellowships.  If that support guarantee is forthcoming, 
especially if you are offered a fellowship by the school, the faculty member is 
more likely to ultimately say yes.  

Also, they may be trying to encourage you to apply for a predoctoral 
fellowship.  There are a number of opportunities out there for a student to 
secure some funding at the time they are applying to graduate schools, and 
having such a fellowship of course makes you a much more attractive candidate.  
What you could do is tell the faculty member that you are working on a proposal 
for such a fellowship that links up with their research area, and ask if they 
would be willing to take a look at it.

Emily Moran 
UC Merced

> On Nov 13, 2018, at 4:31 PM, Heiler Christian Meek  wrote:
> 
> Hi, Toni,
> 
>   I'm also applying to graduate schools and am not a PI, but I will tell you 
> what has worked for me. I emailed a lot of professors, and many did not 
> reply. However, some did and seem very serious about having me in their labs. 
> I ended up with four very good prospects after emailing at least 15 PIs. You 
> just have to keep emailing and not be too hard on yourself when you don't get 
> a reply. The professors who do not email back may simply not need a student 
> for this term. 
> 
> Rather than being specific, I gave several general interest topics that I 
> would like to pursue in my emails, tailored to the professors' research 
> interests. I am open to studying several different areas, but I only 
> mentioned the areas in each email that pertained to that particular 
> professor's research interests. Like I said, I am in the same position that 
> you are in, but I wanted to try and help by offering the best advice I have. 
> I wish you all the best in your graduate school search, and I hope you have a 
> wonderful rest of the day!
> 
> -- Heiler 

[ECOLOG-L] Job: Ecological modeling lab assistant, UC Merced

[Emily Moran]

Are you a biologist with skills in coding, or a computer science major with an 
interest in ecology?
Are you looking to gain experience before applying to a graduate program?
I am looking for a lab assistant to help with various ecological and 
eco-evolutionary modeling research projects.  This may include an NSF-funded 
project modeling the impact of evolutionary processes for climate-change 
responses in forests, as well as other statistical or simulation modeling 
projects, depending on the needs of the lab and the interests and skills of the 
lab assistant. Duties of the position include modifying model code and 
parameters, running model simulations, and writing up results.  The assistant 
will be an author on any papers resulting from this work.  The assistant may 
also assist with other lab tasks if needed, or if the assistant wishes to gain 
experience with other aspects of forest research.  These tasks could include 
assisting with fieldwork in the Sierra Nevada, literature searches, 
inventorying lab equipment, or helping undergraduates with data entry or 
analysis.
The position is for 12 months, beginning in January 2019.
Pay: $17.29/hour, or $2,766.4/month, plus benefits.  Position is full-time (40 
hrs/wk).
I am also planning on recruiting a PhD student to work on the forest modeling 
project, starting August 2019 (GSR funding through NSF grant).  The lab 
assistant is welcome to apply for this position; that would entail applying to 
UC Merced through the QSB or ES graduate groups by the standard date and, if 
accepted, resigning from the lab assistantship at the time of transition to the 
graduate program.
Essential qualifications/skills include:
•A bachelor’s degree in biology, environmental science, computer science, 
or related area
•Experience with statistical program R
•Coding skills in C++ and/or Java
•Communication skills to convey information accurately, clearly and 
concisely
•Ability to work independently with high degree of accuracy
•Ability to maintain clear records
Desirable (but not required) qualifications/skills include:
•ArcGIS experience
•Some background in plant biology or forest modeling.
How to apply:
 The position code is SSNRI8520A.  Please complete a UC Merced application 
(https://hr.ucmerced.edu/sites/hr.ucmerced.edu/files/page/documents/uc_merced_employment_application_form.pdf)
 and email along with 1-3 page resume/CV and cover letter (explaining your 
interest in and qualifications for the position) to 
ucmcare...@ucmerced.edu<mailto:ucmcare...@ucmerced.edu>. The application should 
include names and contact information for two references.  Please indicate in 
the subject line of your email the Position Title and Position Number you are 
applying for. For questions regarding how to apply please email 
ucmcare...@ucmerced.edu<mailto:ucmcare...@ucmerced.edu> or call 209-228-8247.
Review of applications will begin November 20 and will continue until the 
position is filled.  To ensure full consideration, please apply before December 
1.
For more information, please contact Dr. Emily Moran at 
emor...@ucmerced.edu<mailto:emor...@ucmerced.edu> or visit our lab webpage 
https://sites.google.com/site/moranplantlab/
UC Merced is the newest school of the University of California system 
(http://www.ucmerced.edu/).  The university is small (<7,000 students), but 
diverse and rapidly growing.  Merced is a town of 80 thousand located in the 
Central Valley of California.  It is conveniently located 1 hour north of 
Fresno (the closest airport), 2 hours east of Berkeley and San Francisco, 2 
hours south of Davis and Sacramento, and 2 hours west of Yosemite National 
Park.  Cost of living is low.  The area has a Mediterranean climate, with hot, 
dry summers and cool, rainy winters.
The University of California, Merced is an equal opportunity employer with a 
strong institutional commitment to the achievement of diversity among its 
faculty, staff, and students.
UC Merced is also a smoke and tobacco free workplace. Information and the Smoke 
and Tobacco Free policy is available at http://smokefree.ucmerced.edu

Re: [ECOLOG-L] Suggestions for starting a new lab? Buying supplies, equipment, etc.

[Emily Moran]

Things that worked well for me when starting out:
- Before buying major equipment, ask your colleagues if there is stuff they 
have that they are willing to share, or if they would be willing to contribute 
toward the purchase of some new item that you are both interested in.
- Start with the stuff you are absolutely sure you need right away.  Sometimes 
as you start up new experiments you discover new approaches, and there is no 
point in buying a pile of stuff you don’t end up using.
- If there is room in your budget for a lab assistant, that can be super 
helpful, as you can delegate them to call up supply companies and ask about new 
lab discounts and whatnot, as well as test out new techniques.

Good luck!
Emily Moran
UC Merced

> On Aug 14, 2018, at 6:58 AM, Aaron T. Dossey  wrote:
> 
> Hello,
> 
> I am (finally!) starting a biotech lab focused on various insect related 
> research projects (molecular biology, insect rearing, etc.).
> 
> It has been a long time since postdoc when I was in a working lab and doing 
> things like ordering, etc.  I am finding that the budget goes pretty fast if 
> one is not careful!   Seems like there should be some low cost sources/work 
> arounds for various consumables and equipment (ebay for autoclave bags, safe 
> or not?  etc.).
> 
> Any advice will be greatly appreciated.
> 
> ATD of ATB
> www.cricketpowder.com
> 352-281-3643
> 
> ATD of ATB and ISI
> -- 
> Aaron T. Dossey, Ph.D.
> Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
> http://cricketpowder.com/curriculum-vitae/
> NEW BOOK OUT!: Insects as Sustainable Food Ingredients
> https://cricketpowder.com/insects-as-sustainable-food-ingredients/
> Founder/Owner: All Things Bugs LLC
> Capitalizing on Low-Crawling Fruit from Insect-Based Innovation
> ABOUT: http://cricketpowder.com/about-us/
> LinkedIn: 
> https://www.linkedin.com/pub/all-things-bugs-dr-aaron-t-dossey/53/775/104
> FACEBOOK: http://www.facebook.com/Allthingsbugs
> ISI:  https://www.facebook.com/InvertebrateStudiesInstitute
> PHONE:  1-352-281-3643
> 
> SEO: Entomophagy, Protein, Sustainable, Sustainability, Nutrition, Wellness, 
> Agriculture, Cricket Powder, Griopro, Cricket Flour, Innovation, Science, 
> Entomology, Mealworm, Waxworm, Climate Change, funding, grants, text book, 
> reference book, curricula, curriculum, education, science, innovation, 
> technology, Environment, nature, invertebrates, research, entrepreneur .

Re: [ECOLOG-L] Using Turnitin in science classes

[Emily Moran]

If you open the submitted paper and look at the phrases highlighted by the 
similarity checker, it usually becomes clear what is going on: whether the 
issue is the bibliography, or whether indeed whole sentences have been copied 
inappropriately.

In terms of avoiding plagiarism, and teaching students to use citations 
correctly, I’ve found that it is helpful to explicitly go over:
A) What is plagiarism?  Turnitin has a valuable info graphic on their website 
that points out that plagiarism isn’t just copying a whole paper: “remixing” 
sentences from different sources, using direct quotations without quotation 
marks (even if cited), etc. are problematic too.
B) What is the purpose of a citation?  Once you point out that it is not to 
give an excuse to copy wording, or just  to make yourself sound authoritative, 
it is to allow your readers to look up that source for themselves if they wish 
to get more information, then it becomes clear why certain information is 
needed in the citation.
C) What is an acceptable source?  This will vary by class, but is worthwhile to 
discuss how to tell if something is a reasonably reliable source or not.
D) Why don’t scientific papers use quotation?  A lot of students don’t realize 
that the only reason to include a direct quotation is if the exact wording 
matters, and that is more likely to be the case in an English class essay than 
in a scientific paper.

Including some of this instruction cut way down on the inappropriate copying in 
Evolution papers last semester.

Emily Moran
UC Merced

On Feb 2, 2018, at 7:33 PM, cruzan mailto:cru...@pdx.edu>> 
wrote:


In science writing you will naturally get replication of words because of 
literature cited and sometimes the methods section - for standard procedures 
there are a limited number of ways to say it. Taking this into account, I would 
be suspect of student reports that rise above 20% similarity to other works, 
and certainly those that are over 30% are likely to have plagiarized. As you 
mention, phrases or sentences of more than 8-10 words that are not part of the 
methods or literature cited sections were most likely copied from other sources.

Mitch Cruzan

On 2/2/2018 7:02 PM, Jorge A. Santiago-Blay wrote:
Using Turnitin in science classes

Dear Colleagues:

Finally, I have decided to begin using Turnitin in some of my science classes, 
including environmental sciences. As a beginning user of Turnitin, I have 
received valuable feedback on some of the technical settings. However, I have 
not received feedback on what I considered to be areas where the proverbial 
rubber meets the road (listed below):

1. How long a string of words do you allow to be OK.? I was suggested 8 words 
(no scientific rationale behind that was provided).

2. What percentage of similarity is considered to be enough to trigger 
reporting a work to the superiors for "dishonesty" (or whatever it is called in 
your schools; after checking with the filters, etc.)

3. Any sliding scale for smaller "offenses" re. percentage of similarity

If you have something constructive to communicate pertaining what do you do in 
your courses or what is the policy at your institution, please, feel free to 
email me directly:

blayjo...@gmail.com<mailto:blayjo...@gmail.com>

Apologies for potential duplicate emails.

Sincerely,

Jorge

Jorge A. Santiago-Blay, PhD
blaypublishers.com<http://blaypublishers.com/>


1. Positive experiences for authors of papers published in LEB 
http://blaypublishers.com/testimonials/

2. Free examples of papers published in LEB: 
http://blaypublishers.com/category/previous-issues/.

3. Guidelines for Authors and page charges of LEB: 
http://blaypublishers.com/archives/ .

4. Want to subscribe to LEB? http://blaypublishers.com/subscriptions/


http://blayjorge.wordpress.com/
http://paleobiology.si.edu/staff/individuals/santiagoblay.cfm

--

Mitch Cruzan
Professor of Biology
Portland State University
PO Box 751
Portland, OR 97207 USA
Web: http://web.pdx.edu/~cruzan/

Re: [ECOLOG-L] Publication options for low-income scientists?

[Emily Moran]

Check the "information for authors" on the webpages of journals you recognize.  
Some have very low or no page charges (or you can reduce fees by not requesting 
color illustrations), while others allow you to petition for fees to be waived 
if you are not in a position to pay.  The “traditional” journals (often 
affiliated with scientific societies) are usually better in this respect - open 
access online publication can cost over $1000 although, again, sometimes this 
can be waived.

How was your PhD funded?  Does your former advisor  have any money left from 
their grant to cover publications?  Usually there is an incentive for advisors 
to do so, since they are often co-authors and PhD work was often funded out of 
their grants.  

Emily Moran
UC Merced


On Oct 16, 2017, at 1:38 PM, Laura Heiker  wrote:

> I recently received my PhD and am now trying to publish in respectable 
> peer-reviewed journals.  As an early career scientist, I need these 
> publications to obtain a post-doc, but the cost of publication is 
> prohibitively high for me to pay out-of-pocket.  (My former university 
> does not offer funding for publication, and I'm currently unemployed.)  
> 
> Does anyone know of potential funding sources or alternative options for 
> low-income scientists to publish (in wildlife biology/ecotoxicology)?  I 
> know there are newer, online-only journals that offer cheaper 
> publications, but I'm wary of their quality.   

Re: [ECOLOG-L] predatory journals

[Emily Moran]

This issue of accessing papers without a university affiliation can be a tricky 
one, but it seems to be getting easier.

There are plenty of established, reputable open access journals out there.  The 
PLoS family of journals conduct quite extensive peer reviews these days, and 
many scientific societies are now publishing their own open-access journals 
(for example, the Ecological Society of America recently started “Ecosphere”).  
You can check on how long they have been publishing and their rankings at sites 
like this: http://www.scimagojr.com/index.php
http://www.citefactor.org/journal-impact-factor-list-2014.html

However, I tend to find it more efficient to search for articles by topic 
rather than by journal, and there are a lot of options for getting access to 
articles for free even if they were not published in open-access journals.

I like using google scholar because the results often link directly to a 
full-text version.  Sometimes the full-text isn’t available without paying 
unless you are on a campus or connected via VPN to a university system, but 
sometimes they are - the algorithm often finds papers that are freely available 
on a researcher’s website, through the journal itself, or in a paper archive.  
If this isn’t the case for the main hits page, you can click on the “all X 
versions” link under the name to check for other options.  If nothing is 
available, you could check the authors’ webpages or email them to get the full 
text if the abstract - which usually is available - looks interesting enough 
(though that is obviously a lot more work).  Some universities, including the 
University of California system, require researchers to make at least the 
last-prepublication-draft version of their papers public (UC uses 
http://escholarship.org/).

I have also had good luck using ResearchGate 
(https://www.researchgate.net/home) to discover and access papers.  It is free 
to sign up, and if you “follow” the work of people in your field the system 
will email you with publications you may be interested in.  Then you can either 
just download it or request the full text from them by clicking a button.

Emily Moran
UC Merced


On Sep 7, 2017, at 2:10 AM, Neahga Leonard 
mailto:naturalistkni...@gmail.com>> wrote:

If anyone has a list of respectable, legitimate, good quality Open Access 
Journals that would probably be of great benefit to many in this listserv.

Many of us are not in the academic world, and our organizations cannot afford 
to criminally high cost of access to many journals, yet still need timely 
access to high quality publications, both for our own research and for 
publication of our findings.

This is especially true in the conservation world, where more and more 
organizations have a policy of using only Open Access Journals in order to 
ensure that our information is accessible to others who need it or are merely 
interested in it.

Those of you who use (publish in or read) legitimate Open Access Journals, 
please share your favorites with us.

Neahga Leonard
Project Director
Cat Ba Langur Conservation Project
Cat Ba National Park
Cat Hai District
Hai Phong Province, Vietnam
neahga.leon...@catbalangur.de<mailto:neahga.leon...@catbalangur.de>
[http://www.catbalangur.org/LogoCBLCP.jpg]


There is not just a whole world to explore, there is a whole universe to 
explore, perhaps more than one.
Personal Blog: http://writingfornature.wordpress.com/


On Thu, Sep 7, 2017 at 4:57 AM, David Duffy 
mailto:ddu...@hawaii.edu>> wrote:
"To reduce the supply of papers flowing to predatory journals, we need to do a 
better job of educating trainees and faculty members about how to assess a 
journal's integrity. We need incentives and resources that will prevent 
scientists from sending real work to places that will not identify flaws or 
truly contribute to the scholarly literature. Several global funders have 
mandated open-access publishing. However, without guidance in selecting 
journals responsibly, this problem of irresponsible publishing is likely to 
increase. Science and society would be better off if we stopped the waste by 
cutting off the supply."

http://www.nature.com/news/illegitimate-journals-scam-even-senior-scientists-1.22556?WT.ec_id=NATURE-20170907&spMailingID=54864391&spUserID=MzUwNzYwMDk5OTgS1&spJobID=1244089361&spReportId=MTI0NDA4OTM2MQS2
--
David Duffy Ph.D.
Professor and Director
戴大偉 (Dài Dàwěi)
Pacific Cooperative Studies Unit/Makamakaʻāinana
Department of Botany
University of Hawaii/Ke Kulanui o Hawaiʻi
3190 Maile 
Way<https://maps.google.com/?q=3190+Maile+WayHonolulu+Hawaii+96822&entry=gmail&source=g>
Honolulu Hawaii 
96822<https://maps.google.com/?q=3190+Maile+WayHonolulu+Hawaii+96822&entry=gmail&source=g>
 USA
1-808-956-8218

Re: [ECOLOG-L] Need for letters for job applications

[Emily Moran]

Maybe the option to supply a single letter could be offered for those 
applicants who suspect that their record on paper does not reflect their 
abilities accurately.  Of course, comparisons would not be entirely even if 
some applicants had letters and others did not, but if everyone listed 3 
references those additional letters could be requested.

Emily Moran

On Aug 31, 2017, at 7:22 AM, John Anderson 
mailto:jander...@coa.edu>> wrote:

at the same time, both as someone who writes letters and someone who has seen 
an applicant move from the "ah, whatever" to the "let's talk" pile based on a 
good letter of reference, I would encourage all of you to keep writing & keep 
reading.

On Thu, Aug 31, 2017 at 8:55 AM, Fidele Bognounou 
mailto:fidele.bognou...@gmail.com>> wrote:
Hi Brian,
Very good point!
There are even potential candidates that will not apply for a position because 
they don't want to keek annoying the providers of the letters.

Fidele

On Wed, Aug 30, 2017 at 9:27 PM, Patrick, Brian 
mailto:brpat...@dwu.edu>> wrote:
Dear colleagues,

I have noticed over the years a significant increase in the number of position 
announcements that state that full applications must include three letters of 
reference.  As someone who has been on numerous search committees, has written 
a fair number of letters of recommendation, and has applied for a fair number 
of jobs, I can honestly say that this is exceptionally inconvenient to 
applicants, to those writing the letters, and not necessary for an initial 
application.  A list of at least three references should be sufficient for an 
initial application.

Let’s be honest, in a large stack of applications, only a few tend to bubble to 
the top, and they extremely-rarely-to-virtually-never do so because of their 
recommendations.  Search committees, please do NOT require three letters up 
front.  It is largely unnecessary and extremely inconvenient (for the candidate 
and letter writers) to provide this information if the candidate doesn’t even 
make the cut for a phone interview.  It’s a wasted effort for the vast majority 
of job applicants and for those writing those letters for the vast majority of 
job applicants.

In short, ask for a list of references only.  If letters from those references 
are needed from a few candidates for whatever reason, then make the request 
after making the initial trim of the pool to the candidate list.

If you do not have a choice whether or not this is required, then it needs to 
be explained to the HR person or whoever makes that call that it is largely an 
inconvenient waste of many people’s time to provide the letters up front.  It 
is always better to ask for a list of references.

Thank you for your time and for letting me express my opinion on this topic.  
Too many young scientists are put in awkward positions because they have to ask 
for 14 letters from the same few people.  Personally, I try to personalize each 
letter I write to the institution or type of job for which the candidate is 
applying.  It gets very annoying to have to provide this when a colleague 
applies for a job that may be a stretch for them (but they should still 
apply!).  I think they should apply, and I want them to apply—my ire lies with 
the committees that make that up-front request for all applicants.

Thank you again for your time!

Best regards, Brian

---
L. Brian Patrick, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Biology
Department of Biological Sciences
Dakota Wesleyan University
1200 W. University Ave.
Mitchell, SD  57301  USA
Office:  605-995-2712





--
John Anderson
W.H. Drury Professor of Ecology/Natural History
College of the Atlantic
105 Eden St
Bar Harbor
ME 04609

[ECOLOG-L] Advice for bear-proofing weather stations?

[Emily Moran]

Last fall, we installed four Spectrum Technologies Watchdog data loggers with 
soil moisture probes in our sites in Sequoia National Park.  They were mounted 
at 1 m height on poles inside UV-shields.  
When we went to check on them in the spring, the brackets holding the loggers 
and shields were bent over, and in some cases the wires to the moisture probes 
had been pulled out.
We suspect bears, because it seems unlikely that the weight of snow would be 
sufficient to cause this (it took a lot of force to bend one of the brackets 
back into shape).

I asked a company representative, and their suggestion was to get a fence 
(preferably electrified).  This is unlikely to be acceptable to the park, and 
might be outside our budget anyway.  They also suggested spraying them with 
bear repellant, but since the stations have to be left unattended during the 
rainy and/or snowy winter, I think it would wash off almost immediately.

Does anyone have any suggestions for dissuading bears from messing with 
equipment?
We have considered sturdier brackets plus either taller or shorter poles, but 
I’m not sure if this would be sufficient.

Thanks!

Emily Moran
Assistant professor, UC Merced  

Re: [ECOLOG-L] Distribution data for trees of North America

[Emily Moran]

What about the Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) data?  Just for the US, but 
very detailed: https://www.fia.fs.fed.us/

Emily Moran

On Jul 26, 2017, at 8:26 AM, Adhithya Kondalsamy  wrote:

> Hello,
> 
> I am a high school student doing research on the distribution of trees of 
> North America.  I need occurrence records of as many tree species as 
> possible.  I have already downloaded data from GBIF.  What are other sources 
> top get occurrence records from?
> 
> 
> Thanks!

Re: [ECOLOG-L] interview questions for prospective postdocs and grads?

[Emily Moran]

The New York Times article was interesting, but one would expect that GPA would 
be a better predictor of future grades than an interview.  One would not 
necessarily expect GPA to be the best predictor of performance outside the 
classroom - it probably doesn’t hurt, but there are other factors that are 
important to consider.

I’m still fairly new to running my own lab (3 yrs), but here’s what I’ve found 
to be useful when hiring prospective undergrads, techs, grad students, and 
postdocs.

Selecting candidates to interview:
- GPA and similar measures can be useful as an initial filter, especially for 
undergrads who don’t have a lot on their resume yet.  But I don’t I tend to not 
use too high a bar at this stage as it can exclude people who turn out to be 
really good at actual research tasks, but maybe made a rough start in intro 
college classes.
- More and more, I’m trying to be specific in listing what skills or 
experiences I want a person to have coming into a position (vs. the ones they 
can learn on the job).  I can then use a spreadsheet to tick off which 
applicants have these skills/experiences or not, thereby avoiding the “first 
impressions” issue when reading and trying to rank resumes.  For undergrads, I 
often find I have to email some of them to ask for more information - in a 
recent search, none of the applicants addressed all of the requirements in 
their resume or cover letter.  I’m not sure whether I would have taken the time 
to do this if some of the applicants DID address all the qualifications, but it 
turned out to be very helpful.

The interview:
- Some structure is vital.  Since there are always particular skills or 
experiences you are looking for, you need to ask every candidate about those 
things.  If you don’t don’t ask everyone similar questions, you can’t properly 
compare them.
- However, as some other respondents have pointed out, the exact wording of the 
questions could differ depending on the person’s file and you might need to ask 
different follow-up questions.  For instance: “I see that you’ve listed 
experience with forest modeling.  What kind of models have you worked with?” 
vs. “I see you have experience with C++.  Have you ever worked with forest 
models?”
- I always ask: “Do you have any questions for me?” That can reveal interesting 
things, such as the degree to which the person has taken the trouble to look up 
what your lab does.

I’m still working on figuring out what questions or evidence from someone’s 
past record best predict the ability to work independently (but seek help when 
necessary), to come up with interesting questions/creative solutions, and to 
exhibit persistence/“fire in the gut”.  For those with a more extensive 
work/school record and good interview skills these qualities come through loud 
and clear… but if someone has no research experience, for example, or is a bit 
shy and awkward, it can be hard to tell.  I like the suggestion of posing a 
hypothetical question and asking “how would you handle that?”.

Emily Moran
UC Merced






On May 19, 2017, at 2:38 AM, Chinmay Hemant Joshi 
mailto:chinmayjosh...@iisertvm.ac.in>> wrote:

Dear Nathan,

I read the New york times article. I think its good to ask same questions to 
all candidates for the position they are being interviewed for. But along with 
that they may be asked certain other unique questions based on their responses 
to their previous questions, to really know the strengths of the candidate in 
various contexts, that cannot be really covered by the questions asked to 
everyone.
For example: If a candidate who is being interviewed for doctoral position. One 
obvious questions that will be asked is about his/her past research 
experiences. Some candidates may have an experience working in say 3-4 labs 
during their undergraduate study period, while some may have worked in only one 
lab. Now the interview panel may wrongly conclude/infer that latter candidate 
has mediocre research experience than the former, but it could be that the 
latter candidate found a suitable lab to work on his/her ideas and thus did not 
explore much and was able to get a very good grip on the topic that he/she 
studied.
As an undergraduate student, I do feel that the grades should not be given too 
much importance than the knowledge and the research experience of the person. 
The interviews should certainly be designed which would reveal the real 
potential of the candidate and also should be in a way that candidate becomes 
really expressive in the contexts of the questions asked.
What are your thoughts on this? I hope my mail is not too much outrageous or 
offensive to anyone in any manner.



[https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/mailtrack-crx/icon-signature.png]  
<https://mailtrack.io/> Sent with 
Mailtrack<https://mailtrack.io/install?source=signature&lang=en&referral=chinmayjosh...@iisertvm.ac.in&idSignature=22>

On Wed, May 17, 2017 at 1:38 AM, Morehouse, N

Re: [ECOLOG-L] HUMPBACK WHALE RESEARCH ON THE GREAT BARRIER REEF, AUSTRALIA (JULY-SEPT 2017) ? RESEARCH ASSISTANT OPPORTUNITIES

[Emily Moran]

I have been collecting paid research/work experience postings from this list to 
forward to my undergraduate students (so that they can at least get an idea of 
the opportunities that are out there if they are interested), and fortunately 
there are a lot of them.  It seems like most people doing research in the USA 
are offering $10-15/hour for assistant/technician positions.  There are also a 
fair number of postings for REU positions that don’t necessarily pay a lot but 
usually at least cover living expenses (with maybe some stipend left over 
depending on local cost of living).

It is unclear what the situation is for projects in other countries - perhaps 
Zeenal and others on this list from outside of the US could speak to that.  The 
internships or training programs I have noticed on this listserve that are 
unpaid and/or actually require the student to pay seem to be mostly in more 
“exotic” locations (eg. mostly rainforest and marine).  In some cases the 
rationale may be that running these programs (including transporting people and 
supplies to the field site) is so expensive that contributions from 
participants are needed for it to happen at all.  I’m not sure if this is the 
case for the posting that sparked this debate, as in this case the organizing 
institution seems to be fairly close to the field site.

If it starts to seem impossible to get experience in a particular field unless 
you have the funds to support yourself during an internship and/or pay a hefty 
fee, that is a very bad thing for students and for the field in general.  While 
that doesn’t seem to be the case for, say, temperate-zone pollinator ecology or 
forestry, it could very well be a problem for tropical ecology and/or 
“charismatic megafauna” studies where the high cost of studies and the 
availability of people willing to pay to experience those environments could be 
tempting more and more study organizers to go this route.  And that can lead to 
exploitation of students who can’t really afford these fees but really want to 
go into that area of research.

Having some pay-to-learn or unpaid internships available is not necessarily a 
bad thing - “Voluntourism” seems to be growing in demand as people seek out 
more meaningful things to do on their vacations, and that can help an 
underfunded project get enough workers to carry on.   But I definitely agree 
that unpaid or pay-to-learn internships should be clearly labeled as such.

Moreover, we should as a research community have more discussions about how to 
keep our projects running without exploiting student labor.  It can be 
difficult in a funding environment where a 20% success rate is terrific, and 
where grant sizes seem to increase slower than the amount of things you are 
expected to do with that money - but it is important.  Perhaps we need to make 
stronger arguments to our elected leaders about the immediate economic benefits 
of research funding.  That is, besides leading to new knowledge that could be 
important down the road, and training the next generation of scientists, a huge 
chunk of many grants goes toward employing people right now.  Students are not 
only learning skills that will make them more successful in the future, they 
are getting cash they can spend in their local communities.  I don’t know how 
much impact that argument would have, but I haven’t seen it made much, and it 
would be interesting to try.

Emily Moran
UC Merced


On Mar 23, 2017, at 10:01 AM, Annette Narzynski 
mailto:anarzynski2...@my.fit.edu>> wrote:

I am happy to see this being discussed. A similar discussion has recently 
started in Coral List. Steven Carrion has made an interesting point about the 
role that the listserv itself plays on these kind of posts. I think it would 
also be valuable to discuss what  aspiring scientists, professors, researchers, 
and those involved in hiring can do regarding the issues associated with 
positions like these.

On Thu, Mar 23, 2017 at 9:08 AM, John Anderson 
mailto:jander...@coa.edu>> wrote:
Very much agree with Steve's post here. Given the already high cost of 
university, this seems sheer exploitation. Is also a really interesting 
demonstration of the "charismatic megafauna " issue in conservation...

On Thu, Mar 23, 2017 at 6:54 AM CARRION Steven 
mailto:s1681...@sms.ed.ac.uk>> wrote:
The whole "unpaid" vs "paid" vs "exploitative" internships discussion has been 
discussed in ECOLOG before but I had to bring it up again after seeing this 
post.

A "research assistant" position wherein students have to pay a almost 3 grand 
to participate in an activity less than a week? And this covers accommodation 
and food? This amount of money is what people pay to go on luxury cruises. This 
seems like it's a way to fund the organization's research costs while being 
provided with freely given labor. Exploitative is the ni

Re: [ECOLOG-L] pressures of a scientific career

[Emily Moran]

There is that…

Plus, I suspect many of us, once we reach the position of PI, have to struggle 
not to feel guilty or torn when we are doing outdoor work that we aren’t inside 
writing papers and grants!  It is easy to feel that we should be delegating 
most such tasks, even if we enjoy them, to take care of “higher level” issues.

I feel lucky that I have many colleagues at my institution who recognize the 
importance of balance and good mental health.  But even when that is the case, 
the pressures coming from the world-at-large can lead to stress even if your 
local environment is relatively supportive.

I have developed a tendency to flinch every time someone says 
“Professor/academics/scientists should do more [fill in blank]”.  The thing is, 
it is often true.  We SHOULD get creative with teaching, connect with local 
communities, work with management agencies etc. to make sure our work is 
relevant and can make a difference, and so on.  The problem is that while all 
these goals have gotten more lip service in recent years, the reward systems 
are if anything even more focused on research productivity than ever before.  
So it can seem like the options are: A) focus on your research and do the bare 
minimum on teaching, outreach, etc. and MAYBE you can do more of that stuff 
once you have tenure or you retire, B) shift more focus to the activities that 
might make your research more meaningful in the world, but maybe miss your 
publication goals and risk not getting tenure, or C) try to do it all and risk 
burning out (or totally disconnecting from your family or other things you care 
about).

Regarding the pressure to get grants, I’ve recently wondered the following: 
have we, as individual scientists, institutions, and scientific societies, been 
making a strong enough case for the IMMEDIATE benefits of funding for 
scientific research?  If funding sources (federal and otherwise) don’t grow 
faster than inflation, but the need for STEM-trained workers continues to 
increase, we will inevitably be fighting over a smaller and smaller pie.  
Some of the resistance to increasing funding seems to come from the 
idea that if you can’t see an obvious payoff of a research project (eg. an HIV 
vaccine) the money might be “wasted” - which is particularly problematic for 
those of us who pursue basic science, applied science that doesn’t produce 
patents, or high-risk projects.  I have frequently heard arguments for the 
long-term payoffs of basic research….which is important, but not necessarily 
the thing that appeals most to politicians on a 2-6 year election cycle.  
Instead, what about providing examples of how a $500,000 research grant 
provides benefits NOW?  There is the 50% or so in overhead that helps keep 
universities running, supporting student learning, employing the people who 
build and maintain labs and other facilities and provide administrative 
support, and purchasing goods from a variety of companies.  Then there is the 
50% or so that goes to the research lab - a large chunk of that usually goes to 
paying graduate and undergraduate students, postdocs, and lab staff.  As with 
anything that provides employment, this means these young scientists have cash 
they can spend on local goods and services…as well as continue their training 
so that they will be ready to make the scientific breakthroughs of the future.  
Most of the rest goes to purchase equipment and supplies, which means that the 
workers at the supply companies continue to get paid.  I feel like I have 
occasionally heard calculations that ever dollar that goes to scientific 
research produces X dollars of benefit, but the components of that aren’t 
always made apparent…and perhaps more personal stories of how grants get spent 
could have an impact.  It is natural for us to want to focus on the gains for 
knowledge and education, because that is why we got into research in the first 
place - and we certainly shouldn’t stop talking about that!  But given that the 
argument “we need to maintain/increase defense funding because otherwise we 
will lose jobs” works so well, perhaps we should use that angle a little more 
when we argue for increased research funding….   

Emily M


On Nov 20, 2016, at 6:05 AM, Judith S. Weis  wrote:

> That may be the case, David, but I can think of two factors that may alter
> it:
> 1. more and more ecologists spending all their time indoors in front of a
> computer screen rather than in nature
> 2. attitudes and pressures from dept. chairs/deans etc. who may value
> molecular/cell biologists more highly because they bring in more money.
> 
> Judy
> 
>> There's an interesting article in the latest issue of Nature about
>> mental health issues for scientists facing career pressures:
>> 
>> http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v539/n7628/full/nj7628-319a.html
>> 
>> I wonder whether ecologists, who may get to spend more time outside ("in
>> nature"), are less susceptible to depression t

Re: [ECOLOG-L] Rugged Tablet Recommendations?

[Emily Moran]

I recently purchased an iPad with a life proof nuud case, as recommended on 
this listserv.  The case has performed well in tests (eg. submerging it 
completely), so I’m fairly confident the tablet won’t break.

HOWEVER… I haven’t actually been using it for fieldwork lately, because I’m not 
sure what the iPad does with data when it isn’t connected to the internet.  
When I do have an internet signal, it deposits any changes directly in Box.  If 
it isn’t connected while you are working, it will update once you get back in 
range.  But the iPad itself has very little memory, and I’m not sure the data 
is actually being saved, and that makes me REALLY nervous.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this?  One of my colleagues suggested adding a 
peripheral device (USB-stick equivalent), but that would make it a little 
unwieldy and make the case not waterproof.

Emily Moran
UC Merced

On Aug 10, 2016, at 8:46 PM, Dr. Bartosz P. Grudzinski  
wrote:

> Hi Everyone,
> 
> I am looking to purchase a tablet that I can take to muddy field sites. It 
> will mostly be used to upload data from field equipment. If you have a 
> recommendation for a tablet to buy or a bad one to avoid feel free to 
> share. Ideally I would like to stay within a $1000 budget.
> 
> Thanks!
> Bart 

Re: [ECOLOG-L] Grad Classes or Undergrad To Boost GPA

[Emily Moran]

It is hard to give general advice on this, as it depends a lot on your 
individual situation, and which schools and which types of Master’s programs 
you want to get into.  It partially depends on how much below 3.0 your GPA is - 
that isn’t a hard limit for many schools, but a low GPA can certainly affect 
probability of admission or funding.  I know students who have gotten into 
Master’s programs with less than a 3.0, and who have subsequently done very 
well.  They didn’t get into the most selective schools, but that can be OK - it 
can provide a way into the profession, and if you do well you can move up from 
there.  It also depends on what kind of experience you have - demonstrating 
relevant skills in research etc. through work after college can boost your 
credibility as an applicant a lot, often more so than extra coursework.  A full 
year working as a research assistant, particularly if you get to work 
semi-independently, for example, could give a potential mentor more confidence 
in your skills than either a graduate class or undergraduate research 
experiences.   Finally, which were the classes that pulled down your average?  
If they are classes that are relevant for your field, you might want to retake 
them or take a graduate equivalent… if not, and you did really well in the 
classes related to your prospective Master’s project and poorly in some other 
set of classes, it may be less critical.

I’d advise you to email faculty in the programs you are interested in, and get 
their advice about what their admissions committees look for, and what are the 
strongest and weakest parts about your CV as it stands now.

Emily Moran
UC Merced



On Apr 7, 2016, at 10:49 AM, Angela Trenkle 
mailto:angelatren...@gmail.com>> wrote:

Dear Eco-loggers,
   I would like to go to graduate school to eventually get my Master's. I have 
a lot of experience in my field, however as an undergraduate I had some 
setbacks so my GPA is below the 3.0 requirement that most schools look for.  I 
was planning on taking a graduate course or two to show professors that I can 
do the work, however I have heard mixed things about this approach. Does anyone 
have any advice on this? Would it be better to retake some undergraduate 
classes I didn't do very well in? What type of graduate courses should I take? 
Thank you!
-Angela Trenkle

Re: [ECOLOG-L] Geobiology Grad position without funding?

[Emily Moran]

I can’t speak to job opportunities for geoscience master’s students, but I can 
say that it is less common for MS students to be paid or have their tuition 
covered than it is for PhD students.  For a PhD student, it is usual for a 
school to (formally or informally) promise to support them for 4-6 years 
through a combination of fellowships, research, and teaching assistantships - 
though in some cases there may be an undergrad GPA requirement (eg. 3.0) to get 
fellowships or longer-term funding promises.  Master’s programs, not so much.

You should carefully conifer if you can afford to pay the tuition without going 
deeply into debt.  If not, and if you don’t have a clear idea of some lucrative 
job you could snag with the degree that you can’t get without it, you should at 
least wait until you have heard from all the programs you may have applied for. 
 Many people choose to work for a few years before applying to graduate 
programs, which can be helpful both in paying off undergraduate loans and 
gaining a clearer idea of what kinds of research/careers one is most interested 
in.

If this professor is really interested in working with you, you should stay in 
contact with her.  If you the program accepted you this year, they would 
probably accept you next year too, especially if your prospective advisor has 
found some funding and can advocate for you.

EM
 

On Mar 1, 2016, at 7:50 PM, Alexander Sousa  wrote:

> Hello. 
> 
> I have just been informed of my acceptance to a Geoscience/geobiology 
> M.S. program with a great advisor on the east coast. The only catch is a 
> total lack of funding as of now. The professor pulling for me has told 
> me she has a few pans in the fire for securing funding but that they are 
> all somewhat unlikely and that given the burden of 27,000 tuition that 
> she does not expect me to matriculate.
> 
> My question to all of you kind and intelligent Ecologgers is: Should I 
> take this position or should I wait?
> 
> Here is some background to help you understand my situation:
> 
> I am an aspiring researcher/professor of astrobiology or some such 
> related field (geomicrobiology, extremophile microbiology etc. with a 
> bachelors degree (2.74 GPA) in biology from BU and a current teaching 
> position at a local high school. I intend to obtain a PhD as soon as 
> possible (although maybe that is a poor plan)
> 
> I have about 3 years of collective experience in labs ranging from 
> biogeochemistry to extremophile microbiology and am hoping to be 
> published in the coming months.
> 
> My GRE scores are:
> 
> 162 in the verbal reasoning putting me in the 90th percentile
> 159 on the quantitative reasoning putting me in the 75th percentile
> 4 on the analytical writing putting me in the 56th percentile.
> 
> I am also taking 2 graduate courses at local universities as a non-
> matriculated student and expect to do well in them. (ArcGIS & Chemical 
> oceanography)
> 
> 
> My largest unknowns are; my lack of real understanding as to what sorts 
> of employment opportunities exist for me to recoup my expenditure in the 
> short term and the mysterious nature of the graduate funding machine... 
> 
> The real question is... should I wait until next cycle and try my luck 
> again, hopefully with better results since my grades from my grad 
> courses will now be in and my publication should be completed. OR is the 
> nature of these things pretty ephemeral and should I just jump on this 
> opportunity and recoup the loans later? (The Bureau of Labor Statistics 
> projects great growth and median salary for geoscientists at a masters 
> level.)
> 
> 
> WHAT DO YOU THINK!!!???
> 
> thanks so much everyone! 

[ECOLOG-L] listserv or website for other biology jobs/REUs

[Emily Moran]

Dear ECOLOG,

I like to tell my undergrad students about this email list as an example of 
where they can find out more about research, internship, and job opportunities 
in ecology.  However, as in many programs, a lot of our bio majors are 
interested in biomedical sciences or molecular biology.
Does anyone know of a good listserv or website for students interested in these 
fields?

Emily Moran
UC Merced

Re: [ECOLOG-L] Overcoming the Location Hump for Out of State Jobs/Graduate Studies

[Emily Moran]

I’m not sure who told you that, but many jobs (particularly those that are 
posted to groups like ecolog with a widely dispersed readership) and most 
graduate schools are perfectly fine with out-of-state applicants.  
When I’m hiring I do Skype or phone interviews - you could suggest that in your 
cover letter in case the person hiring hasn’t thought of that.

EM

On Feb 22, 2016, at 7:35 AM, Angela Trenkle  wrote:

> Hello everyone,
>   I am looking into employment/graduate school out of state. I was wondering 
> if anyone had any suggestions/words of advice on how to overcome the location 
> hump (I have heard that a lot of places will dismiss you immediately upon 
> seeing that you are not a local). Is it impossible? How can it be done? 
> Thanks!
> -Angela

Re: [ECOLOG-L] promoting Ecology course

[Emily Moran]

If the question is “how do we get more students to see ecology as an 
interesting career path” rather than “how to we get premeds to take ecology 
classes”, the key seems to be to expose them to interesting uses of ecology and 
interesting ecological careers as early as possible.
In most schools, the kids who come in wanting to major in biology tend to say 
they are pre-med, in part because that is the only biology-related career they 
are aware of.  

One thing we’re trying at UCM is to have ladder-rank faculty give guest 
lectures in the intro bio class - along with delivering the basic material, we 
get the chance to tell students a little about our research and have the option 
of talking about how they can get involved in research, other classes they 
might consider if they like the ecology/evolution section of bio 1, or career 
paths.  It is too early yet to see if it is having much effect in recruiting 
students to the EEB track or environmental sciences major, but I know I got 
some good questions from students about options for including plant-related 
stuff in their educational and career trajectory.

Involving students in research and hands on projects in their freshman or 
sophomore year can also be a great way to stoke their interest in biology 
outside of a clinical setting.

Emily Moran
UC Merced

> 
> 
> On 2/1/16, 11:23 AM, "Ecological Society of America: grants, jobs, news on
> behalf of Kay Shenoy"  kay.yellowt...@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> Does anybody have ideas on how to promote Ecology among Biology
>> undergraduates? We are finding that Biology majors are increasingly
>> focused on health-care fields; many students consider Ecology
>> ³unimportant² for their future careers, and it is not addressed in the
>> MCAT exams, so they give it a low priority. How does one increase
>> enrollment in Ecology courses, and particularly in schools that do not
>> have dedicated Ecology departments? Any thoughts would be welcome!

Re: [ECOLOG-L] Reducing Population Size in Natural Populations of Organisms - A Question

[Emily Moran]

ike to avoid such situations!), but not 
necessarily bad in terms of species-level survival.

7) In the modern human world, the effects of differences in birth rate on 
competition between nations is complex.  Many nations that have experienced 
reduced birth rates for some time still have growing populations because they 
take in immigrants (many of whom are young working adults), which reduces the 
potential negative effects on the availability of workers or the integrity of 
social security systems built on the assumption that there will always be many 
more workers than retirees.   Conversely, many of the nations that still have 
high birth rates are hampered in their development by the need to provide for 
their rapidly growing population.  It is true that the relative numbers of 
people with different ancestry will shift if some nations have higher 
population growth rates than others, but it would be racist to worry about 
that.  It may be somewhat more legitimate to worry about cultural shifts that 
may result from high birth rates in country A vs country B coupled with 
immigration from A to B…but I suspect these worries are overblown.  Especially 
if they are welcomed and treated well, immigrants usually integrate quite well 
into into their new nations - second-generation immigrants in the US, for 
example, generally have English as their first language and many habits that 
are distinctively American.  It is likely true, however, that as the world 
population as a whole begins to stabilize we will need to revise the 
assumptions behind things like our retirement age, how social security works, 
etc.  For example, if health of older adults also improves, it may be possible 
to raise the retirement age, or for more people to work part-time beyond age 65 
- which would at least partly correct for the imbalance between workers and 
retirees.

Emily Moran
Assistant professor, UC Merced


On Jan 20, 2016, at 6:38 AM, Howard S. Neufeld 
mailto:neufel...@appstate.edu>> wrote:

Hi all - I am currently working on an abstract about global climate change for 
a regional biology meeting in the southeast, and I wanted to say something 
about the control of natural populations of organisms, but I am not sure if the 
statement I want to make is true, so I’m asking for some advice and counsel on 
this.

Here’s the question: Has any population of organisms (humans excluded) 
regulated and reduced their population size by lowering their birth rate 
instead of increasing their death rate?  And have any slowed their rate of 
increase by raising the age at first birth?  Most of the examples I know of 
natural population control do so by increasing the death rate.

Some further comments: If resources get scarce as populations increase in 
density then behavioral changes could lead to reductions in the birth rate, but 
under resource scarcity I would assume that the death rate would go up also.  I 
know about density-dependent and density-independent controls on population 
growth, but here, I’m looking for explicit examples where populations decrease 
birth rate without increasing the death rate.

You may wonder why I’m asking this.  It's because I’m wondering if humans can, 
in the long-term, reduce their population by lowering the birth rate without 
increasing the death rate.  Yes, some countries are already on that path 
(Japan, for example), but economists and social and political scientists seem 
to have a problem with such demographic changes, particularly in a free-market 
situation where an aging population, even if sustainable, is viewed as less 
competitive and therefore at risk of losing out (whatever that means) to 
younger, more dynamic populations.  It suggests to me that ecology and society 
are fundamentally at odds here, and that future societies may require paradigm 
shifts in the way they operate if humans are to actually create a sustainable 
society.  But that’s another story.

For now, I’d be really interested to hear explicit examples if anyone has any.

Thanks.
Howie Neufeld

--
Dr. Howard S. Neufeld, Professor
Director, Southern Appalachian Environmental Research and Education Center 
(SAEREC)
Chair, Appalachian Interdisciplinary Atmospheric Research Group (AppalAIR)

Mailing Address:
   Department of Biology
   572 Rivers St.
   Appalachian State University
   Boone, NC 28608
   Tel: 828-262-2683; Fax 828-262-2127

Websites:
Academic: http://biology.appstate.edu/faculty-staff/104
Personal: http://www.appstate.edu/~neufeldhs/index.html
SAEREC: http://saerec.appstate.edu<http://saerec.appstate.edu/>
AppalAIR: http://appalair.appstate.edu<http://appalair.appstate.edu/>
Fall Colors:
  Academic: http://biology.appstate.edu/fall-colors
  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FallColorGuy

[ECOLOG-L] Postdoc: Modeling plant responses to global change

[Emily Moran]

A postdoc position in ecological/evolutionary modeling is available at UC
Merced in the Moran lab (https://sites.google.com/site/emilyvmoran/).  Our
research focuses on the ecological and evolutionary responses of plants to
climate change.  The aim of this postdoctoral project would be to develop an
individual-based forest model incorporating both species differences and
genetic differences in environmental responses, in order to investigate the
importance of evolutionary responses relative to species range shifts under
different scenarios of climate change and disturbance.  We have already
parameterized SORTIE with average growth, mortality, and dispersal
parameters for Sierra Nevada tree species.  The next steps will include
fitting species-level climate response functions using a 30-year dataset,
and incorporating heritability of climate responses.  Our group will also be
collecting field data with which will aid in further parameter refinement. 

The initial appointment will be for one year and is renewable, depending on
performance and availability of funding.  The salary and benefits package
associated with the position are based upon those established by the
University of California.

Qualifications:
Candidates must have completed a Ph.D. in biology, ecology, modeling, or
similar discipline, and have experience programming in C++.   Experience
with forest models would be particularly valuable.  Experience with Bayesian
modeling is also desirable.  The candidate must also be creative,
self-disciplined, and motivated.  Additional desirable skills include
experience with statistical methods and/or R programming.

Applications will be evaluated based on past research productivity,
alignment of applicant experiences and interests with the goals of the lab
group.  The top-ranking applicants will be invited to interview by Skype,
phone, or in person.

Salary:
Salary is based on the University of California Academic Salaries Scale.

To Apply: 
Review of applications will begin February 2, 2016. To ensure full
consideration please apply before February 8.  Ideally, the start date will
be in March.

To apply, please submit 1) a cover letter explaining your interest in and
qualifications for the position, 2) academic CV, and 3) contact information
for three references.  Applications must be submitted via this website:
https://aprecruit.ucmerced.edu/apply/JPF00286.

UC Merced, which opened in September 2005, is the newest school of the
10-campus University of California system (http://www.ucmerced.edu/).  The
university is still small (6,300 students, 270 faculty), but is diverse and
rapidly growing.  Merced is a town of 80 thousand people located in the
central valley.  It is conveniently located 1 hour north of Fresno (the
closest airport), 2 hours east of Berkeley and San Francisco, 2 hours south
of Davis and Sacramento, and 2 hours west of Yosemite National Park.  Cost
of living is relatively low. ] – ecolog style. The University of California,
Merced  is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer with a strong
institutional commitment to the achievement of diversity among its faculty,
staff, and students. 

As of January 1, 2014 the University of California, Merced will be a smoke
and tobacco free workplace. Information and the Smoke and Tobacco Free
policy is available at http://smokefree.ucmerced.edu

For more information:  Please contact Emily Moran (emor...@ucmerced.edu) –
for further inquiries or to meet with me during the 2014 Ecological Society
of America meetings in Sacramento.

Re: [ECOLOG-L] Gaining Experience in Molecular Biology

[Emily Moran]

You could look for lab assistant or intern positions that include basic 
molecular bio tasks such as PCR, DNA extraction, etc.  Although many will be 
looking for someone who has those skills already, if it is a minor part of the 
project they may be willing to train you.

Emily Moran

On Sep 30, 2015, at 6:14 AM, Angela Trenkle  wrote:

> Hello everyone,
>I am a recent graduate and since I've been applying to jobs, I've noticed 
> that the majority of them ask for skills in molecular biology. I do not have 
> any of this under my belt and I was wondering if anyone here had any 
> suggestions on how I could gain some experience in this area. Thanks!
> -Angela Trenkle

[ECOLOG-L] Lab/Field technician position

[Emily Moran]

Lab/Field Assistant Job
 I am a plant biologist at UC Merced looking for at least one full-time lab & 
field assistant.  Research in our lab centers on forest ecology & genetics, 
particularly responses to climate change. The technician appointment would be 
for 6 months, with potential for renewal for a further 6 months.  Starting pay 
$14.57/hour.  I am hoping to hire one person starting as soon as possible this 
fall (late Sept – early Oct), with a possible second hire starting in January 
2016.
Candidates must have a bachelor’s degree in a biology-related field, good 
organizational and time management skills, basic computer skills (excel, word 
processing, etc.), and a driver’s license.  Candidates must have experience 
with plant genetics, including sequencing, DNA extraction, PCR.  Experience 
developing or working with SNPs would be desirable.  Ecology field experience, 
including measuring and identifying trees, collecting seed, etc. is also be 
desirable.  Additional skills that would be helpful (but not necessarily 
required) include experience with plant propagation, a working knowledge of 
statistics, and/or R programming.  Please note if you have a driver’s license 
and access to a vehicle.
Under-represented minorities are particularly encouraged to apply.
Duties will include assisting with development of SNP markers for Ponderosa 
pine alongside collaborators at Davis, helping to set up field sites in Sequoia 
National Park, assisting with equipment ordering and testing of protocols in 
the lab, literature searches, cleaning and maintaining laboratory equipment, 
and data entry and analysis.
The laboratory assistant will also be expected to participate in lab meetings 
and update his/her skills by reading and participating classes/workshops as 
necessary.
To apply, please send me your CV and a cover letter explaining your interest in 
the position and whether you would prefer the fall or winter start date: 
emor...@ucmerced.edu<mailto:emor...@ucmerced.edu>.  Reply before October 1 for 
fall position, before December 20 for winter position.  CA candidates or others 
who could relocated quickly preferred for fall position.
UC Merced is the newest school of the University of California system 
(http://www.ucmerced.edu/).  The campus is small but diverse.  Merced is a town 
of 80 thousand people located in the central valley, and cost of living is low. 
 It is conveniently located 1 hour north of Fresno (the closest airport), 2 
hours east of Berkeley and San Francisco, 2 hours south of Davis and 
Sacramento, and 2 hours west of Yosemite National Park.

Emily Moran
Assistant professor, UC Merced

Re: [ECOLOG-L] Computerized journal submissions

[Emily Moran]

I’ve never run into a submission process that is THAT picky - with checkboxes 
for taxa or a need for Windows 7.  And I’ve certainly never seen one that 
doesn’t let you save!
Such egregious problems should certainly be fixed.

The issue I’ve run into most frequently is image formatting.  For instance, 
sometimes the image is fine in itself, but the automatic system obscures part 
of it with the line numbers or header when it creates the PDF, so you have to 
give the image bizarrely large borders (something the submission instructions 
don’t warn you about).  A few years ago I encountered one that requested images 
of a particular size in inches - even though digital images can be resized, so 
what you want is a particular resolution.
Also, many still request fax numbers as well as email and mailing addresses, 
even though I’ve never been faxed anything from a journal.  But most will still 
accept the paper if one leaves that box blank.

Those are mainly small annoyances, though.  Journals that are part of a larger 
“family” (like Ecology, Ecological Monographs, and the other ESA published 
journals) tend to have a fairly streamlined and consistent submission process.  
It may well be that smaller journals have fewer staff and resources to deal 
with issues like updating their submission websites.  If it is one that has 
been around a while (especially if it still has print versions) I wouldn’t 
worry too much about a paper vanishing - something like JSTOR would probably 
pick it up.  However, if it ENTIRELY online and has a terrible website…it 
certainly wouldn’t give a prospective author confidence.

Emily Moran
UC Merced

On Jul 22, 2015, at 10:20 PM, David Duffy 
mailto:ddu...@hawaii.edu>> wrote:

I have noticed (albeit a small sample size) recently that several on-line 
journals have rigid, time consuming and picky processes for paper submission. 
To submit a paper, one is required to format for publication in an 
idiosyncratic style, one that is not necessarily shared by other journals. This 
would be fine after acceptance but it is a tremendous waste of time beforehand. 
Second the submitting formats are rigid. If one can't give the desired 
responses one can't move forward. One admission process required taxon 
identification but didn't include the avian order I was concerned with. Another 
placed Hawaii in Polynesia, not the US. There may be cogent arguments for this 
but a journal submission should not be an exercise in geopolitical tiddlywinks. 
 Several require email addresses for all authors, not so subtly discriminating 
against folks in developing countries that might not have easy or stable access 
to the Internet. Others require one to sign off concerning a wide range of 
compliance and conflict of interest concerns that may or may not apply. Some 
submission processes seem to work only with specific browsers but the editors 
either don't know this or don't see it necessary to tell one that they are 
still locked into Windows 7. Finally some allow you to save and return but 
others don't. The last is especially sadistic.

How much of this information is truly necessary when deciding whether to send a 
paper out for review, assuming sending out for reviewing really happens?

An ethical approach for electronic journal submission would be to allow 
submissions in some simplified format: title, abstract, introduction, methods, 
results, discussion, conclusion, acknowledgments, literature cited. If the 
paper is accepted, bring on the compliance and conflict of interest assurances, 
literature (or reference) cited formats,  unit abbreviations, use of 
parentheses and so on. If all these data are truly necessary up front, perhaps 
a measure of an on-line journal's quality might be whether it actually knows 
how to handle things on-line. If not, in ten years, one's paper may well vanish 
into the cloud along with the journal.

I would welcome replies from journal editors if they feel I am being unfair.

--
David Duffy
戴大偉 (Dài Dàwěi)
Pacific Cooperative Studies Unit
Botany
University of Hawaii
3190 Maile Way
Honolulu Hawaii 96822 USA
1-808-956-8218

Re: [ECOLOG-L] Graduate School Advice

[Emily Moran]

I agree with Steve - Aaron seems to have had a really bad experience.  But that 
is far from universal.

Here is what I would say (note: I loved grad school, and am now an assistant 
professor):

1) Yes, be proactive!  Faculty love to hear from bright students, and to me 
hearing that a student has independent ideas is very reassuring.  My job as a 
mentor is to help students become independent scientists, but while you can 
teach skills, you can’t teach someone the “fire in the belly” that is needed to 
overcome all the obstacles that necessarily come up when pursuing research.

2) Be aware that opportunities to pursue an independent question might be 
limited.  If, for example, you can get an NSF pre-doc award, and can find a 
mentor with similar research interests, that offers the best prospects.  Next 
best is having a mentor with abundant/flexible grant funding, so that they can 
help support you without your being closely tied to a specific project - you 
can apply for other grad student funding once you arrive (this option is the 
one that worked for me).  But you might end up in a situation where your 
advisor really needs you to work on a specific project they designed, either 
because they are just getting their research program started, have a very 
specific grant, or both.

3) Talk to lots of people (on this I completely agree with Aaron) - not just 
the prospective faculty member, but current and former grad students as well, 
and other grad students at the institution.  This will give you a good idea of 
the advisor’s mentoring style.  Not all mentoring styles work for all people.  
For instance, someone who is fairly hands-off but responsive to questions might 
be a perfect mentor for someone who has a good idea of what they want to do and 
how to do it, but a terrible mentor for someone who needs more guidance and 
support.

4) While you shouldn’t expect to be on a research assistantship all 5 years 
(most schools, even those with a lot of money, expect some TA-ing), the firmer 
the guarantee of support the better.  Some schools (my current institution 
included) do not feel they are in a position to guarantee 5 years of support.  
In those cases it is best to ask straight out: “Has there ever been a student 
who has not been able to get the TA or GSR support they need?”.  In our case - 
no, there has never been a problem.  Still, when I was applying, the fact that 
one of my top choices offered guaranteed support and the other didn’t was one 
of the main deciding factors.

Emily Moran
UC Merced

On May 27, 2015, at 5:50 PM, Stephen L. Young  wrote:

> Wow! I couldn¹t think of any worse advise. If I had followed these
> guidelines I would have not been anywhere near where I am today and would
> have not met some of the most inspiring, motivating, creative, and smart
> people, who have become some of my best friends and colleagues.
> 
> Steve
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On 5/27/15, 6:56 PM, "Aaron T. Dossey"  wrote:
> 
>> 1) I wouldn't go to grad school for science these days. Universities and
>> faculty are far too exploitative and the career opportunities requiring
>> a graduate degree are far too few (especially in academia and
>> government).  Best to get out there and get a job and experience with
>> those years, or even start your own organization or company.
>> You may be interested in the articles and "Notes" posted on this page:
>> https://www.facebook.com/pages/National-Postdoc-Union/275402225908673
>> 
>> 2) It is the responsibility (one of an ever waning list) of the faculty
>> boss (referred to some as "mentor" or "adviser") to provide projects
>> (well funded ones) for their students, then spend time TEACHING them the
>> projects, techniques and science behind the projects.   I would be
>> suspicious of any lab that requires you to come up with your own
>> project, especially if they require you to come with your own funding.
>> 
>> 3) If you do have project ideas, best to pursue them on your own time
>> and well separate from the lab and/or involvement of any university
>> faculty member.  Basically if you know what you want to do and more or
>> less how to do it, you don't need grad school:  you need
>> resources/facilities to pursue it.  So, find (sit down for this)
>> COLLABORATORS (not bosses) and some sort of funding or access to lab and
>> equipment you need.  You can even try crowdfunding, or like I said,
>> start a company or non-profit.
>> 
>> 4) If you DO dive into graduate school for some reason:  selecting a
>> decent ethical faculty boss who actually cares about YOUR career (very
>> rare) will be your most critical decision/task.  the following are
>> criteria and methods you should use: a) talk to as many people IN t

Re: [ECOLOG-L] Question for the Professionals

[Emily Moran]

It sounds like the problem is being able to fit in all the requirements while 
still having time for research and study-abroad, right?

Generally speaking, the specific name of the degree matters less than your 
experience when you are applying to jobs or grad school.  Having research 
experience in a relevant area looks WAY better than having the right title but 
no experience.  So, if you don’t want to change schools and you think the 
environmental studies major would give you more “wiggle room” - stay in that 
program, and beef up the “science” part with whatever science classes are most 
relevant for your future career/education interests.  I would recommend 
chemistry and probably organic chemistry, as well as genetics, evolution, and 
some ecology classes.  Some of these you can do as part of a study-abroad if 
your program allows you to transfer the credits: I did wildlife biology and 
plant physiology in Australia, for example.  Check with the biology program - 
you might be able to do with them this as well.

You could also double major or get a minor, as Malcolm suggests, but that might 
increase your scheduling problems rather than alleviating them!  Of course, if 
the requirements for a bio minor are fairly, well, minor…it wouldn’t hurt!

Emily Moran
UC Merced

On Apr 8, 2015, at 11:35 AM, Malcolm McCallum 
 wrote:

> Rather than switch majors, why not double major?
> When I was an undergrad, I was triple majoring in biology, agriculture and
> chemistry until course conflicts made it impossible to fulfill all the
> requirements for all three.  Then, I dropped chemistry (which I fully
> regret!) and graduated in five years with a double major in bio and ag.
> A LOT of students were double majors at UMKC when I was there in a temp
> position.
> 
> If you are in environmental studies, it will largely depend on the focus of
> the program.
> some are focused on social sciences (Policy and sustainablity) whereas
> others are focused on the science end (bio-chem-geol).
> 
> If you are going to go into the science end, you need to have a science
> background.
> I don't think it is so important whether your major in bio or env studies
> if you plan to go to grad school.
> But, if you don't, you need to cover your bases now.
> 
> Your options are
> Major in env studies, minor in bio
> major in env studies, major in bio
> major in bio, minor in env studies.
> 
> There are also other options you might consider.
> if you are specifically interested in env studies, you might even consider
> minoring in public administration.
> However, a minor in chemistry might be more valuable.
> 
> IN general, I personally think a double major is far superior to a major
> with multiple minors.  Not everyone agrees with this, but it is my opinion.
> Depending on your situation, my opinion may be wrong.  Without seeing your
> transcript, nowing your grades, understanding the programs you are
> comparing, it is pretty hard to give GOOD advice.  HOWEVER, the advice you
> have received with the options they provide in the series of emails from
> various people are all pretty darn good.  YOu need to read through it,
> maybe contact the people individually offline and discuss more intimately
> your situation.  Then, maybe you can hammer down yoru options.
> 
> I'ld be glad to correspond with you further off-line, and I know from
> experience some of the others would be glad to help you out too.  You
> should probably talk to your advisor too.  I suspect that you will find
> them very helpful in that he/she will have a much better grasp on your
> situation and the programs you are speaking of.  For example, had I
> realized early on that it would be impossible for me to complete a triple
> major in my three fields, I might have dropped one early and taken up
> geology instead, or a math/computer minor (man would that have been
> useful!)
> 
> YOU REALLY NEED TO DEFINE WHAT IT IS YOU ARE TRYING TO DO, WHAT ARE YOUR
> GOALS IN YOUR EDUCATION?
> I get a vibe you sorta have these hammered out, but not exactly.  That
> might refect more directy your problem than which major to take!
> 
> Malcolm McCallum
> 
> On Tue, Apr 7, 2015 at 5:36 PM, Matt Smetana  wrote:
> 
>> Hey Everyone!
>> 
>> My name is Matt Smetana, and I’m a current sophomore at Brandeis
>> University out near
>> Boston. I have been subscribed to this listserve for a few months and have
>> been
>> applying to various summer internships within the ecological/biological
>> field. I am certain
>> this is the career path I want to take but am unclear of the skill set
>> required to be
>> successful in this field.
>> 
>> My current degree is Environmental Studies, but I am also highly
>> interested in Ec

[ECOLOG-L] Plant ecology/evolution lab assistant positions

[Emily Moran]

Lab/Field Assistant Job
I am a plant biologist at UC Merced looking for at least one full-time summer 
lab & field assistant.  Research in our lab centers on forest ecology & 
genetics, particularly responses to climate change. The technician appointment 
would be for four months, with potential for renewal.  Starting pay 
$14.57/hour. Available start dates: April 25-May 30, 2015.
Candidates must have a bachelor’s degree in a biology-related field, good 
organizational and time management skills, basic computer skills (excel, word 
processing, etc.), and a driver’s license.  Candidates must have either:
A) Experience with plant genetics, including sequencing, DNA extraction, PCR.  
Experience developing or working with SNPs would be desirable.
B) Forest ecology field experience, including measuring and identifying trees, 
collecting seed, etc.
or C)  A mixture of these skills.
Additional skills that would be desirable (but not necessarily required) 
include experience with plant propagation, a working knowledge of statistics, 
and/or R programming.  Please not if you have a driver’s license and access to 
a vehicle.
Under-represented minorities are particularly encouraged to apply.
Duties may include:

-   - Developing SNP markers for Ponderosa pine alongside collaborators at 
Davis

-  -  Locating and setting up field sites in the Sierra Nevada

-   - Assisting with equipment ordering and testing of protocols in the lab

-   - Literature searches to find data to parameterize forest models

-   - Cleaning and maintaining laboratory equipment

-  -  Data entry and analysis
The laboratory assistant will also be expected to participate in lab meetings 
and update his/her skills by reading and participating classes/workshops as 
necessary.
To apply, upload your CV and a cover letter explaining your interest in the 
position to the UCM AP recruit system (https://aprecruit.ucmerced.edu/apply, 
position #5886) or follow this link: 
https://jobs.ucmerced.edu/n/staff/position.jsf?positionId=5886.
For full consideration, please apply before March 30.
For more information, please contact me at 
emor...@ucmerced.edu<mailto:emor...@ucmerced.edu>
UC Merced is the newest school of the University of California system 
(http://www.ucmerced.edu/).  The campus is small but diverse.  Merced is a town 
of 80 thousand people located in the central valley, and cost of living is low. 
 It is conveniently located 1 hour north of Fresno (the closest airport), 2 
hours east of Berkeley and San Francisco, 2 hours south of Davis and 
Sacramento, and 2 hours west of Yosemite National Park.
Emily Moran, Assistant Professor, UC Merced

[ECOLOG-L] Plant ecology/evolution postdoc, PhD positions

[Emily Moran]

As previously posted, a postdoctoral position is available in the Moran lab at 
UC Merced (https://sites.google.com/site/moranplantlab/ ).   I am extending the 
deadline for full consideration to September 25.
The aim of this postdoctoral project is to develop an individual-based forest 
model incorporating both species differences and genetic differences in 
environmental responses, in order to investigate the importance of evolutionary 
responses relative to species range shifts under different scenarios of climate 
change and disturbance.  The initial appointment will be for one year and is 
renewable, depending on performance and availability of funding.  The salary 
and benefits package associated with the position are based upon those 
established by the University of California.  Candidates must have completed a 
Ph.D. in biology, ecology, modeling, or similar discipline, and have experience 
programming in C++.   Experience with forest models would be particularly 
valuable.  They must also be creative, self-disciplined, and motivated.  
Additional desirable skills include experience with statistical methods and/or 
R programming.  Review of applications will begin in August 2014 and will 
continue until the position is filled.  To ensure full consideration please 
apply before Sept 20.  To apply, please submit 1) a cover letter 2) academic 
CV, and 3) contact information for three references through 
https://aprecruit.ucmerced.edu/apply (ignore earlier deadline).  If you have 
questions, please contact me at 
emor...@ucmerced.edu.

I am also interested in hearing from prospective PhD students interested in the 
ecological and/or evolutionary responses of plants to environmental change, 
particularly climate change.  Potential projects could involve fieldwork in 
various California ecosystems including grasslands and Sierra Nevada conifer 
forests, mathematical modeling, and/or population genetics and genomics.  I am 
accepting students through either the Environmental Systems 
(http://es.ucmerced.edu/) or Quantitative and Systems Biology 
(http://qsb.ucmerced.edu/) graduate groups.  For more information, please 
contact me at emor...@ucmerced.edu.

UC Merced, which opened in September 2005, is the newest school of the 
10-campus University of California system (http://www.ucmerced.edu/)..  The 
university is still small (6,300 students, 270 faculty), but is diverse and 
rapidly growing.  Merced is a town of 80 thousand people located in the central 
valley.  It is conveniently located 1 hour north of Fresno (the closest 
airport), 2 hours east of Berkeley and San Francisco, 2 hours south of Davis 
and Sacramento, and 2 hours west of Yosemite National Park. The University of 
California, Merced  is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer with a 
strong institutional commitment to the achievement of diversity among its 
faculty, staff, and students.

[ECOLOG-L] Postdoc, ecological/evolutionary modeling

[Emily Moran]

A postdoctoral position is available in the Moran lab at UC Merced 
(https://sites.google.com/site/moranplantlab/ )
The aim of this postdoctoral project is to develop an individual-based forest 
model incorporating both species differences and genetic differences in 
environmental responses, in order to investigate the importance of evolutionary 
responses relative to species range shifts under different scenarios of climate 
change and disturbance.  The initial appointment will be for one year and is 
renewable, depending on performance and availability of funding.  The salary 
and benefits package associated with the position are based upon those 
established by the University of California.  Candidates must have completed a 
Ph.D. in biology, ecology, modeling, or similar discipline, and have experience 
programming in C++.   Experience with forest models would be particularly 
valuable.  They must also be creative, self-disciplined, and motivated.  
Additional desirable skills include experience with statistical methods and/or 
R programming.  Review of applications will begin in August 2014 and will 
continue until the position is filled.  To ensure full consideration please 
apply before Sept 20.  To apply, please submit 1) a cover letter 2) academic 
CV, and 3) contact information for three references through 
https://aprecruit.ucmerced.edu/apply (please note, site states “please apply 
before Aug 30”, but this has been extended due to posting delay).  If you have 
questions, please contact me at 
emor...@ucmerced.edu.

UC Merced, which opened in September 2005, is the newest school of the 
10-campus University of California system (http://www.ucmerced.edu/)..  The 
university is still small (6,300 students, 270 faculty), but is diverse and 
rapidly growing.  Merced is a town of 80 thousand people located in the central 
valley.  It is conveniently located 1 hour north of Fresno (the closest 
airport), 2 hours east of Berkeley and San Francisco, 2 hours south of Davis 
and Sacramento, and 2 hours west of Yosemite National Park. The University of 
California, Merced  is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer with a 
strong institutional commitment to the achievement of diversity among its 
faculty, staff, and students.  The university is supportive of dual-career 
couples.

Re: [ECOLOG-L] "The Audacity of Graduate School"

[Emily Moran]

I agree with the post below.  I had fantastic advisors for my PhD and 
postdocs.  I had a lot of independence and always got 
first/corresponding author status for my own work.  And the process is 
long, but doesn't have to take forever - even in the US you can do a 
biology Ph.D. in 5 years.


HOWEVER...you do have to be careful.  Some people clearly have had bad 
experiences.  Definitely scope out the lab and the department before you 
sign up.  If you meet a lot of disgruntled students, that is a bad sign 
- especially since people usually try to give a positive spin on things 
in front of potential recruits.


One thing I have observed is that not all mentoring styles work for all 
students.  For instance, a student who is really independent may prefer 
a relatively hands-off mentoring style, whereas one who is a little more 
unsure of his/her path might want more suggestions regarding research 
topics and methods.


As to whether getting a PhD is advantageous...well, that depends on what 
kind of jobs you are aiming for.  If you want to head up a lab or teach 
at a college level, as I did, a PhD is generally required (or at least 
highly recommended).  But a lot of other jobs in science may not.   
Also, you have to be really into your topic, such that the work you do, 
for your PhD and afterward, is fun for its own sake.


Emily Moran

On 10/17/2012 09:24 PM, Ryan McEwan wrote:

There are many overgeneralizations in the points made by Aaron (and in the
article linked above).  Graduate school is HARD, no doubt about it, but I
would guess that, in the field of ecology, the vast majority of graduate
students are valued and respected members of communities within their
program.  That was certainly the case in all of my experiences. Graduate
school can be an extremely fulfilling time and a very direct stepping stone
into a rewarding career.

The generalization that faculty members are oligarchs who steal the
student’s intellectual property is absurd.  Certainly there are instances
where a faculty member mistreats graduate students, but they are
*extremely* rare in my experience, and can be avoided if the students are
careful in the application process.

In particular, for students considering graduate school- meet the potential
faculty member before you take the position, and talk to other people in
the lab.  **Interview on site if at all possible.**  Contact students who
have left the lab and ask about their experience.  If you do these
things(especially an on site interview) then you will have a very good idea
about your prospects.  Take a professional approach to the application
process, be careful and selective, and you are likely to end up with a
faculty mentor who truly cares about YOUR success and will do all they can
to help you advance in your career.

Happy Hunting.
Ryan



Ryan W. McEwan, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Biology
The University of Dayton
300 College Park, Dayton, OH  45469-2320

Office phone: 1.937.229.2558
Lab phone:1.937.229.2567

Office Location:  SC 223D

Email:  ryan.mce...@udayton.edu
Lab:
http://academic.udayton.edu/ryanmcewan<http://academic.udayton.edu/ryanmcewan>

Re: [ECOLOG-L] Treatment of Ecology in AP classes

[Emily Moran]

I took a lot of AP classes in highschool - biology, calculus, 
statistics, physics, etc.


I also switched from AP chemistry to a chemistry course at Indiana 
University halfway through the year - but that was only possible because 
my highschool was experimenting with a semester rather than full-year 
system, and because I had a lot of help from my parents (who are 
academics) in getting me registered at IU and arguing with the 
highschool to arrange a study period for me at the correct time.  I 
don't think most students would be able to make that work.


Overall, the AP classes were of equivalent quality to intro university 
classes.  The University of Michigan accepted the credits, which allowed 
me to move more  into the more interesting and rigorous upper level 
classes.  That was really important - if I had to repeat all those 
courses, I might well have gotten frustrated enough to switch to 
history!  As it is, I took most of the ecology classes offered, as well 
as two genetics courses and 4 years of math, and eventually pursued a 
Ph.D. in ecology.  And all those math and science courses enabled me to 
incorporate mathematical modeling and population genetics into my thesis 
research in ways I never would have predicted when I was a college student.


As with any intro course, the benefit students get depends on how 
diligent they are in pursuing a subject and continuing to learn outside 
of class.  Most of the AP students I know are quite self-motivated.


However, some universities or departments may be concerned that students 
cpuld, for example, take their AP credit and never think about biology 
again.
One way to avoid this would be to accept the AP credit ON THE CONDITION 
that students take at least one upper level course in the discipline.


Emily Moran


On 11/22/2011 1:24 PM, Melanie Hedgespeth wrote:

It has been interesting to read the responses to this topic.

Speaking from my own personal experience and having taken AP Bio in high
school, I did feel that yes, the ecology portion was a bit rushed because
it was towards the end of the curriculum. We had to study a bit of material
on our own because we didn't have time to cover it all in class before the
exam. However, we were also told by our teacher that we needed to make sure
to cover our bases in all areas when studying on our own. She also
suggested that the AP exam covers a lot of plant-related material and to
focus on that while studying since that is where previous students hadn't
done so well in the past. I felt the class in general was fine, and was
successful on the AP Exam (testing out of both semesters of college intro
bio). I was happy to not have to pay the tuition fees for 2 extra courses
and did fine in upper-level bio courses that I went on to take. I later
tutored students taking the same college intro bio course I had tested out
of, so I was able to see what the course entailed. Honestly, I believe that
the AP course I had taken in high school was just as intensive as what was
being taught at college level. However, if I would have been required to
take one semester of the intro course, I would definitely have preferred
the ecology/evolution/genetics portion since that wasn't covered as much as
the other areas in my circumstance. All in all, it seems very dependent on
the school (in terms of high school or even college) as to what level of
material the students are exposed to.

Cheers,
Melanie H.


On Tue, Nov 22, 2011 at 6:14 PM, joseph gathman  wrote:


Personal anecdote:

While conducting part of a workshop for HS teachers, I gave them 20
minutes of my freshman Intro Bio lecture on basic chemistry concepts
(what's an atom, what are the types of molecular bonds, the really simple
stuff that I shouldn't have to cover in college).

After the 20 minutes, there was silence.  The teachers were astonished -
not that I would lecture on such elementary ideas (as I had expected), but
that it went so fast.  One of them said, "What you just covered in 20
minutes is a third of my semester", and the others nodded.  My turn to be
astonished.  I can't even imagine how you could stretch that stuff out for
more than a week.

The point: if a student takes AP Bio, they MIGHT just be getting what you
and I consider a proper HS bio class.  Certainly not college-level biology.

Joe


Subject: Re: Treatment of Ecology in AP classes

I can't speak directly to the question of whether the
classes provide adequate
coverage of any given topic.  Consulting the AP web
site confirms your suspicion that ecology coverage comes
last in the course.  And of course, whether any given
topic is covered adequately is strictly dependent on the
school and the teacher, not the topical listing on the web
site.  I can say, from having served as a grader for
the AP Biology exam, that ecology is well covered on the
exam.

That said, I also suspect that ecology may be a subject
that gets less than full
cov