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Graduate Student Research Forum
The Ecology & Evolution Research Discussion Group (EERDG; pronounced "urge") provides a forum at which graduate students can present research in various stages of conception or completion. Its website includes a schedule and other information about graduate students and their research here in the E&E group at FSU.
Overview of the Graduate Program
The faculty in the Ecology and Evolution Group at Florida State University are strongly committed to the graduate program. We realize that the reciprocity between faculty and graduate students is very important: maintaining a dynamic and intellectually aggressive group of graduate students will improve the quality and enjoyment of our entire program. To this end, we help our graduate students to become creative, yet critical, scientists while maintaining a collegial and rewarding atmosphere.
Admission
Our program has no strict admission criteria, but we expect most applicants to have a strong background in biology or a related discipline, including some background in chemistry, calculus, and statistics. Deficiencies in these areas can be addressed by coursework at Florida State University. The program is primarily directed toward Ph.D. students and students who ultimately wish to obtain a Ph.D., but we provide complete guidance for students working towards master's degrees as well. We encourage prospective students to contact individual faculty in the program directly to explore mutual interests in research training opportunities. Interested students must complete the departmental and university applications and must have taken the Graduate Record Exam. Generally, students are selected from a competitive applicant pool each spring for fall-semester admission. After acceptance, we expect all students to be full-time in our program; all students are supported for the duration of their studies with full stipends (generally teaching or research assistantships) and tuition waivers.
Guidance and Course Work
Each student is accepted with a provisional major advisor but may switch advisors during the program. An advisory committee is generally formed in the second semester and consists of two (M.S.) or four (Ph.D.) additional faculty. Where appropriate, faculty from other institutions may be included on advisory committees. The major professor and the committee consult with the student on coursework and research opportunities, as well as evaluating the student annually.
A variety of graduate courses are offered, both in Biological Science and in related departments such as Statistics, Geological Sciences, and Oceanography. The program of studies for each student is unique and is determined through consultation between the student and the advisory committee, but a core group of courses is required. These courses, which take students through their first three semesters, include Advanced Field Biology, Experimental Design and Analyses, Advanced Population Biology, and Advanced Evolutionary Biology. Other courses include Community Ecology, Models in Ecology and Evolution, a "Mock NSF Panel" course on grants and grant writing, Marine Ecology, and a large and ever-changing variety of seminar/reading courses. A detailed description of the graduate requirements can be found on the departmental web pages.
A student's program includes three examinations of note. First, each student meets individually with the entire Ecology and Evolution faculty once per year during spring graduate reviews. This process keeps the faculty informed of and involved in the progress of every student in the program. Second, for Ph.D. students, written and oral Preliminary Exams are generally taken in the 5th or 6th semester—the exact nature of these exams varies with the faculty involved. Finally, thesis and dissertation defenses are required at the end of the academic program for each student.
Research Opportunities
Although north Florida provides some wonderful research areas, graduate students in Ecology and Evolution have worked literally all over the world. We encourage our students to explore the natural environments around Tallahassee, while also working with a variety of scientists at FSU to develop a broad base of knowledge and skills. Below are some examples of current graduate research—check back often, as we will highlight the research of different students monthly.
Examples of Current Graduate Student Research
Margaret
S. Gunzburger
My research interests are the ecology and conservation of amphibians and reptiles. My dissertation research focuses on the effects of predation by multiple predators on tadpoles of the green treefrog, Hyla cinerea. I am interested in the factors that allow this species to occur across many different habitats when species of closely related treefrogs are limited to specific habitats. I have also worked on several other projects at FSU, including a project evaluating the effects of sediment removal from lakes and ponds on herpetofauna populations and a project investigating the early life history of the salamander Amphiuma means. I enjoy doing research in north Florida; this is an area rich in amphibian and reptile species diversity, and many of my field sites are really beautiful. The Department of Biological Science at FSU is a very supportive; we have an active graduate student discussion group that meets weekly to allow students to share their research and ideas in a relaxed setting with other students.
Eric
Walters
I am interested in communities of species that depend on single discrete resources (e.g. dung patches, pitcher plants, and carcasses). Often, these types of discrete resources are ephemeral or temporary in nature. Through both empirical (i.e. field work in the nearby Apalachicola National Forest) and theoretical (i.e. modeling) work, I am examining the ways in which these dynamic resources determine the species assemblage associated with them.
The system that I work with is the community associated with Red-cockaded Woodpecker cavities. The cavities are excavated by Red-cockaded Woodpeckers and then used by a variety of mammals (e.g. southern flying squirrels), birds (e.g. Eastern Bluebirds), reptiles (e.g. corn snakes), and amphibians (e.g. squirrel tree frogs). Most of the occupants (birds and mammals) use the cavities for reproduction, so the cavity is integral to their life history. I have been examining properties of the cavities such as the rate at which they are recruited and lost from the system and the rate at which they change in size over time. Species interactions that occur among members of the community are determined empirically through a variety of experiments that manipulate both cavities and species within the community.
| Alumni of Ecology and
Evolution at Florida State University |
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Former Student
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Current Position
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| Stan Faeth (1980) |
Professor, Arizona State University |
| Ed Conner (1980) |
Professor, San Francisco State University |
| Susan Mopper (1982) |
Professor, University of Louisiana, Lafayette |
| Mike Auerbach (1982) |
Director, Desert Research Institute |
| Bruce Felgenhauer (1983) |
Professor, University of Louisiana, Lafayette |
| Nicholas Gotelli (1986) |
Professor, University of Vermont |
| Todd Engstom (1986) |
Associate Director, FSU Marine Lab |
| Joel Trexler (1987) |
Professor, Florida International University |
| Mark Butler (1988) |
Professor, Old Dominion University |
| Sharon Strauss (1989) |
Professor, University of California, Davis |
| Mike Antolin (1990) |
Professor, Colorado State University |
| Mark Schwartz (1991) |
Professor, University of California, Davis |
| Claude Gascon |
Executive Vice-President, Conservation International |
| Jim Cronin (1992) |
Associate Professor, University of North Dakota |
| Mike Beck (1996) |
The Nature Conservancy |
| Mark Kuhlmann (1996) |
Assistant Professor, Hartwick College |
| Mike Childress (1996) |
Research Associate, Clemson University |
| Jeff Leips (1997) |
Assistant Professor, University of Maryland Baltimore County |
| Mary Allen (1997) |
Assistant Professor, Hartwick College |
| Charles Baer (1998) |
Assistant Professor, University of Florida |
| Cheryl Morrison (1998) |
Biologist, US Geological Survey |
| Gregory Farley (1999) |
Associate Professor, Chesapeake College |
| Tamara McGovern (2001) |
Postdoctoral Associate, Clemson University |
| Lisa Horth (2001) |
Associate Professor, Old Dominion University |
| Jamie Kneitel (2002) |
Assistant Professor, California State University Sacramento |
| Cheryl Swanson (2002) |
Florida Department of Environmental Protection |
| Rebecca C. Fuller (2003) |
Assistant Professor, University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana |
| Margaret S. Gunzburger (2004) |
Conservation Biologist, Nokuse Plantation, Bruce, Florida |
| Eric Walters (2004) |
Postdoctoral Fellow, Hastings Reservation, UC Berkeley |
| Matthew Aresco (2005) |
Conservation Director, Nokuse Plantation, Bruce, Florida |
| Doug DeVries (2005) |
Senior Fisheries Scientist, NOAA-Fisheries, Panama City, FL |
| Pablo Munguia (2006) |
Assistant Professor, University of Texas Marine Laboratory |
| Jean Burns (2006) |
Postdoc, Center for Population Biology, UC Davis |
| David Ferrell (2007) |
Postdoc, FSU |
| Sarah Braun (2007) |
Citizen Science Director, Beaver Creek Reserve, WI |
| Maurizio Tomaiuolo (2008) |
Postdoc, FSU Department of Mathematics |
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