Graduate Students - General Guidelines
I welcome the application of intelligent and hard-working students with an interest in amphibian ecology, biogeography, conservation, or macroecology to join the lab as graduate assistants. While Eastern Kentucky University requires a GPA of 3.0 for admittance into the master's program, I require a slightly higher GPA of students in my lab (3.25) to ensure that students have been focused primarily on their academic success throughout their undergraduate career. The ideal candidates are those students with strong writing skills and an interest in the concepts related to the lab research topics, such as intraguild predation, abundant center distribution, kin recognition, phenotypic plasticity, competition, etc. Students must also apply to the graduate program at Eastern Kentucky University, but it is recommended that interested individuals contact me regarding their interests and the availability of positions before doing so. Graduate students are typically employed as teaching assistants with the department, and the majority of field research conducted in my lab occurs during spring and summer.
Undergraduate Students - General Guidelines
Due to the time required for extensive training prior to actual data collection, I encourage a two-semester commitment from students interested in conducting undergraduate research as a member of the lab. The first semester consists of training and data collection, while the second semester is typically reserved for data analyses and instruction in scientific writing, culminating in a research paper in the style of a peer-reviewed journal article. Students may have the opportunity to earn credits for their undergraduate research efforts through Independent Study, though this is not a requirement. Independent Study students are required, however, to register for three or four credit hours to ensure that the student's goal is to gain significant research experience and not simply to round out their schedule in a particular semester. Students specifically interested in field research must have a flexible schedule, as conditions are often unpredictable. Therefore, students with time-intensive extracurricular activities are discouraged from engaging in a field-based research project and might instead consider a lab- or mesocosm-based research experience.
I welcome the application of intelligent and hard-working students with an interest in amphibian ecology, biogeography, conservation, or macroecology to join the lab as graduate assistants. While Eastern Kentucky University requires a GPA of 3.0 for admittance into the master's program, I require a slightly higher GPA of students in my lab (3.25) to ensure that students have been focused primarily on their academic success throughout their undergraduate career. The ideal candidates are those students with strong writing skills and an interest in the concepts related to the lab research topics, such as intraguild predation, abundant center distribution, kin recognition, phenotypic plasticity, competition, etc. Students must also apply to the graduate program at Eastern Kentucky University, but it is recommended that interested individuals contact me regarding their interests and the availability of positions before doing so. Graduate students are typically employed as teaching assistants with the department, and the majority of field research conducted in my lab occurs during spring and summer.
Undergraduate Students - General Guidelines
Due to the time required for extensive training prior to actual data collection, I encourage a two-semester commitment from students interested in conducting undergraduate research as a member of the lab. The first semester consists of training and data collection, while the second semester is typically reserved for data analyses and instruction in scientific writing, culminating in a research paper in the style of a peer-reviewed journal article. Students may have the opportunity to earn credits for their undergraduate research efforts through Independent Study, though this is not a requirement. Independent Study students are required, however, to register for three or four credit hours to ensure that the student's goal is to gain significant research experience and not simply to round out their schedule in a particular semester. Students specifically interested in field research must have a flexible schedule, as conditions are often unpredictable. Therefore, students with time-intensive extracurricular activities are discouraged from engaging in a field-based research project and might instead consider a lab- or mesocosm-based research experience.