Graduate Student Research

While I have a strong administrative role in the Department of Fish, Wildlife and Conservation Ecology here at NMSU, I also maintain a research agenda, and graduate students play a crucial and collaborative role in this effort. I give extended thought to the choice of students I recruit and am up-front regarding my expectations. I do not treat students as technicians; they are partners and are encouraged to act as such. In choosing students I look for previous experience doing science and conservation outside of the classroom, a desire to integrate field and non-field research components so as to gain training in more than one area of expertise, the desire to collaborate (not just with me) on a broad array of projects, and a solid academic background (yes, this includes an excellent GPA. GREs are less important). Equally important, I search for students who show enthusiasm, intellectual curiosity, and the ability for focused hard work. Once a student comes to work with me I see it as my responsibility to ensure that the student succeeds by working on important research questions, gaining adequate funding, presenting research at state, national and international meetings, and publishing results. I foresee a extended relationship with these students that will continue long after they have left the university.

Graduate positions are dependent on having the funds on hand to support the student – I am very hesitant to take on a student unless I have the funding to cover that student’s graduate studies or unless the student has obtained fellowship support (e.g. NSF, EPA, Fulbright, NATO, Ford, etc). While I have been reasonably successful in identifying fellowship support for my students, unfortunately, these funds are often few and far between. If you are a member of a traditionally under-represented group, are a current or former McNair scholar, or already have partial support through a fellowship or grant, please let me know as sometimes this may open additional in-house funding opportunities.

My web page and publications give a feel for the scope of our current research. If these research emphases do not match your interests, I am probably not a good fit for your graduate study endeavors. A note about international research. We do lots of international work. However, in general I don’t encourage MS students to pursue projects outside of the US unless they are a citizen of the country they propose to work in and the project is up and running, as the logistics, paperwork, permits, and costs are usually too great to deal within the scope of a 2-3 yr project. So if you end up coming here for a MS degree I will encourage you to work on something in the states. On the other hand, if you are a citizen of another country, have unique strong ties to another country, or are focusing on a PhD degree, I am very open to discussing potential work abroad if the project seems feasible, if there is support (intellectual, logistic, or financial) from the host countries, if the student speaks a primary language of the country, and if we can come up with funding for the project (this is usually the most difficult issue to solve).

If, having survived reading this, you are still interested, please email me a cover letter, a copy of your CV, recent GPA, and for international students, TOEFL scores (or dates when you expect to take these exams). Tell me what type of research you are interested in doing. Make sure you mention if your main interest is the Ph.D. or M.S. program and the start dates you are considering. We can move forward from there.