SREL Reprint #2280

Graduate education at a field research laboratory: facing the challenge

J. Whitfield Gibbons

Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, Drawer E, Aiken, SC 29802, USA

Abstract: Field research stations provide both challenges and opportunities for graduate students interested in reptiles and amphibians. To be successful professionally, a student must balance the excitement inherent in conducting herpetological research with a program that will gain the respect of a broad spectrum of the scientific community. Each field research station has characteristics that make it distinctive from all others, but most have had to consider two problems: intellectual isolation from a main campus and an academic image of not being scientifically rigorous, a consequence of being an enjoyable place to be. Three decades of experience with graduate students in herpetology at The University of Georgia's Savannah River Ecology Laboratory provide one example of how the challenges can be met and the opportunities optimized.

Keywords: Academic program; Education; Field research; Field station; Graduate students; Herpetological research students

SREL Reprint #2280

Gibbons, J.W. 1998. Graduate education at a field research laboratory: facing the challenge. Herpetologica 54:S21-S30.

This information was provided by the University of Georgia's Savannah River Ecology Laboratory (srel.uga.edu).