Potential students
Come work with us in the Sonoran Desert!
Introduction
Super glad that you are interested in the lab. Please review the lab pages for research and recent publications to find out about what we do, how you could learn from joining us, and how you might contribute to our team.
Our work is primarily question-driven as opposed to by organism or region (though small mammals and Arizona are current favorites), so please think through where your conceptual interests lie relative to the full spread of ecological and evolutionary ideas. Your interests will likely continue to evolve, but having a core basis of curiosity with which to motivate your graduate study is essential for entering our group. Ecologists usually don't get monetarily rich (despite economics being a special category of ecology), so we need to pay ourselves with the satisfaction of loving what we study and becoming skilled at learning new things.
Types of questions we ask
See the Research page, but also:1. What are the species? (taxonomy and phylogenetics)
2. How fast are lineages diversifying? (phylogenetic rates and gene flow)
3. By what ecological and genomic processes? (comparative methods)
Tools we use
Mammals, especially rodents, and now some bats and shrews
Phylogenetics and Genomics, often at large scales requiring bioinformatic scripting
Statistical modeling, usually Bayesian or machine-learning approaches
Systems we investigate
Local: Arizona sky islands and urban desert remnants
Regional: North American deserts; Neotropics; Argentina's Monte Desert
Global biodiversity: macro-scale processes, leveraging public data
Contact me
Our lab currently is accepting PhD student applications through the Evolutionary Biology program in the ASU School of Life Sciences (SOLS). We also accept applications for MS in Biology students. Note that the ASU deadline is 1 December annually for applying to these programs. There is also the "4+1" route of an accelerated MS degree if you are a current ASU undergraduate student (details of the latter program here). I'd also encourage you to check out the full listing of SOLS graduate programs here.
Think broadly, connect disparate ideas, and stay persistant with it. Success is probably more about persistence than anything, but you want the joyful, creative, curious parts of you to be driving that persistence rather than anything external. For that reason, I highly rank curiosity and enthusiasm when evaluating potential lab members — it has to come from inside you, I have no hope of teaching curiosity. Research experience, analytical skills, and writing ability are also top criteria, but can be gained and honed as we work together. Demonstrated creativity is also a good one — what have you created / drawn / written lately? Let's talk about it. I want your research projects to excite and move you to forge a path of your own. We might leave town on a well-worn groove (i.e., start from ongoing projects in the lab), but many forks in the road are expected that will need your persistence and planning to bring us to the next station and something wholly new: your thesis. So if you decide to contact me, please take some time and write a thoughtful letter that illuminates the above. Tell me about your interests and why our group fits your vision, and send along your CV and transcript. Please understand that I'm less likely to respond if you don't send these materials. Also, consider funding or fellowship opportunities, particularly if you’re interested in pursuing a PhD — for example, the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program or Fulbright foreign program depending on your citizenship. We welcome international students pursuing degrees or short-term fellowships. The Fulbright US program also supports periods of international study while at ASU.
I tend not to accept PhD students who haven’t first earned their MS degree, but I will consider exceptional cases. If you are interested in forgoing an MS and working toward your PhD, I will want to see evidence of you have previously planned and completed a big project, preferably that resulted in one or more peer-reviewed publications.
If you’re still interested in working with us after reading all this, please send me an email!.
Rock and roll yawl.