Open Positions
I am always interested to hear from people seeking research experience and/or collaboration at any level, from undergraduates, to graduate students, and professional colleagues. Although I currently do not have funding for additional graduate student research assistantships, I encourage interested students to consider applying to graduate school at K-State. There are opportuynities each year for graduate teaching assistantships, and if you are competitive, you have a good chance of being accepted, so please contact us!
Graduate Students (M.S. or Ph.D.)
If you are interested in any of the research that is ongoing in my lab, please send me a CV and contact me to talk about options. On occasion graduate students will perform research on an existing project. Alternatively, I will work with beginning students to formulate a thesis or dissertation plan that focuses on some aspect of mammalian and/or parasite evolutionary ecology.
There are currently 67 graduate students in the Division of Biology that form an integral part of the broader academic community along with faculty and staff. Read more about the Biology Graduate Student Association at K-State, and be sure to read up on requirements for applying to graduate school. I also encourage you to contact existing graduate students to gain insight into living in Manhattan, KS, and working at K-State. Both my lab and K-State are equal opportunity employers and in particular I strive to facilitate opportunities for underrepresented groups. Diversity and inclusion are essential for advancing science!
Post-doctoral Associate
At this time I do not have funding for additional post-docs but am working towards further opportunities.
Undergraduates
K-State has strong programs in the biological and medical sciences that nurture understanding of the dynamics of wild and natural earth systems within the anthropocene, a time of significant worldwide human impacts. These K-State programs include Fisheries Wildlife and Conservation, Biology, Wildlife and Outdoor Enterprise Management, Veterinary Medicine or pre-vet, and Medicine or pre-med. Any undergraduates currently pursuing a degree in any of these programs or simply with a general interest in wildlife biology should contact me about research opportunities. As much of my research is specimen based, I run an active field research program that requires field crews for sample collection, and subsequent specimen processing in the lab, including full museum curatorial techniques, from making study skins to collecting tissues for molecular resources and scanning gastrointestinal tracts for parasites. Volunteers are welcome at any time! There are also occassional student employee positions available, particularly for those who are work-study eligible, so check with financial aid!
In previous semesters I have mentored undergraduate independent research projects for credit. These have included sequencing genes for understanding the evolutionary history of small mammals in response to long-term environmental changes; stable isotope analysis of small mammal dietary niche across Konza Prairie, a landscape-scale experimental research station; and most recently, a study of the endoparasite faunas associated with insectivore mammals (shrews and moles) through the central Great Plains. If you need 1-3 credit hours and would like to gain research experience, contact me to discuss available projects well in advance of the semester in which you would like to enroll. Other applied research opportunities include volunteering to work with a graduate student in my lab on their thesis or dissertation research.
K-State undergraduates Bia Gragg and Erryn Goods prepare Sylvilagus floridanus specimens.
Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) students collect small mammal data on Konza Prairie.
Backcountry field sampling of small mammals and parasites along the Canning River corridor of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in 2015.
