PhD: Penguin response to historic harvesting & climate change
Employer: Louisiana State University
Location: Baton Rouge, LA
Country: United States
Last Date to Apply: 15 Feb 2015
Description: Website: www.oceanography.lsu.edu/politolab
Job Description: Seeking a highly motivated student to begin graduate research (Ph.D. candidate) at Louisiana State University’s (LSU) Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences (DOCS) in the fall of 2015. The student will join a multi-institution team of researchers from LSU, UC Santa Cruz, UNC Wilmington and the University of Saskatchewan on a multi-disciplinary, collaborative project to reconstruct shifts in Antarctic food web architecture following historic harvesting and recent to millennial-scale climate change. The student will be based in the Polito Lab at LSU (www.oceanography.lsu.edu/politolab) but will also work closely with Dr. Kelton McMahon and Dr. Matthew McCarthy at UC Santa Cruz (http://oceansci.ucsc.edu). Specifically, the student will use bulk and compound-specific stable isotope analysis of modern and ancient penguins and other Antarctic krill predators to test key hypotheses on trophic versus baseline ecosystem shifts related to climate change and competitive release following historic whale and seal harvesting. This position will include extensive laboratory work at LSU and UCSC, as well as field work in Antarctica.
Qualifications: Desired qualifications include: 1) M.S. degree in biology, ecology, marine science, chemistry, or relevant discipline, 2) relevant laboratory experience - sample preparation, gas chromatography, bulk and amino acid based compound-specific stable isotope ratio mass spectrometry, and 3) relevant field experience working on ecological studies in very cold and remote field settings.
To Apply: Interested candidates should fill out a pre-application form for the DOCS graduate program (www.oceanography.lsu.edu/index.php/academics/pre-application-form/) and indicate that you would like to work with Dr. Polito. In addition, please email a single pdf containing your CV, a cover letter with your research interests and experience, a brief summary of accomplishments (educational background, GPA, GRE scores), and contact information for at least three professional references to Dr. Michael Polito (mpolito@lsu.edu). Qualified candidates will be contacted directly and encouraged to submit a full application to the Ph.D. graduate program in DOCS. Ph.D. candidates will be considered for 4 years of tuition and stipend support (approximately $22K/year). In addition, outstanding candidates (Combined GRE scores > 320 or 1250, GPA > 3.5, excellent references, and/or strong publication record) who are U.S. citizens will also be considered for the competitive Louisiana Board of Regents (BoR) Fellowship ($28K/year + tuition for 4 years). To be fully considered for BoR funding completed applications should be received by the Graduate School and DOCS by February 15, 2015.