Study plants with me in Hawaiʻi

I am looking for passionate, creative, independent students who want to study plant evolulionary ecophysiology. My lab uses theoretical, comparative, and experimental approaches to understand how organisms adapt to their environment. I work in the Department of Botany (soon to be part of the School of Life Sciences) at the University of Hawaiʻi in Mānoa. We are moving to a brand new lab space in the Life Sciences Building in Fall 2020, so new students will have a large role in setting up equipment to meet their needs. We have a great group of evolutionary, plant, and other biologists in the School of Life Sciences.

Some potential project areas

• Stomatal evolution Use stomata as a system to study evolution within and between species with theoretical and/or empirical approaches. Possible systems: native Hawaiian taxa, wild tomato relatives, and/or global synthesis.
• Photosynthetic evolution Synthesizing data, globally or locally, on photosynthetic variation and developing Bayesian statistical tools in Stan to answer evolutionary questions. Prior experience with Stan is not required.
• Local adaptation Theory, meta-analysis, or experiments to understand how local adaptation is affected by climate change.
• Your idea here I am happy to discuss other project ideas that address the intersection of evolution and ecophysiology using plants and their symbionts. I will also consider applicants who wish to use purely theoretical and/or computational approaches.

Other tidbits:

• I strongly encourage students to apply for their own funding.
• Please don’t hesitate to ask me about my mentorship and career development philosophy.

Qualifications

In general, I am looking for someone who is passionate about science, can independently formulate an answerable research question, and creatively solves the myriad challenges involved in carrying out basic research. Students should be able, or willing to learn how, to use quantative approaches in their work.

Required

• Creative, independent, quantitative scholar who asks interesting questions
• BS, MS, or equivalent

Preferred

• Degree in biology or related field. If you’re switching fields, please explain your motivation for doing so in your cover letter
• Prior research experience (field, lab, and/or computational)

One or more of the following:

• Strong interest and knowledge of evolutionary biology
• Strong interest and knowledge of plant ecophysiology
• Strong quantitative background (math and/or statistics). Please indicate software proficiencies in your CV.

Desirable (but definitely not required)

• Prior research experience in evolution, ecophysiology, or related field
• One or more peer-reviewed publications
• Experience applying for grants/fellowships
• Experience with statistics using R

Prior experience working with plants is not required.

To apply

The official grad program application deadline is December 15, 2019. Contact me before applying to discuss possible projects. Please include a brief statements on your research interests and a CV/resume.

More details on applying: http://www.botany.hawaii.edu/graduate-program/