Photo by Kenneth A Schmidt: Fireflies in the Lowlands at the Cary Institute
Graduate Student Opportunities
I am currently MS and PhD accepting students, especially those interested in:
- Avian reproductive and population ecology
- Communication and eavesdropping behavior
- Theoretical evolutionary and population ecology
To inquire, please send me an email: [email protected]
Before you consider applying please send me:
- Statement of your research interests and career goals
- academic and professional accomplishments (degrees, GPA, GRE scores, awards, fellowships, publications, grants, presentations at professional meetings, jobs)
- summary of your past research experiences
- names, addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses of 2-3 references
I will contact you for discussion and if we both agree you're work ethic and interests fit the lab you will then need to apply to the graduate programs in both the Department of Biological Sciences and in the Graduate School at Texas Tech University.
The official departmental application deadlines are February 1 for the following Fall Semester, but prospective students must have all application materials by January 1st to be considered for acceptance and scholarships.
Undergraduate Student Opportunities
Through my affiliation with the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies I sometimes mentor undergraduates participating in the REU (Research Experience for Undergraduates) Program. See the Cary's website for more information: http://www.caryinstitute.org/students/reu-program
Below is a description of past REU projects.
C. Eavesdropping Behavior and Social Information Use in Songbirds:
Mentor: Dr. Kenneth A Schmidt. One or two students.
Animals frequently collect social information by copying the choices or behavior of other individuals, or through eavesdropping on the signals (e.g., song or alarm calls) or performance (breeding success) of other individuals. Such information flow between members of the same or different species can have dramatic consequences for the ecology of organisms. The REU student will join our summer research at the Cary Institute on communication and breeding ecology of songbirds and predator prey interactions between birds and raptors, such as barred owls. The REU student will be expected to design and carry out a project that addresses social information flow in the context of predator-prey interactions, communication, or breeding ecology that contains an element of social information use. The project will involve field work in the forest on Cary property, such as setting up playback experiments, finding and monitoring songbird nests (primarily the veery), learning field techniques such as recording bird song and other vocalizations, and data analysis in the lab. The student also will be expected to work in a lab with several graduate students working on related projects.