DEPARTMENT OF BIOLOGY
UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS BOSTON
NSF GRADUATE RESEARCH TRAINEESHIPS IN
ENVIRONMENTAL BIOLOGY: CONSERVATION OF BIODIVERSITY
The National Science Foundation has awarded Graduate Research
Traineeships in Conservation of Biodiversity to the Department
of Biology at the University of Massachusetts Boston as part of
our Doctoral Program in Environmental Biology. We invite applications
from individuals who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents with
undergraduate or masters degrees in Biology, Environmental Sciences,
Geography,
Conservation and related areas. Individuals with
disabilities, women and minorities are especially encouraged to apply.
The traineeship program is an integrative approach to population
genetics, population dynamics and community ecology that is designed
to create an awareness of scale and causal links between levels of
organization, and to provide students with the theoretical and analytical
skills to critically evaluate these phenomena. In addition to their
dissertation research, students will take a required core curriculum
in theoretical and applied ecology, statistics and environmental policy.
As an important part of their training, students will do a rotation
among the research labs of our faculty to acquire first-hand experience
in measuring and analyzing biological diversity at levels of organization
outside their dissertation topic. At the end of the program, we expect
students to have a strong conceptual appreciation of the mechanisms
responsible for the evolution and maintenance of biodiversity, and
to have acquired the quantitative ability to assess and manage
biodiversity from genes to ecosystems.
There are nineteen participating ecologists, geneticists and
environmental physiologists with funded research programs in
spatiotemporal patterns of biodiversity in marine and terrestrial
ecosystems, population dynamics, metapopulations and community
structure, biogeochemical cycles, population genetics, breeding
systems and fertility, germ plasm resources in wild, captive and
domesticated species and systematics.
Participating investigators are:
Kamaljit S. Bawa, UMass Boston, Tropical Rainforest Ecology
Solange Brault, UMass Boston, Population Dynamics
Kenneth L. Campbell, UMass Boston, Endocrinology -- Ecological
impacts on hormonal and reproductive function; Human (Reproductive)
Ecology -- Biological determinants of observed variations in fertility
among populations
John P. Ebersole, UMass Boston, Ecology of Coral Reef Fishes
and Temperate Hermit Crabs
Ron J. Etter, UMass Boston, Marine Biodiversity, Ecology and
Evolution of Marine Organisms, Deep-Sea Ecology
Eugene D. Gallagher, UMass Boston, Marine Benthic Ecology
William G. Hagar, UMass Boston, Photobiology and Effects of
Acidification on Freshwater Biota
Jeremy J. Hatch, UMass Boston, Behavior and Ecology of Seabirds
Richard V. Kesseli, UMass Boston, Molecular Population Genetics,
Evolution of Breeding Systems and Plant-Pathogen Interactions
Kenneth C. Kleene, UMass Boston, Molecular Biology of Spermatogenesis
in Mammals
Scott D. Kraus, New England Aquarium, Biology and Conservation of
Marine Mammals
Michael A. Rex, UMass Boston, Deep-Sea Ecology
William Robinson, UMass Boston, Aquatic Toxicology
Michael P. Shiaris, UMass Boston, Marine Microbial Ecology
Robert D. Stevenson, UMass Boston, Physiological Ecology,
Conservation Biology of Butterflies
Tracy A. Villareal, UMass Boston, Ecology of Phytoplankton
H. Garrison Wilkes, UMass Boston, Genetics and Evolution Under
Domestication of Plants, Germplasm Resources
Zong-Guo Xia, UMass Boston, Remote Sensing, Spatial Information
Systems, GIS
For more information and application forms, please contact:
Jan Heatley, Graduate Program Coordinator
Department of Biology
University of Massachusetts Boston
100 Morrissey Blvd.
Boston, MA 02125
617-287-6600 phone / 617-287-6650 fax
email: heatley at umbsky.cc.umb.edu
web page: http://www.bio.umb.edu
Application Process: No special application is required.
Please submit the standard application for our Ph.D. program
in Environmental Biology, specifying interest in the Graduate
Traineeship Program in Conservation of Biodiversity to:
Graduate Admissions and Records Office
University of Massachusetts Boston
100 Morrissey Blvd.
Boston, MA 02125-3393
