**Currently not accepting graduate students until Fall 2025.**
Like the Steller sea lions above, we benefit from working as a group and learning from one another. I try to be accessible to students and foster a supportive, friendly, and collaborative atmosphere. I have a flexible mentorship style because each student has different needs and goals and I genuinely want students to succeed and go on to happy lives. We like to work on many different topics using a mix of quantitative, molecular, and field methods. Although I personally like to use quantitative methods extensively, I do not expect that all graduate students will share this interest and I invite qualified students without quantitative expertise, but excellent natural history intuition and field experience, to apply.
I am a strong believer in project-based learning, so I will encourage students to begin a research project immediately, even if it is not related to their dissertation. The goal is to learn skills in data analysis and writing scientific papers, and to become exposed to the process of publishing in scholarly journals. Practicing scientists balance writing up past research while collecting data for current research and writing grants for future research, and I think it is a good idea for students to follow this model and learn to work on multiple projects.
Our department can support a limited number of graduate students as teaching assistants, but most graduate students will be supported by grants or fellowships.
I will post funded graduate and postdoctoral positions to job boards hosted by Texas A&M, the Society for Conservation Biology, the Wildlife Society, and Ecolog. I sometimes assist applicants with their fellowship proposals to help them secure fellowship funds. Nearly all incoming PhD students will have Masters degrees, but exceptional students without Masters degrees (e.g., first authored publication, NSF fellowship) may be accepted to the PhD program. It is also possible to enter as a MS student and transition to a PhD after your first paper is published. Prospective graduate students should contact me with a cover letter or well-written email, a CV, GRE scores, and transcripts.
Important Links
Department of Fisheries and Wildlife Prospective Graduate Students
The Department of Fisheries and Wildlife Prospective Graduate Students page has information on how to apply, frequently asked questions, scholarships, and the departmental graduate student guidelines.
Fisheries and Wildlife Graduate Student Association
The Fisheries and Wildlife Graduate Student Association is an informational resource for undergraduate students, graduate students, and professionals in fisheries and wildlife.