A M.S. research assistantship is available with the School of Life Sciences at the University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV) in Las Vegas, Nevada. The project, funded by the interagency Joint Fire Science Program, will focus on identifying successful native species suitable for revegetating desert burns in the Mojave Desert. The West is burning up, and currently little information is available to resource managers on techniques for revegetating burns and on native species that can establish on burns infested by exotic annual grasses. The project will involve a mix of controlled experiments and field studies. This project is a good fit for candidates interested in fire ecology, plant ecology, and restoration ecology, and their application to making progress on an urgent resource management problem.
The project was recently featured in a news release on the UNLV website: http://publicaffairs.unlv.edu/newsArchive-PublicAffairs.html UNLV is an urban university, but is surrounded by millions of hectares of public land. Public lands accessible in less than a 45-minute drive from Las Vegas include the 600,000-ha Lake Mead National Recreation Area (National Park Service), 80,000-ha Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area (Bureau of Land Management), 600,000-ha Desert National Wildlife Refuge (Fish and Wildlife Service), and the 130,000-ha Spring Mountains National Recreation Area (Forest Service). Plant communities span desert creosote scrub to high-elevation bristlecone pine forests. Outdoor recreation opportunities abound year round. The start date for the position ideally is spring semester in January 2008. Preferred qualifications include an undergraduate degree in ecology, natural resources, botany, or a related field, and a cumulative GPA of 3.25 or higher. The student should be able to perform fieldwork in hot, desert weather, and to work with B.S.- and M.S.-level research assistants currently employed by our lab group on National Park Service and Bureau of Land Management projects. In particular, candidates should be self-motivated and have a keen interest in working and living in southern Nevada. Information on the graduate program in the College of Sciences/School of Life Sciences (Department of Biological Sciences in the 2005-2007 graduate catalog) is available from the School of Life Sciences website (http://sols.unlv.edu/) and from the UNLV Graduate Catalog website (http://www.unlv.edu/pubs/catalogs/graduate/). The interdisciplinary research and land management team overseeing this project includes vegetation managers with the National Park Service and the Bureau of Land Management, Dr. Stan Smith (Interim Associate Vice President for Research and Professor of Life Sciences), and myself. Examples of our past research and publications are available from: http://faculty.unlv.edu/abellas2/ and http://sols.unlv.edu/faculty/smith.html Interested candidates should email me ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) the following: (a) 1-page statement of interest outlining your background, any research or publication experience, and research interests and career goals; (b) CV or resume including undergraduate degree and GPA; and (c) in your email, a statement of why working and living in southern Nevada for a two-year M.S. program is attractive to you. In the subject line of your email, please place: Assistantship JFS (your name). Materials will be considered until the position is filled. All materials can be addressed to the following address but submitted electronically to: Dr. Scott R. Abella Public Lands Institute and School of Life Sciences University of Nevada Las Vegas 4505 S. Maryland Parkway Las Vegas, NV 89154-2040 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
