Colleagues, Please distribute widely.
I am recruiting two graduate students (one M.S. and one Ph.D.) to work with me in the Department of Forestry at Mississippi State University beginning either *fall 2012 or spring 2013*. The students will have some flexibility in specific topics, but the general research areas will fall into one of these three general areas of fire ecology: 1. *Scaling flammability from lab to field*- our lab ( www.humboldt.edu/firelab) has been focused on laboratory-scale flammability of a diversity of species from North America. Our next steps center on scaling these observations to field fire behavior, with a focus on southeastern pine-oak ecosystems in south Mississippi. 2. *Tree invasion and fire-caused mortality in Black Belt prairies*- I seek a student to document tree invasion patterns and to develop models for fire-caused mortality in remnant prairies in northeastern Mississippi. Several other fire-related topics in these ecosystems are possible. 3. *Interactions between pathogens and fire*- we have been working on understanding the interactions between several forest pathogens (thus far sudden oak death, mountain pine beetles, and laurel wilt) and fire. I seek a student to focus on these issues in Mississippi forests; the specific pathogen X fire interaction is open to student interest. Strong applicants will have competitive GPA, GRE scores, and research experience. Applicants for the Ph.D. position will have a strong research background with publications and substantial statistical and/or modeling experience. Both positions have competitive funding, tuition waivers, computing, and supplemental travel funding. Mississippi State University is located in Starkville, a beautiful college town in northeast Mississippi ( http://www.msstate.edu/web/about ). For more information on the Department of Forestry: http://www.cfr.msstate.edu/forestry . For more information on my research : http://humboldt.edu/fwr/faculty/detail/morgan_varner . My webpage and contact will be shifting to Mississippi State July 1st; until then, contact me at the email address below. In your email to me, please include your research interests, a resume/CV with relevant scores, and contact information for references who can speak to your potential as a productive scholar. Thanks- MV Dr. J. Morgan Varner III Contact until *15 June 2012*: Associate Professor of Wildland Fire Sciences Director, Wildland Fire Laboratory Department of Forestry & Wildland Resources Humboldt State University One Harpst Street Arcata, CA 95521 Tel. 707-826-5622 Fax 707-826-5634 Email [email protected] Web www.humboldt.edu/firelab
