Colleagues, Please distribute widely.
I am recruiting two graduate students (both M.S.) to work with me in the Department of Forestry at Mississippi State University beginning spring 2013. The students will have some flexibility in specific topics, but the general research areas are the ecological and fire behavior consequences of mechanical fuels treatments, specifically mechanical mastication. The US Joint Fire Science Program-funded project will be based in northern California wildlands treated by mastication over the past decade. Our collaborators on this project are Eric Knapp (USAD Forest Service Pacific Southwest Research Station) and Stacy Drury and Erin Banwell (both at Sonoma Technology, Inc.). This work follows our initial research in the region (information, including photos, publications, etc.. at http://www.fs.fed.us/psw/programs/ecology_of_western_forests/projects/ma sticated_fuels/ ). We will focus our efforts on evaluating the vegetation and fuel recovery of treated sites across a wide span of time-since-treatment and over a variety of fire-prone sites. Strong applicants will have competitive GPA, GRE scores, and field research experience. A familiarity with the northern California flora (or capabilities to learn), an understanding of fire ecology and management, and lack of fear of statistics are all desirable. Both positions have competitive funding, tuition waivers, computing, and supplemental travel funding (including travel to and lodging in California; conferences). 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 . In your email to me, please include your research interests, a resume/CV with relevant experience and scores, and contact information for references who can speak to your potential as a productive scholar. Thanks- MV Dr. J. Morgan Varner III Asst Professor of Forestry Department of Forestry 313 Thompson Hall Box 9681 Mississippi State University, MS 39762-9681 Web: http://www.cfr.msstate.edu/forestry/people/faculty_detail.asp?id=68&pers ID=4210 Tel. 662-325-0792 Fax. 662-325-8726 Email [email protected]
