M.Sc. in Behavioral Ecology of Tropical Birds. A small number of Master of Science Graduate Teaching Assistantships are available to study avian behavioral ecology in the lab of Dr. Karl Berg in the Department of Biological Sciences, University of Texas at Brownsville ( http://www.utb.edu/vpaa/csmt/biology/Pages/default.aspx). Students are encouraged to develop novel projects, but immediate preference will be given to applicants that can build on our ongoing field research into the evolutionary-ecological-developmental origins of vocal plasticity and cognition. Work has focused on nestling vocal development in a long-term marked population of Green-rumped Parrotlets in Venezuela ( http://ourenvironment.berkeley.edu/people_profiles/karl-berg/ ), but has since expanded to include hormonal underpinnings of vocal, locomotor and play behaviors and their fitness consequences. More information can be found here: http://www.greatwilderness.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=18&Itemid=183 http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/news/parrots-naming-kids-ngoa https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ed9A4HPdXgQ ). We presently have support from the National Geographic Society to begin addressing similar questions in several songbird species (a finch, a woodcreeper and a flycatcher) that conveniently nest in the same cavities, offering a unique comparative perspective of early development in distinct branches of the newly-erected Psittacopasserae. Field work entails: checking nest boxes; video-recording nestling vocal development and free-flying adults; mistnetting, capturing, color-banding and resighting adults; vegetation sampling; blood sampling and plasma collection; desire to interact harmoniously in a foreign, Spanish-speaking culture; and ability to be happy and productive in a challenging, hot, humid, buggy, isolated, lowland tropical field site. Lab work is based at the Brownsville campus and includes: audio-video archival and analysis; spectrographic and statistical analysis; and authorship of peer-reviewed scientific papers and presentations. This research is a collaborative effort between UTB-University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, the University of California, Berkeley, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Cientificas, offering the successful candidates the opportunity to develop professional experience at the national and international level. Interested applicants should have a B.Sc. in Biology or related field and excellent written and oral communication skills. Please send an updated CV, unofficial GREs and GPA, and letter of interest to [email protected]. Applicants will be reviewed as they are received. The application deadline to the Graduate School for the Fall 2014 admission is 1 July 2014 (late application deadline is 1 Aug); preference for TAships will be given to those applicants that can meet admission requirements for the Fall of 2014.
-- -- Karl S. Berg, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Biological Sciences University of Texas One West University Blvd Brownsville, TX 78520 956-882-5049 [email protected]
