Seeking a highly motivated graduate student (M.S. or Ph.D.) to begin graduate research at Louisiana State University’s (LSU) Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences (DOCS) in the fall of 2015. The student will join a large, multi-institution team of researchers on the Coastal Waters Consortium (CWC) project (http://cwc.lumcon.edu) funded by the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative to study the impacts of the Deep Water Horizon oil spill on marshes and coastal environments. Specifically, the student will work in the Polito Lab at LSU (www.oceanography.lsu.edu/politolab) and focus on stable isotope based food web studies of terrestrial and aquatic marsh consumers including seaside sparrows, rice rats and estuarine fishes.
Desired qualifications include: 1) B.S./M.S. degree in biology, ecology, marine science, chemistry, or relevant discipline, 2) relevant laboratory experience - sample preparation, gas chromatography, bulk and amino acid based compound-specific stable isotope ratio mass spectrometry, and 3) relevant field experience – the ability to conduct rigorous field work in a group setting at sites in Louisiana that are accessible only by small boats. M.S. candidates will be considered for 2 years of tuition and stipend (about $20K/year). We also welcome applications from outstanding PhD candidates (Combined GRE scores > 310 or 1250, GPA > 3.5, excellent references, and/or strong publication record) who are U.S. citizens. PhD applicants will be considered for the competitive Louisiana Board of Regents (BoR) Fellowship and if awarded would be funded at about $28K/year + tuition for 4 years. To Apply: Interested candidates should fill out a pre-application form for the DOCS graduate program (www.oceanography.lsu.edu/index.php/academics/pre- application-form/) and indicate on this form that you would like to work with Dr. Polito. In addition, please email a single pdf containing your CV, a cover letter with your research interests, a brief summary of accomplishments (educational background, GPA, GRE scores), and contact information for at least three professional references to Dr. Michael Polito ([email protected]). Qualified candidates will be contacted directly by early January 2015 and encouraged to submit a full application to the M.S. or Ph.D. graduate program in DOCS. To be considered for BoR funding full applications should be completed received by the Graduate School and DOCS prior to February 1st, 2015.
