Graduate assistantship: Forest ecology at the University of Illinois The Dietze lab seeks qualified applicants for a graduate assistantship at the Ph.D. or Masters level starting in the summer or fall of 2010 in the Department of Plant Biology at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (summer preferred).
The lab seeks to understand and predict the dynamics of ecosystems and plant communities by integrating field research with modeling. Current projects focus on two themes, assessing the potential global change impacts on eastern temperate forests and assessing the potential impacts of biofuel crops on ecosystem services. Our research spans scales from plots to landscapes to regions, with a focus on scaling and environmental heterogeneity. Further information about the lab and our projects can be found at http://www.life.illinois.edu/dietze All students in the lab are expected to develop a focused field research project that falls within these broad themes. Students that are also interested in modeling and/or statistics are especially encouraged to apply. The Plant Biology Department at the University of Illinois is consistently ranked among the top 10 botany/plant biology programs nationally. At Illinois the Dietze lab is also affiliated with the Program in Ecology Evolution and Conservation Biology (http://sib.illinois.edu/peec/), the Institute for Genomic Biology (http://www.igb.uiuc.edu/), the Energy Biosciences Institute (http://www.energybiosciencesinstitute.org/), and the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Science (http://nres.illinois.edu/). Outside Illinois the lab is involved in the North American Carbon Program (http://www.nacarbon.org) and works at over a dozen field sites across the eastern US including sites within the the National Ecological Observatory Network (http://www.neoninc.org/), the Ameriflux network (http://public.ornl.gov/ameriflux/), the LTER network (www.lternet.edu), and the FACE (Free Air CO2 Enrichment) experiments. Interested parties should contact Mike Dietze (mdie...@illinois.edu). Further information about the department and how to apply can be found at http://www.life.illinois.edu/plantbio/ Interested students are encouraged to apply by January 15th to receive top priority.
