Dr. Christina Staudhammer in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Alabama (http://cstaudhammer.people.ua.edu/) is now inviting applications for a PhD position starting in fall 2018, to work on a project in urban forestry. The benefits of urban forests to city-dwelling people include recreation, pollution, mitigation, energy savings, and water purification. However, fundamental questions still remain about the resistance and resilience of urban ecosystems to anthropogenic change, especially associated with projected alterations in global climate. A graduate student is sought to undertake dissertation work modeling ecosystem services provided by the urban forests of the southeastern US. The goal is to enhance our scientific understanding of the role of urban forests at local to regional scales, and how they contrast with those of natural forests. It is expected that prospective graduate students will develop their own research plans and goals, and therefore should be self-motivated and independent. Students should be interested in combining field data collection with statistical modeling. Students should have a strong background in statistics and forest ecology, geography, or environmental science. A solid working knowledge of SAS and/or R is required, and those with strong quantitative skills will be given preference. This position is primarily a Teaching Assistantship, supplemented by grant funding. However students are expected to apply for additional funding. Interested students will earn a graduate degree from the Department of Biological Sciences. The project will also offer the opportunity to interact with researchers from the USDA forest service, as well as researchers across universities across the US. The University of Alabama is located in Tuscaloosa, a college town of ~100,000, surrounded by extensive and varied forests. These forests, and the greater region, provide a wide range of recreational amenities including rock climbing, canoeing, kayaking, fishing, hiking and mountain biking. To be eligible, students must meet the graduate admission requirements of the University of Alabama: an undergraduate GPA > 3.0 overall, 3.0 for the last 60 semester hours in a degree program or 3.0 for a completed graduate degree program, and a 300 on the GRE. If interested, email a short summary of your research interests, an unofficial transcript from undergraduate (and post-graduate, if applicable) work, as well as a CV to Dr. Christina Staudhammer ([email protected]).
