Graduate Student Opportunity - Biogeography and phylogenetics of deep-sea octocorals

Many deep-sea coral species have apparent broad distributions spanning all oceans, but little work has been done in defining intraspecific variation and limits to geographic ranges. Over the past several years we have accumulated a number of samples from hard substrates below 500 meters depth. In addition to planned future collections, these will form the core of a project to study genetic variability, biogeography and systematics. Octocorals have been shown to have very low rates of mutation in the mitochondrial genome, and this project will involve developing novel nuclear markers for use at different systematic levels, including intraspecific analyses. This project will also be integrated with the NSF-funded Cnidarian Tree of Life project (http://cnidarian.info/).

In addition to a possible research assistantship, the University of Louisiana will be awarding
University Doctoral Fellowships and Board of Regents Doctoral Fellowships to students entering the doctoral program in Environmental and Evolutionary Biology in fall 2008. Fellowships are funded for three to four years and carry stipends of $13,750/9 months - $22,000/per year with waivers of tuition and most fees. University Fellows are assigned limited teaching responsibilities; there is no teaching requirement for Board of Regents fellows. To be eligible for these fellowships applicants must be a US citizen or have a degree from a US institution.

The University of Louisiana at Lafayette offers a Masters of Science (M.S.) in Biology and a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)  in Environmental and Evolutionary Biology. For more information on these programs and application materials, click here. The Department of Biology has approximately 25 faculty members and 65 graduate students. Areas of strength include ecology, conservation biology, evolution, and marine/coastal biology.

If you are interested in this opportunity, please contact me for additional information. Please include in your letter a few details about your previous experiences, your GPA and GRE scores, and what interests you have that led you to consider my lab.

Scott C. France france@louisiana.edu
Department of Biology
P.O. Box 42451
The University of Louisiana at Lafayette
Lafayette, Louisiana   70504

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