The Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (EEB)
<http://eeb.bio.utk.edu/>at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, is
forming a new research unit focused on Conservation Science
<http://eeb.bio.utk.edu/con-sci-grads/>. We seek applications from
outstanding prospective graduate students in this topic, who wish to
pursue a PhD or research-based Masters. We have funding to admit a
strong cohort of students. While we encourage students to pursue
independent funding opportunities, EEB’s policy is to admit students
only when we are confident we can provide funding for the full duration
of their studies. We provide funding to both Masters and PhD students,
regardless of their citizenship. Our goal is to recruit a diverse pool
of students on a range of metrics, including background, career stage,
and research interests.
Our ecology program is among the top 10% for research impact in North
America (Keville et al., 2017
<http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ecs2.1620/full>). Our recent
Conservation Science graduates have an excellent record of placement,
with students accepting post-doctoral positions in internationally
renowned research groups and leadership positions within conservation
NGOs and public agencies. Our students’ dissertation projects are
published in top-tier journals and deliver research products that our
practitioner partners use and value. Our students study globally
important conservation questions, commonly working in overseas field
systems alongside in-country practitioners.
We anticipate having a “cohort-model” where students interact with each
other and multiple faculty members. However, students typically have one
lead faculty advisor. Ensuring a good match between this advisor and the
student is a central feature of our recruitment process. *Interested
students should reach out to potential advisors by email* (view advisor
email list and full ad at http://eeb.bio.utk.edu/con-sci-grads) to
explore possibilities.