The Ponisio lab at the University of Oregon is seeking PhD applicants for the 2025-2026 academic year. We are looking for students interested in studying plant-pollinator interactions in high-elevation meadows at the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest and Long-Term Ecological Research program (https://andrewsforest.oregonstate.edu/ ) as part of a collaboration with Julia Jones at Oregon State University (https://ceoas.oregonstate.edu/directory/julia-jones
We are interested in applicants who would be excited to explore questions relating to interaction biogeography, bee movement, parasites, and long-term population dynamics, building on 12 years of plant-pollinator interaction data across three meadow complexes of varying size and connectivity (for more information on the meadow system, see https://oregonstate.app.box.com/s/z4cwx53uhc19oto05vtwboovzkzpvq7k )
We are accepting applications through the Biology Department at UO. Our lab is part of the Institute for Ecology and Evolution https://ie2.uoregon.edu/ ).
We are also recruiting masters students through the ENVS program at UO (https://socialsciences.uoregon.edu/envs/graduate-programs/masters This program seeks students interested in interdisciplinary and translational science.
We are interested in community- and equity-minded students who will be dedicated to our lab’s mission of seeking mechanisms for slowing or preventing biodiversity loss, specifically wild bees. Our lab integrates data science techniques into our work, so we appreciate applicants enthusiastic about learning these skills, though we do not expect students to know them already. (https://github.com/lponisio/PonisioLab/blob/master/mission/mission.pdf
We are a community ecology lab, focusing on understanding and restoring pollinators and their interactions. We have ongoing projects asking: How do ecological interactions contribute to community function and resistance? How can we support healthy wild pollinator populations in intensive agriculture, including harvested forests? How does fire maintain pollinator biodiversity and community resistance? For more details, please take a look at our website: https://www.ponisiolab.com/
If you are interested in joining the lab as a graduate student, please email us (ponisiolab@gmail.com):
1) Your cv, including your past research projects (REU, field technician, honors thesis, etc. ) and your role in them, any awards, grants, publications and presentations.
2) A summary of your research interests and how they fit with the Ponisio lab.