We seek a new MS or PhD student to join the lab to work on a project funded to advance conservation of western monarch butterfly at Washington State University in Vancouver, WA. Student will be part of a project team with collaborators at UC Davis, Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, and others. The new student will start in the field as a technician in May or June 2025, and formally matriculate into the graduate program in Fall 2025.
Broadly we use a population ecology lens to gain understanding of the ecology of at-risk butterflies and to develop conservation and restoration responses to global change. Our work largely focuses on using rare butterflies and their habitats in the Pacific Northwest as a model system to address broad ecological questions to advance conservation on-the-ground. We work closely with federal, state and local agencies as well as non-profit organizations to conduct research which is useful and practical for these organizations while building on a strong foundation in ecological theory. Students from our program have secured career positions with many of these organizations.
Washington State University Vancouver is a small campus in the WSU system located in Southwest Washington just across the Columbia River from Portland, Oregon and is close to Willamette Valley and South Puget Sound prairies. Washington State University Vancouver is in the homeland of Chinookan and Taidnapam peoples and the Cowlitz Indian Tribe. Students benefit from outstanding faculty, world-class research, state-of-the-art facilities and small class sizes. https://cas.vancouver.wsu.edu/science-graduate-programs
Interested students should send a CV/resume, transcripts and a cover letter describing past research experience and future research interests to Dr. Cheryl Schultz, schultzc@wsu.edu The position requires excellent field, leadership, and organizational skills and a strong interest in research in butterfly ecology and conservation. We encourage interested students to get in touch to learn more about the program and research in our labs. Also please note that while the admitted graduate student will formally matriculate in Fall, the position includes about 3-4 months as a technician in the field, starting in May- June 2025 (exact start date is negotiable)
More information on our work can be found at https://labs.wsu.edu/conservation-biology/ For background on our monarch work, please see final reports in the Publication list – Schultz et al. 2019 and 2021.