Two Graduate Positions Starting in January 2025

The Gilbert Lab at Oklahoma State University seeks two graduate students with a start date of January 2025. The students will be supported by teaching assistantships through the Department of Integrative Biology. The teaching assistantship comes with full benefits and a 9-month stipend of $20,542 (MS) or $23,870 (PhD), which will be supplemented with a 3-month summer salary of $4,000-$6,000. Teaching assignments may include teaching ecology or introductory biology labs and typically consist of 2 labs per semester.

Oklahoma State University is located in Stillwater, OK, which has been described as America’s friendliest college town. And this doesn’t seem to be a marketing gimmick by the chamber of commerce – it is a small town where newcomers are welcome and where it is easy to make friends! Cost-of-living is low such that one can live comfortably on a graduate stipend. The state is an interesting place to be a biologist given the diversity of ecoregions.

Urban Wildlife Ecology position (MS or PhD)

The student will collect and analyze camera-trap data as part of the Urban Wildlife Information Network (https://www.urbanwildlifeinfo.org/). The student will assist with deploying and maintaining a camera-trap transect across the city of Stillwater and will develop research projects on urban wildlife behavior and community structure.

Desired qualifications 

• Excellent writing and communication skills

• For MS: undergraduate degree in biology, ecology, wildlife, statistics, or related field

• For PhD: MS in biology, ecology, wildlife, statistics, or related field

• Record of publishing peer-reviewed scientific papers

• Strong quantitative background, including data wrangling and visualization in R, statistics (especially hierarchical models and Bayesian analysis), and GIS & remote sensing

• Experience with camera trapping

• Experience mentoring undergraduate researchers or coordinating volunteers

To apply, email a CV (~2-3 pages; include contact information for 3 references) and cover letter (~1 page) describing your interest in the position and qualifications to Dr. Neil Gilbert (neil.gilbert@okstate.edu) with the subject line “Urban wildlife graduate position”. Review of applications will begin on August 2nd.

Avian Macroecology position (PhD)

The position will be primarily computational, and the student will work with existing datasets such as eBird, the North American Breeding Bird Survey, and the National Ecological Observatory Network.  Possible research topics include studying macroecological patterns in avian community structure, species’ range shifts in response to climate change, and seasonality of the structure of species’ ranges.

Desired qualifications 

• Excellent writing and communication skills

• MS in biology, ecology, wildlife, statistics, or related field

• Record of publishing peer-reviewed scientific papers

• Strong quantitative background, including data wrangling and visualization in R, statistics (especially hierarchical models and Bayesian analysis), and GIS & remote sensing

• Knowledge of bird ecology and diversity

To apply, email a CV (~2-3 pages; include contact information for 3 references) and cover letter (~1 page) describing your interest in the position and qualifications to Dr. Neil Gilbert (neil.gilbert@okstate.edu) with the subject line “Bird macroecology PhD position”. Review of applications will begin on August 2nd.