Note to prospective students (2008)

I welcome applications from prospective students interested in community ecology and its interdigitation with population dynamics, ecosystem processes, and epidemiology. If you think that the Hall Lab might be a good place to train as an ecologist, I would ask you to please read over this document to learn more. (Consider also checking out my growing library of resources for grad students).

1. Contacting me

2. Lab and training philosophy

3. Funding opportunities

4. Other opportunities at Indiana University

1. The best way to contact me if you are interested or would like to learn more:

I would first ask you to read a few papers to appreciate my research interests and the approach that I take to my science. Although I am broadly interested in community ecology and disease dynamics, I seem to have focused on two main ideas thus far. Students in the lab are welcome to consider different topics in their own research programs, but these papers demonstrate how I think through problems. Check out a couple of these:

A. Community ecology of disease:

Cáceres, Hall, et al. 2006 describes some motivating field patterns

Hall et al. 2006 links models with lab data to consider disease in a warmer world

Hall et al. 2005 explores dynamical implications of predators who selectively prey upon infected hosts

B. Stoichiometric food web theory:

Hall et al. 2006 explores new ways in which plant heterogeneity can shape community structure of grazers, using experimental data and models.

Hall et al. 2005 links field observations, experiments, literature data, and models to document constraints on stoichiometric plasticity of plants.

A common theme linking these papers: I combine observations of natural systems and experimental data with models to make inferences about mechanisms in nature. This combination (observations, experiments, models) helps me to rigorously test logical, relevant ideas, and I think that interaction among these modes of inference yields powerful conclusions about nature. I am keen on training students who want to combine these approaches in their own work, or who are at least open-minded to linking the three.

Location: I have been working extensively in lakes and ponds near the W.K. Kellogg Biological Station in southwest Michigan, although students in the Hall Lab can certainly work at other locations. (Picture to right is Bob Duffy, working with me on Hall Lake in SW Michigan).

If you are still interested, please send me an email (sprhall at indiana dot edu) telling me:

i. what *really* interests you about ecology, and why community and/or disease ecology seem particularly interesting to you

ii. what kinds of experiences you’ve had to excite you about ecology and encourage you to apply to graduate school

iii. (sorry to ask, it won’t matter much once you’re here, but it helps with institutional issues) your numbers (GPA, GRE scores)

2. Lab and training philosophy:

As an advisor, I am looking to help students grow into productive, creative, interative, independent young scientists. I feel like I can best succeed at the goal by:

Encouraging interactions: I really enjoy interacting with my scientific colleagues, and I am keen on recruiting students who want to interact with me and others in the lab and department. Discussion of ideas over coffee, beer, lunch, lab meetings, and blackboards is fun. I anticipate that students in the lab will learn from and possibly collaborate with me, but also from/with each other and others in the intellectual communities that they form. Students cannot be afraid of constructive criticism – giving and receiving – since this helps us to learn. Attendance at seminars, brown bags, journal clubs, etc., will be expected, since these are functions of a vibrant academic community. (See also the webpage for our Disease Ecology and Evolution Discussion group, a weekly meeting of biologists interested in disease and symbiosis. Ecologists at IU meet every other week at Works In Progress in Ecology).

Fostering interdependence: While I invite students to consider questions or work in systems closely related to the ones I pursue, this is definitely not a requirement. In fact, I will strongly encourage you to independently/interdependently form your own novel, interesting, answerable questions, with help and guidance from me (of course) and others. I do not assign dissertation projects to students. Instead, I will try to offer resources – intellectual and financial – to help you find your own path.

3. Funding:

Funding for students can come from a variety of sources – my own research grants, university and national fellowships, and instructional (teaching) assistantships through the department. Hunting for grant money is a crucial skill to master as a young scientist, and students will learn it right away in the Hall Lab by applying for fellowships and small grant awards.

4. Related opportunities at Indiana University:

I would like to point out that IU offers a few opportunities for disease ecology and evolution that might interest students looking at the Hall lab or at me as a potential (co)advisor. The Daphnia Genome project, headed by Mike Lynch, is opening new frontiers to study ecological genomics using Daphnia (a major study organism in the Hall lab). In collaboration with others at IU (especially Mike Lynch and Curt Lively), it will become possible to conduct interdisciplinary study of ecological and evolutionary dynamics of disease, using Daphnia and its parasites, at the scale of molecules to species interactions and ecosystems. (More about Daphnia and its parasites can be found by reading Dieter Ebert’s book).

Also, Curt Lively’s lab group meets weekly with mine to discuss ongoing work on topics including disease ecology and evolution. Students can consider having Curt and I as co-advisors.