Notes for prospective graduate students
Thank you for your interest in the Northern Plant Ecology Lab (NPEL) at the University of Saskatchewan. I am happy to talk about potential graduate studies with students who have strong academic backgrounds and are excited about plant ecology. For a good fit with my lab, potential students should have interests in:
Research support for graduate students at USask usually involves a combination of scholarship support and departmental service (usually, graduate students assist in teaching biology labs for in the department). These options are usually only available for students who have completed their undergraduate (last 3 years) or master's coursework with a grade average at or above 80%. International students from outside North America often have difficulty in transferring grades and will generally need to come with their own scholarship support. More information about graduate student support and entrance requirements can be found at the USask College of Graduate Studies website.
Graduate students in my lab typically conduct research in the field as part of their program. The costs of field research are usually supported through student awards from the Canada Northern Scientific Training Program (NSTP), specific project funds, and my NSERC Discovery Grant. Research facilities available at the NPEL include tools for conducting tree ring analyses, processing plant and soil samples from the field, and computers for data analysis. We also collaborate with other labs on campus to access additional facilities that may be needed for our research, such as plant or soil chemical analyses, and growing plants in greenhouses or controlled growth chambers.
My philosophy for graduate student mentoring is to encourage the students to take leadership in the development of their thesis research, and to contribute to and benefit from the collaborative network within the NPEL and the larger university community. To encourage this, our lab has regular meetings where we discuss on-going research, work together on our writing and analysis skills, and use group discussions to develop critical thinking skills to improve the quality of our research. Students are encouraged to develop their skills in experimental design, statistical analysis or modeling, and effective writing and presentation as part of their research programs. Members of the Northern Plant Ecology lab are generally united by a strong interest in northern ecosystems and the consequences of environmental change, and it is my hope that training in my lab will leave them well-equipped to help address the many issues of ecological sustainability that face our modern society.
If you are interested: Propsective students should contact me with a letter of interest describing their general research interests and motivation for attending graduate school, and attach copies of their recent transcripts for informal review (unofficial transcripts are fine at this stage). My contact details are listed on the main NPEL homepage.