Prospective students
Contents:

What the Student Can Expect

What is Expected of the Student

Picking a Research Topic

Facilities and Equipment

Other Resources

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What the student can expect

For students who come to work with me, I provide desk space in my lab with a desk-top computer hooked to the internet. Some students use their own personal computers on their desks and this helps avoid computer shortages, but I am committed to having computer access for all of my students. My philosophy is to provide students with the essential tools that they need to be productive research biologists, and a personal computer is perhaps the most essential of all tools.

Whenever possible, I provide students with up to eight months per year of research assistant (RA) support. This means students draw a salary for doing their research. The alternative is to be supported on a teaching assistantship, in which case students teach to earn their stipends. Being a teaching assistant is an important part of training to become a university faculty member.

I try to be supportive of students. I am around the lab every day. We have weekly lab meetings in which we generally discuss student research projects. We also have a weekly discussion group for which we read a recent paper. I keep close tabs on all of my students, not to meddle in the student’s work but to be certain that students stay on track towards reaching their goals. In general I try to foster an interactive, supportive, and lively lab group that promotes intellectual development and research excellence.

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What is expected of the student

I recruit students who are seeking careers as research biologists. I expect students to be devoted to their research and to work diligently towards the completion of their research projects. The students that currently make up my lab group are highly self-motivated. Their passion is scientific investigation. I expect any students who comes to be part of my lab group to work hard at becoming a professional research biologist.

I accept both Master’s and Ph.D. students, although all of my students enter the program with an expectation that they will eventually earn a Ph.D. in biology. Thus, my master’s students are really Ph.D. students who are taking a two-step route towards their ultimate goal. I believe that this is a very good strategy for many students. Students should complete their Ph.D. degree within approximately five years. It is almost impossible to achieve this degree at Auburn University in less than four years and even if the student is beset by setbacks, it should never take more than seven years to complete the degree. Master’s students should work toward completing their degrees in two years, but spring field work often pushes the completion date into the third year. No student should take more than three years to complete a master’s degree.

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Picking a topic

 The student has two choices in selecting a research topic-he or she can find a project within one of my large on-going research programs or the student can devise an independent research project. I will discuss each of these in turn:

I. Working within established research projects:
Currently I am conducting several large, well-funded research projects including sexual selection and the evolution of disease resistance in the House Finch, and the role of structural coloration in the Eastern Bluebird. See the lab research page for a longer description of these projects. Both the House Finch and Eastern Bluebird projects are conducted on the Auburn University campus. With NSF funds, I have money for equipment, supplies, and research assistantships for students.

The advantage of working within one of these large projects is that it is relatively easy for me to help the student find a project that has a high probability of yielding one or more publishable results. Moreover, while the student is encouraged to apply for his or her own research funding, equipment and materials are available regardless of the outcome. For master's students with no graduate experience, working within an established project can provide the support base that will help make the transition from classroom student to research biologist. While I am involved in the formulation, execution, and write-up of the individual studies within these large research programs, the graduate student's project is his or her own. The graduate student decides what question they would like to address, determines how the study is to be conducted, conducts analysis of data collected, and writes up the results.

Another advantage of working within these large projects is that a collaborative effort means that the student will be an author on more published work. Recently three graduate students spent two years working to band, process, find the nests of, and videotape behaviors at the nests of all House Finches nesting on the Auburn campus. Each student had a focal study that used data that resulted from this effort but a number of side (supplemental) projects also resulted from the effort.  Each of these three students is a co-author on at least six papers that resulted from the group data. This approach only works if we have a group of diligent, interactive, and cooperative students.

II. Working independently of my research projects:
Students are welcome to devise their own independent research program. This is a daunting task for master's students. Most new graduate students simply do not have the background or experience to devise a novel research program that will yield nationally competitive manuscripts. Devising a novel research project is also a daunting task for new Ph.D. students, but at least Ph.D. students have the luxury of more time. Master's students should have initiated their research within six months after starting graduate school. Ph.D. students could, if necessary, take up to a year exploring possibilities and devising an outstanding research project. For both master's and Ph.D. students there are both advantages and disadvantages of working within an established project and working alone.

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Available facilities and Equipment

I have a large aviary facility with 30 large outdoor flight cages, 15 indoor bird rooms, 50 small (.5 m3) cages, and two mate choice pens that contain female choice and non-choice areas and 4 male display cages. I have a relatively large lab space with desks for five students, a group computer space, and a conference table. I also have a molecular lab with state-of-the-art equipment including a new automated sequencer.
 
 
aviary

aviary

 mate choice pens

mate choice pens

 barbecue house

The ever smokin' barbecue house

aviaries

aviaries
 cages

cages
 molecular lab

molecular lab

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Resources to help you get there

1. Auburn University Homepage
2. Graduate Admissions at Auburn University
3. Map of the Auburn Campus
4. Find an Apartment in Town
5. Get driving directions to Auburn
6. Find a cheap flight to Auburn
 

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Last Revised: August 2004