Graduate position: Behavioral Ecology of Mollies

BEHAVIORAL ECOLOGY OF SAILFIN AND AMAZON MOLLIES

Teaching Assistantship for MS or Ph. D.

Applications are being sought for one student interested in pursuing anacademic career studying various aspects of the behavior of sailfin and Amazon mollies starting no later than January 2009. Amazon mollies, Poecilia formosa, are a clonal, all female species that are essentially sexual parasites as they require sperm from the closely related sailfin molly, P. latipinna to start the development of their eggs but do not use it to fertilize their eggs. Conflict exists between male sailfin mollies that prefer to mate with conspecifics and Amazon mollies that require matings with these males. We are looking for a student to work on some aspects of this system and can supply Teaching Assistantships for the fall and spring terms.

See http://www.bio.txstate.edu/~gabor/gabor.htm

for details about our lab and our research interests.

The Department of Biology offers a strong environment in evolutionary ecology as the basis for training in behavioral ecology. Students will benefit from interactions with other faculty interested in evolutionary questions such as: Jim Ott (Insect-plant interactions and ecological genetics), Noland Martin (Plant population genetics), and Chris Nice (Speciation in insects and phylogeography). We have both General Biology and Population and Conservation Biology MS programs available and a Doctoral program in Aquatic Resources.

For more information on admissions see http://www.bio.txstate.edu/grad/GradGuide.html. Please also see the Department of Biology (http://www.bio.txstate.edu/) and Texas State University (http://www.txstate.edu/) web sites for more information. Currently there is a soft deadline for applications to the MS program.

To apply please send a statement of interest and a CV/resume of related research, coursework, GPA, GRE, and any other relevant experience to Caitlin Gabor by email (gabor at txstate.edu). Reference letters for top candidates will be solicited at a later date. Applications will be reviewed as they come in.

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