I am currently recruiting graduate students to join an interdisciplinary team working on the evolution of eyes and vision in Daphnia. New students are most likely to start in August 2027, but potentially as soon as January 2027.

If you are interested in joining the lab as an M.S. or Ph.D. student, you should send me an email (mylastname /at/ biol.sc.edu) to explain your interest in the lab. It helps if you provide information about your academic background, including prior research experience, academic performance, and any GRE or other standardized test scores so that I can see how you’re likely to fare in the applicaton process. It is also important to explain what specifically interests you about our lab.

Note that the Biology Department deadline for applications is December 1st, which is substantially earlier than the deadline set by the university. This deadline allows strong applicants to compete for university fellowships.

I am mostly recruiting students to work on the evolution of vision in Daphnia. Daphnia have remarkably sophisticated vision, and we are exploring the evolution of both eye size and color vision. We have documented genetic variation of eye size within populations, variation among species, sexual dimorphism, variation of sexual dimorphism, ontogenetic variation, and phenotypic plasticity of eye size — and now we’re interested in understanding what all this variation means. We have recently shown that there can be strong directional selection on eye size. With respect to color vision, we have traced the evolutionary history of the opsin gene family in Daphnia, and predicted which genes are associated with variation of visual function.

Our newly funded NSF grant has four main goals: to determine the ecological correlates of eye size, to determine the effects of eye size on visual performance, to determine the costs of (larger) eyes, and to determine the fitness consequences of eye size variation in natural populations and experimental mesocosms. Students who join this project could pursue work in evolutionary ecology (e.g., identifying the mechanisms of selection on eye size) or comparative physiology (e.g., measuring visual function or costs under different conditions), and develop other genetics-oriented directions.

I would also consider students interested in evolutionary questions related to phenotypic plasticity, maternal effects, epigenetics, or spontaneous mutation in the context life history evolution. In particular, we are interested in how spontaneous mutations influence environment-specific gene expression, and how that links to phenotypic plasticity within and across generations. We also continue to be interested in the molecular mechanisms that have produced the striking adaptive (?) differences in life history between Daphnia from ponds vs. lakes.

First and foremost, I am looking for candidates whose interest is in evolutionary biology, though it doesn’t matter whether someone is more interested in the ecology or genetics side of evolution. Sometimes, people who think their interest is in genetics or population/community ecology haven’t quite figured out that what they really are interested in is actually evolution.

Second, I am looking for someone with strong intellectual abilities. Quantitative sklls, writing, and creativity all matter. At this point, grade inflation means everyone has great grades and faculty are rarely willing to write other-than-glowing recommendation letters. In the absense of GRE scores (yes, I know they’re not required) or other standardized test scores, it’s hard to know how applicants can demonstrate their intellectual abilities. It’s up to you.

Third, it is good to see some substantive research experience, and the ability to communicate the motivation, goals, and results of that research -- especially for Ph.D. candidates. Your research experience doesn’t have to be in evolution (or even biology), and this is less important if you’re applying for an M.S. degree.

Even if a student and advisor are a good match in terms of scientific interest, given the long-term, intensive nature of the relationship, it’s important that we have a good working relationship. It doesn’t have to be perfect; every relationship hits rocky times. But it does have to be strong enough to sustain us through six years of highs and lows. With that in mind, in addition to the fundamentals described above, the ideal candidate for my lab will be self-confident, ambitious, open-minded, tenacious, persistent, diligent, and endlessly curious about the natural world. If you seek out criticism and aren’t afraid to be judged (see: self-confident), we’ll do fine.

Are you looking for an advisor who is conscientious, is constructively critical, will set you up to achieve your goals, is curious, hopes you will challenge him intellectually, is open to new things, asks sharp questions, won’t accept malarky answers from students or Deans, has high standards but will let you fail, expects you to be responsible to the lab in both the short- and long-term, lives in the real world, and will go to bat for his students no matter what? That’s me. Also, I almost always have music playing in my office. It's usually alternative. Sometimes celtic, calypso, cajun, classical, country, techno, trance, dance, trip-hop, new wave, or punk.

Who might be a great candidate for grad school and some labs, but just not the D-Lab? Someone primarily motivated by urgent environmental problems. Someone interested in biotechnology, crop yields, or phytoplankton. Activitsts who expect everyone in Academia to think the way they do, lack empathy for those who have different values, and can’t check their politics at the door.

Finally, the really, really important things. Dogs > cats. Reason trumps faith. Pizza should be Detroit- style (or at least Chicago). Wrong hypotheses are better than trite hypotheses. Put two spaces after periods in typescript, never use a violin plot, and always use the oxford comma. Run from safety. Never use any automatic formatting in Microsoft Word. You might even use WordPerfect instead. Row, row, row your boat; don’t just drift into your future. If you never feel stupid, you can never get smarter. Socks can be worn with sandals. Good scientists are just as creative as good artists. Read actual books.

You can find more information on our graduate program here.

Prospective post-docs should contact me well in advance to discuss funding opportunities and fellowship applications. Post-docs are likely to work on projects related to those described above, but may potentially work on other evolutionary topics with Daphnia. Previous post-docs in the lab have all gotten faculty jobs in the locations where they wanted to live. I am not open to so-called remote post-docs. Post-docs should be part of the lab group, and for that, you have to be here.