recruiting graduate students for fall 2016

The Porter lab at Washington State University, Vancouver, is
recruiting graduate students for fall 2016. Our lab explores the
evolutionary and ecological dynamics of plants and their microbial
symbionts to test fundamental theory about cooperative interactions.
We focus on environmentally acquired symbioses between plants and
microbial mutualists such as nitrogen-fixing rhizobium bacteria. Our
research projects range from the field, to the lab to the greenhouse
and integrate approaches from quantitative genetics, ecological
genetics and genomics.

Graduate students will have the opportunity to participate in the PI's
collaborative multi-year NSF-funded project with the Friesen lab at
Michigan State University to investigate evolutionary and ecological
shifts in plant-symbiont mutualism during plant invasions from Europe
into North America. Students are also welcome to develop a research
program aligned with their own interests and expertise on related
topics in plant or microbial evolutionary ecology. The lab currently
supports diverse projects ranging from examining how
plant-soil-microbial feedbacks impact succession post-eruption on
Mount Saint Helens, to testing the importance of microbes to plant
adaptation to heavy metals, to quantifying natural selection on
cheating strategies in mutualism. Visit our research page to read more
about the lab: http://research.vancouver.wsu.edu/porter-lab.

Graduate students will be supported through a combination of TAship
and research assistantship in the Porter lab (5-6 years for PhD, 2 for
MS) with the opportunity for summer funding. The PI will work with
students to develop competitive applications for independent graduate
funding. WSUV is a vibrant, rapidly growing institution located within
the greater Portland/Vancouver metropolitan area, near the Columbia
River, Cascade Mountains and coastal ocean, and as such offers an
exceptional quality of life.

Interested students should send a copy of their CV, description of
research interests, and GPA to stephanie.porter@wsu.edu.

"stephanie.porter@wsu.edu"