I am pleased you are interested in graduate study at the University of Arizona. You will find that UA offers outstanding opportunities in graduate studies in ecology, evolution and behavior. There are many aspects of our graduate program that receive international recognition for excellence. I encourage you to visit the department’s web pages to learn more about the faculty, post-docs, students, and their current projects.

The work in my lab is conceptually-driven research at the interface of evolution, ecology, and development with specific focus on morphology and behavior in birds and mammals. Our most current projects focus on the evolution of maternal effects in birds (e.g., maternal transfer of growth enhancers and suppressors into eggs, parentally induced meiotic drive, sex-determination), the evolution of sexual traits and behaviors, and the evolution of complex morphological and behavioral traits. I am particularly interested in supervising students working in the area of evolutionary biology.

Before you apply: Get experience in the field of science first to know that you have the aptitude and dedication; be sure it's your passion. Then only go to graduate school if you plan to be the best in your field.

If you are interested in becoming a member of my lab, you should:

1). Read my statement of research interests and the research statements of all people currently working in the lab.

2). Read some of the papers that my students, collaborators and I have published in recent years. The more papers you read the better understanding you will have of research and approaches that we are using in our work.

3). If, afer (1) and (2), you still think that our research interests are similar, please send me (by email or post) a detailed letter in which you should include the following:

• The reasons for your interest in graduate research in general and in my lab in particular. Why do you want to be a scientist? What excites you about science?
• Include your resume, any publications (or references to published work), relevant qualifications, classes, and any additional material (e.g., proposals) that you think may be useful for your application
• The names and institutions of the people you will ask for letters of recommendation (letters are not necessary at this time)
• Include your GPA and GRE (%), a list of the math or statistics classes you have taken, and any experience with molecular/physiological and other laboratory techniques and methods

4). About a week after you send the materials above, please e-mail me to inquire about your suitability and likehood of acceptance to the lab. (Please note however that the ranking and acceptance decisions are made by the entire faculty).

5). Go ahead and apply! To apply and for general information on the graduate school, application forms, required exams, and related materials please consult the UA and EEB graduate school web pages.

What to expect?

I seek students who are highly motivated and serious about science, who enjoy being productive and creative, and who view their work as a continuing progress driven by the constant expansion of their knowledge and ability. I invest a great deal of time in helping such students to succeed. I strongly encourage students to develop the ability to present their work and ideas in the most clear and succinct manner, and to design interesting and non-trivial research program. While you can expect me to be very helpful in these areas, I am not particularly interested in intervening into minute details of your daily graduate work or progress. I am however, very interested in providing you with time and resources to develop and conduct your own study.

Generally, I encourage my students to have a significant field (or empirical) component in their projects and can be most helpful with projects capitalizing on various aspects of the natural history of vertebrates (especially of birds and mammals).

In our lab we have our own indoor/outdoor aviary for various behavioral work (mate choice trials, breeding experiments), morphometrics and video setup, and a fully functional molecular biology lab designed primarily for paternity/molecular sexing analyses, but open to most molecular, and some physiological methods. Thus, there is a rare opportunity to learn and use a wide variety of relevant techniques and to design sophisticated integrative studies.

Please do not hesitate to contact me or any of the lab members if you have any questions.

Design, maintenance, code. and non-human animal photos are by Alex Badyaev © 2002-2005