Field station research opportunities in New York State

Undergraduate Research Internship, Research Grants, and Senior Research Fellowship at the Huyck Preserve, NY



The Huyck Preserve and Biological Research Station—a 2,000 acre preserve and 75 year-old field station located 30 miles southwest of Albany, NY—is now accepting applications for its Odum Internship for Undergraduates, Huyck Research Grants, and Senior Research Fellowship for summer 2012. Information about each of these opportunities can be found below or by visiting the Preserve's website at: http://www.huyckpreserve.org



Odum Internship (Applications due Friday, March 9th)

8-week, from June 4 to July 28, internship for rising junior and senior undergraduates. This is an unpaid internship, though housing is provided and some opportunities for paid work prior to or following the internship are available. For more information on the internship and for how to apply, please visit: http://huyckpreserve.org/research/odum_intern.htm



Huyck Grants (Applications due Friday, March 9th)

The grants (up to $3,500) are intended to support research conducted at the field station by graduate students, postdocs, professors, and independent researchers. Some preference is given to proposals that included multi-week stays at the station. For details and information on how to apply for a Huyck Grant, please visit: http://huyckpreserve.org/research/huyck_grants.htm



Senior Research Fellowship (Applications are due Friday, March 2nd)

The Fellowship is for approximately 50 days, with a concentration in early June to early August. The selected candidate will conduct on-site independent research, mentor undergraduate interns, and lead the annual Science Symposium in late July. There is a $10,000 stipend along with waived housing and station fees. For more information on the Fellowship and how to apply, please visit: http://huyckpreserve.org/research/srf.htm

Looking ahead to AAPA 2012

Before you know it, AAPA 2012 will make landfall in Portland, Oregon (you will see this link from me again and again). Wanted to let you know about two exciting things we've got planned!

1) 3rd Annual BANDIT Happy Hour!
Holy yes, this is happening. And this year we've got a new time: Friday evening, 6-7pm, right before the interest group meetings. We hope this new time will encourage more BANDITs to attend and meet colleagues.

2) Anatomy Education & Career Workshop!
The American Association of Anatomists (the other AAA) has awarded me and my UIC colleague Alison Doubleday an Education Outreach Grant to organize a workshop at the AAPA meetings to open a discussion with graduate students about the advantages and caveats about pursuing graduate training, teaching experience, and faculty careers in the anatomical sciences. We have a wonderful panel of biological anthropologists who have pursued an anatomically-oriented path in their scholarship and teaching. We will also be awarding a student (undergraduate or graduate) presentation that exemplifies the marriage of anthropological and anatomical research approaches. More details will follow, but if you are or have a student planning to present anatomical research at the AAPA meeting, consider applying for this award!

The workshop is tentatively scheduled for Saturday afternoon, 2-3pm, immediately after the Career Development Workshop, and a few hours before the Student Awards Reception, where we hope to announce the winner of the anatomy prize. Please stick around for all of Saturday to attend these great student-centered events!

Study Hyena Behavior in Kenya!

Dr. Kay Holekamp of Michigan State University announces a wonderful field school opportunity studying the behavior of Kenyan hyenas! Even for students with a primary interest in primates, hyenas are fascinating animals and the field school draws on similar behavioral observation techniques as does primate research. Dr. Holekamp is looking for undergraduates between their junior and senior year. Please print out the flyer and announce to your students! (Application info can be found on the flyer.)

There are 2 projects that will be available for participation during summer, 2012:


1. Spotted hyenas and ecosystem health. The spotted hyena is the most abundant and wide-ranging large carnivore in Africa. In addition to their plasticity in regard to habitat choice, hyenas are extremely adaptable carnivores that can survive by scavenging or hunting large and medium-sized herbivores. Where many other mammalian species occupying African ecosystems cannot readily adapt to changing environmental conditions, the spotted hyena is able to thrive. Using the spotted hyena as an indicator for changing African ecosystems, we may be able to predict changes and modify conservation practices before it is too late.
*** Work this summer will involve running transects to document space use patterns of sympatric mammal, monitoring of hyena space-use via radio telemetry, and daily monitoring of hyena behavior and demography.


2. Maternal strategies and offspring development. The spotted hyena displays a protracted period of development characterized by extensive maternal care and marked by distinct developmental milestones. This project explores first, how maternal behavior and physiology vary with social rank and degree of human disturbance and second, what the consequences of anthropogenic disturbance may be for the development of spotted hyena cubs. Previous research indicates that adult females in areas of high disturbance show higher stress levels and lower attendance at communal dens where cubs are reared.
*** Work this summer will include collection of focal and all-occurrence behavioral data, organization and analysis of demographic and hormonal data, and development of field experiments to measure temperament/personality.

Travel costs (airline tickets, room, board, Kenyan visa, etc.) will be covered by NSF funds, and students will also receive a stipend of $2500.