LOOKING FOR 

Graduate Student Position at Montana State University 

The Remote Sensing Biodiversity Lab within the Department of Land Resources and Environmental Sciences at Montana State University has an opening for a PhD student to begin fall of 2024. Funding includes an annual stipend (28 K), tuition waiver, health insurance, and fees. 

We are looking for a PhD student interested in Remote sensing of plant community composition and soil characteristics in prairie ecosystems. Initial data to test the degree to which plant species distributions and soil characteristics can be predicted from UAV imaging spectroscopy data are available. These data were gathered in a chronosequence study of old field succession at the Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve, MN, and are being made available through a collaboration with Adam Clark (University of Graz, Austria) and Phil Townsend (University of Wisconsin–Madison). The Cedar Creek dataset will serve as a starting point to develop and deepen skills in imaging spectroscopy and grassland ecology. From here, the PhD project will be developed further depending on the candidate’s interests; these may include local comparative studies of vegetation and soil mapping with remote sensing in the Great Plains and Greater Yellowstone ecosystems, as well as continental- and global-scale studies using satellite data. 

If interested, please send a motivation letter, CV and a short writing sample to lead scientist and lab founder Anna Schweiger: anna.k.schweiger@gmail.com 

About MSU and Bozeman: https://www.montana.edu/about/  

Graduate program information: https://landresources.montana.edu/grad/gradprogams.html