Information for Prospective Students
A letter to prospective students:
(Fall 2003)
Thanks for your interest in my research program, and in graduate study in Marine Science at the College of William and Mary. Please pardon the impersonality of this format - I'm happy to talk with you about more specific details after you've been through the general stuff here, and sent me an email with the requested information (see below). This is meant to introduce some philosophical and practical issues concerning graduate study in science generally, and in my lab specifically, that may be helpful in your decision about applying to graduate school.
My philosophy of graduate education. Graduate education is, at
its heart, about becoming an independent scientist. Thus, intellectual
rigor, creativity, and self-motivation are critical to success. Regardless
of your ultimate employment objective (academia, government, NGO, the private
sector), the most fundamental goal of your graduate education is to instill,
through experience, an intimate understanding of how the scientific process
works and how one creates rigorous scientific knowledge. This is
why the dissertation - a substantive, original work of research and scholarship
- is its centerpiece. After you graduate you will likely spend much
of your time (whether in academia, government, or elsewhere) writing proposals
to attract funding, writing research papers, managing projects and personnel.
All of these activities require self-motivation, discipline, and organization.
Therefore, you will need to develop these skills rapidly in grad school
if you are currently weak in them. I expect my students actively
to seek funding for their research, and to take personal responsibility
for their timely progress. I am committed to mentoring and giving
my students whatever time and guidance they need, but I also fully expect
independence.
Science is also fundamentally
about communication, both written and oral. As a grad student (and
as a more senior scientist, for that matter) you will benefit substantially
from attending and presenting your results at national meetings. I expect
you to do so and will make every effort to help you get funding to attend
meetings. The most important step in effective communication is publishing
your research in a timely fashion in international, peer-reviewed journals.
All of these activities require effective writing and speaking (and critical
thinking!) skills, which you will need to develop quickly if they are not
already strong.
My research interests. You can get a good idea of the sorts of
research problems we address in my lab from our Evolutionary
Ecology web site, and from my recent publications.
My interests span a range of topics in ecology and evolutionary biology,
loosely organized around the origin and maintenance of biological diversity
and its consequences for ecosystem functioning. My students and I study
a variety of topics in these areas, mostly but not exclusively dealing
with marine invertebrates. There are two major foci of our current work:
Biodiversity, food
web structure, and ecosystem functioning. The relationships
between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning have generated intense interest
and controversy in recent years. The majority of this work has focused
on terrestrial plants, and on processes operating within trophic levels,
with little attention to consumers (see pub 34,37
for review). A major thrust of our current research involves understanding
how consumers, especially small
grazing
invertebrates, mediate the structure and function of benthic vegetated
ecosystems (e.g., pubs 25,29,36),
with particular interest in how they alter relationships between diversity
and ecosystem properties such as production, trophic transfer, and biogeochemical
cycling. We address these issues experimentally using mesocosm and
field experiments, field and lab studies of feeding behavior, distribution,
habitat specificity, and seasonal cycles. Collaborations with geochemists
and several other ecologists allow us to expand the breadth of this interdisciplinary
research. The communities of small grazers that abound in shallow
marine waters provide a largely untapped reservoir of interesting questions
and potential projects in ecology, population biology and genetics, and
evolution.
The radiation and sociobiology
of Caribbean sponge-dwelling shrimps. The tropical shrimp genus
Synalpheus
is a diverse group of over 30 species spanning a range in body size, life
history, ecological specificity, and most notably social organization.
The group includes the only known eusocial animals in the marine realm,
and comparative study of their social systems with those of the social
insects and vertebrates yields several fruitful avenues for research (see
pub 35
for review). These shrimps also provide an exciting model system
for addressing questions about the evolution of resource use patterns,
their consequences for population structure and speciation (pubs 19,20).
This is an exciting time in research on social shrimps because in the last
year or so Rubén Ríos's dissertation work has produced an
updated taxonomy, we have completed a phylogenetic analysis of the West
Atlantic species (pubs 26,40),
and we have developed new methods for observing the shrimps alive in laboratory
colonies (e.g., pub 33).
Several exciting options for student research projects are available.
Are you a good fit? I am most receptive to students with a strong background in organismal biology, some research experience, strong writing and verbal skills, and evidence of independence and self-motivation. I like to maintain a group of 3-4 graduate (primarily Ph.D.) students, a postdoc, a technician, and an undergraduate or two. Much of our ecological research entails periodic bursts of labor-intensive work that involves everyone, so we get a chance to work together as well as independently. In terms of what research topics you might pursue for your thesis/dissertation, I am fairly open to suggestions as long as the problem is significant, of general interest, and tractable. However, the intellectual and practical guidance (and the financial support) I can offer you will be greatest for topics that are closest to my own field of expertise. I am always open to considering excellent, self-motivated students.
Miscellaneous practical issues. Generally the School of
Marine Science (SMS) accepts only students that we are able to support
through fellowships or research and teaching assistantships. Nevertheless,
obtaining funding on your own initiative is a feather in your cap and makes
you a more attractive candidate anywhere. Several of my students
have held National
Science Foundation Predoctoral Fellowships, which I encourage you to
investigate and apply for. In addition, the SMS awards each year
a small number of highly competitive 3-year Fellowships which cover stipend
and tuition. Those students who do not hold fellowships from SMS
or other sources, I generally support as Research Assistants, which of
course requires that you spend a significant amount of time working with
me on the project that provides your funding.
If you are interested and
believe you would be a strong candidate, I encourage you to contact me
as soon as possible. When you contact me, please include as much
information as possible about your experience and interests, including
your GPA (preferably with a copy of your most recent transcript, photocopy
or PDF is fine) and GRE scores, which are useful in evaluating your likelihood
of being awarded a fellowship here. If it appears that we would
be a good match, we can then arrange a visit to the VIMS campus -- a personal
meeting is very important (to both of us) in deciding whether you, I, and
VIMS would work well together. Once again, thanks for your interest in
my program and best of luck in all your future endeavors!
J. Emmett Duffy
Associate Professor of Marine Science
last updated 8 October 2003
Courses taught by Emmett Duffy:
Lecture and discussion of the fundamental processes
underlying primary and secondary production in marine ecosystems. Emphasis
on physical processes supporting primary production, plankton dynamics,
biotic interactions structuring communities, vertical and horizontal distributions,
foodweb structure, ecological role of higher and lower trophic levels,
links between biodiversity and marine ecosystem functioning, and benthic-pelagic
coupling. The course concludes with a survey of the major oceanic ecosystems.
MS 576. Evolutionary Ecology. Fall, even years (3 credits). J.E. Duffy.
A theoretical and empirical exploration of the
interaction between environment (physical and biological) and evolution
of organismal structure, function, and behavior. The course progresses
from adaptive strategies of individual organisms, through the evolution
of populations, through coevolution and macroevolution. Lcture and discussion
topics include natural selection and adaptation; the evolution of life
history strategies; sexual selection and mate choice; kin selection and
sociobiology; speciation and adaptive radiation; coevolution; the paleohistory
of biotic interactions; and the practical implications of evolutionary
biology. Readings draw heavily from primary literature, concentrating on
examples involving marine organisms where possible.
This course number is a vehicle by which students can receive credit for participation in seminar/discussion. In the last few years, John Graves and I have used this course number to coordinate weekly student discussions of several books including Endless Forms edited by Howard and Berlocher, Molecular Markers, Natural History, and Evolution by Avise, and classics of evolutionary biology such as Darwin's Origin of Species and Mayr's Populations, Species and Evolution, with updates from the recent primary literature.