Deadline: 31 October and 15 February

The WHOI Marine Mammal Center and the Duke University Marine Laboratory announce a fellowship program for graduate students at either institution studying marine conservation, particularly marine mammal conservation, to apply to conduct research or to take courses at the other institution. Students in any/all programs or departments are eligible for the program, though the project/courses must involve the conservation of marine resources.

The fellowship will support transportation and living expenses with the goal that fellows can work at the partner institution with no additional costs compared to working at their own institution. The student is expected as part of the application process to develop a proposal for a project that is approved by both their advisor and a faculty member at the other institution interested in sponsoring the fellow. As part of the application process, students must work with their academic advisor to contact a faculty member from the other institution. Faculty members who are interested in advising fellows under this program are listed below.

For PhD students at either institution, the project can represent early exploratory research or can be part of ongoing thesis research. For Duke Master’s students, the proposed research should be part of the Master’s Project.  The fellowship can also be used to take advantage of specialized courses offered at the partner institution, e.g., WHOI students could use the fellowship to enroll in Conservation Biology at Duke.  Selection of fellows will be competitive; selection of successful applications will be based upon the academic merit of the student and the project along with the fit with the advisor from the other institution. Preference will be given to projects that promise scientific progress on important marine conservation issues. Fellows accepted to participate in the program will receive funding for living and travel expenses as well as tuition if appropriate.

To Apply:
The fellowship application is available in either Microsoft Word or PDF format.
 

Announcement of Fellowship Decisions will be made no later than 15 January (31 October applications) or 15 April (15 February applications).

WHOI Faculty Interested in Supporting Duke Fellows

Mark Baumgartner
mbaumgartner@whoi.edu
Top predator ecology and the physical and biological oceanographic processes that influence the feeding and distribution of these predators. How do behavior, life history, and aggregation mechanisms of zooplankton influence the distribution and behavior of baleen whales.

Mark E. Hahn
mhahn@whoi.edu
Comparative toxicology; molecular evolution; analysis of gene expression; molecular biomarkers of contaminant exposure, effects, and susceptibility.
www.whoi.edu/science/B/people/mhahn/hahnm.html

Gareth Lawson
glawson@whoi.edu
Biological and physical factors underlying variability in the distributions of zooplankton and fish, and the linkages between these prey and their cetacean predators.

Michael Moore
mmoore@whoi.edu
Strandings and bycatch; pathobiology and diagnostics; forensics; large whale conservation, pathophysiology of diving.

Michael Neubert
mneubert@whoi.edu
Bioeconomics and marine protected areas

Hanumant Singh
hsingh@whoi.edu
AUVs, Platforms, Sensor and Imaging for Ecosystems Research
www.whoi.edu/DSL/hanu

Tim Stanton
tstanton@whoi.edu
I am physicist whose research focuses on understanding fundamental acoustic scattering processes. Although much of my work is directed toward use of sound in human-made devices (scientific echosounders), it also applies to echo-locating marine mammals.

Andy Solow
Environmental and ecological statistics; spatial statistics; Bayesian methods.

Hauke Kite-Powell
Analysis of public policies and private management decisions in technology-intensive industries and markets, with emphasis on the interdisciplinary application of models and analytical techniques from the fields of economics, engineering, and management.

Peter Tyack
ptyack@whoi.edu
Acoustic communication and social behavior of cetaceans
Effects of anthropogenic sound on cetaceans
www.whoi.edu/sbl/liteSite.do?litesiteid=18213&articleId=27373

Duke Faculty Interested in Supporting WHOI Fellows

Larry Crowder
lcrowder@duke.edu
Ecology; biodiversity, conservation biology, fisheries and fish ecology, fisheries policy and management, geospatial technologies, marine science, oceanography; Marine ecology and fisheries. Population and community ecology. Endangered species/fisheries conflictes, especially sea turtles and bycatch in fishing gear. Marine conservation biology and policy. International affairs.

David Johnston
david.johnston@duke.edu
Marine conservation issues including: understanding the foraging ecology and habitat needs of marine animals at various spatial and temporal scales; the design and utility of marine protected areas and the concept of marine wilderness; the effects of climate variability and climate change on marine animals; the sustainability of incidental mortality and directed harvests of marine animals; the effects of sound and noise pollution on marine mammals and the suitable application of new technological approaches to marine conservation.

Douglas Nowacek
dpn3@duke.edu
Bioacoustics and behavioral ecology of cetaceans; foraging ecology of cetaceans; hydrodynamics of locomotion; development of technology for marine conservation research

Mike Orbach
mko@duke.edu
Application of social science to coastal and marine policy and management. Special interest in protected species.

Pat Halpin
phalpin@duke.edu
Marine geospatial analysis, ecological applications of geographic information systems and remote sensing; marine conservation and ecosystem-based management. Halpin leads the Marine Geospatial Ecology Lab and the Ocean Biogeographic Information Systems.

Andy Read
aread@duke.edu
Fisheries interactions; effects of sound; population dynamics and life history; foraging ecology; habitat modeling