Opportunities

MS students

The School of Natural Resources and Environment has a vibrant and growing MS program, offering a MS degree in NRE (Natural Resources and Environment) in 8 different fields of study together with numerous dual degrees with other schools at UM. Professor Currie is interested in advising and working with a few new, talented, motivated students each year. Learn about our research through these web pages and if you think this group at SNRE could be a good fit for your graduate work, contact Prof. Currie via email with a letter of interest and resume (a list of courses taken, with grades you received, is also helpful). Apply to SNRE and be sure to mention Dr. Currie in your "statement of purpose" essay (this helps the SNRE Admissions Office forward your application). Be sure to mention any specific skills and experience that you have, together with your career goals and reasons for pursuing graduate work.

More MS students enter the program than can be supported financially by the School through fellowships or teaching assistantships or as research assistants on funded grants. But numerous opportunities for financial support do exist. See the "people" link at left to get a sense of the types of support that students often receive, and contact the SNRE Office of Academic Programs for more information.

See this page for more information for current and prospective students.

PhD students and postdoctoral scholars

Qualified, motivated, PhD students or recent PhD graduates interested in postdoctoral work are encouraged to learn about our research through these web pages and our publications. If you are interested in working with Bill Currie and you think our lab would be a good fit for this step in your career, contact Dr. Currie via email with a letter of interest, describing your research interests and how they fit with our overall scholarly themes.

SNRE has a fully funded PhD program which means that for accepted PhD students the School gaurantees a mixture of financial support through research assistantships and teaching assistantships. This is a highly competitive program, accepting about 8 new PhD students per year across the entire School. Normally, students do not enter this program without having first completed a Masters degree, although there are exceptions. Students must apply by very early in January to be considered for admission the next fall.

Other means of support are available for PhD students. In particular, PhD students can be supported through the BART program (Biosphere Atmosphere Research and Training), or as GESI Fellows (Graham Environmental Sustainability Institute), by the Applied Physics PhD Program at UM, or through external agency PhD Fellowships such as NSF Pre-Doctoral Fellowships or EPA STAR grants that students apply for directly.

The Currie lab also has a current opening for a postdoctoral fellow beginning in fall 2009, to work with both Bill Currie and Don Zak on ecosystem modeling of forests in Michigan and carbon-nitrogen interactions. Click here to see a more complete description of this opening.

See this page for more information for current and prospective students.

Undergraduate assistants and interns

Involving undergraduate students in our research is an important goal for our lab group. We often involve undergraduates as field, lab, or general research assistants during the term or during the summer. Undergraduates sometimes volunteer to work as unpaid interns, or in other cases are hired as hourly employees or work-study students. Contact Professor Currie with a letter of interest and a resume or list of courses taken and grades received.

Support our research and scholarship

Each year we receive applications and inquiries from many more motivated, talented graduate students than we are able to support through fellowships, teaching, and research assistantships. We also have many more compelling ideas for research and scholarship than are supportable by the limited public funds available for ecosystem and sustainability science.

If you are interested in learning more about us and potentially helping to support graduate students, research, travel, scientific meetings, writing, or other scholarly activity in our lab group, contact Professor Currie, email: wcurrie@umich.edu, or the Office of Development and Alumni Relations for SNRE, email: snre.developmenet.staff@umich.edu.