by Anthony Snead “Network! Network! Network!” I can hear the phrase ringing in my ears, and it transports me back to when I was a fresh PhD student in my advisor’s office. As early career scientists, we have been told that networking is important, and I took that to heart. I jumped at every chance to meet new people, even…
Read MoreAn ideal working environment involves a culture that expects and demonstrates civility and courtesy to all members of a professional community, regardless of identity and status. A culture of mutual respect will be free of abuse, and from retaliation against those who speak out against it. However, from Hollywood to Antarctica1, and from federal agencies2,3 to prestigious academic institutions4–6, the…
Read MoreUSDA Forest Service Experimental Forests & Ranges and Research Natural Areas As an early career ecologist, securing funds for new, field-based studies can be challenging. One strategy is to collaborate on existing studies. This type of collaboration is cost efficient because study establishment is already completed, allowing collaboration to focus on continuing the original objectives (e.g., re-measuring) or developing new…
Read MoreEcology is becoming an increasingly collaborative science, as seen in part by the increasing number of authors on ecology publications. As an early career ecologist, you’ve probably already worked in at least a few, and maybe many, collaborative research teams, whether your collaborators came from within your lab group, or institutions around the world. You’ve probably also already realized that…
I was first exposed to the notion of corporate engagement when I read a New Yorker piece that featured interviews with Peter Kareiva and Mark Tercek. Peter is former Chief Scientist at The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and Mark is a former executive at Goldman Sachs and now CEO of TNC. TNC and other big conservation NGOs have really advanced the…
Data and publishing Data publication has been a new endeavor for me and was not addressed during my training in graduate school. I have my first data publication out (Roberts et al. 2016) and have more in-progress. Given my recent look into this, I thought it would be worth posting this topic to prompt further discussion within early career ecologist…
My name is Eric Gustafson and I am a landscape ecologist who specializes in forest landscape simulation modeling, particularly with the LANDIS-II model (http://www.landis-ii.org/). I received my PhD from Purdue University in 1992, and have been a Research Ecologist for the Northern Research Station of the U.S. Forest Service since then. I am tempted to list my accomplishments so that…