PhD Assistantship - Mammalian Community Response to Tropical Storm Helene
Clemson University (State) | https://www.clemson.edu/cafls/
Details
Application Deadline:11/14/2025
Published:10/30/2025
Starting Date:after 1/5/2026
Hours per Week:at least 28
Salary:starting at $35,000 per year
Education Required:Masters
Experience Required:at least 2 years
Location:258 Lehotsky Hall (Clemson, South Carolina) 
Tags:Graduate Opportunities
Description
We are searching for a PhD student to investigate the response mammalian communities to Tropical Storm Helene in western North Carolina. Tropical Storm Helene caused widespread flooding, landslides, and destruction across the southern Appalachian region in September 2024. These impacts caused long-term and potentially permanent changes to terrestrial and aquatic habitat distribution, ecosystem structure, and function. Field evaluations and monitoring are required to understand how baseline ecological conditions changed following these large-scale, geological changes in terrestrial and aquatic habitats.
This specific position is expected to lead field evaluations aimed at understanding the post-disaster status of mammalian species of conservation concern in Nantahala and Pisgah National Forest. The exact species this position focuses on are negotiable, but the list of potential focal taxa include 10 at-risk bat species, Appalachian woodrat, Appalachian cottontail, Carolina northern flying squirrels, and southern water shrew. Importantly, the work of the student will not only help generate a basic understand of distribution and status of these species, but build a detailed understanding of their ecology to guide ongoing forest restoration efforts.
The selected PhD student will join a cohort of graduate students being hired at Clemson University across the fields of forestry, wildlife, fisheries, and fire ecology as part of a large multi-disciplinary, multi-year project. In addition to being able to join this exciting team, the student will have the opportunity to build skills in experimental design, project management and collaborating with multiple federal, state, and non-governmental organizations working to help recovery and restore this ecosystem.
Applicants are required to have a MS in wildlife ecology or a related field, previous experience studying the ecology of small mammals in a field setting and have a valid US driver’s license. Top applicants will have a clear passion for at-risk small mammals and past experience in acoustic and other types of non-invasive monitoring for small mammals. Past evidence of strong scientific writing and basic statistics is highly desired. Applicants should submit a cover letter, CV, contact information for 3 references, unofficial transcripts, and a scientific writing sample as a single PDF titled “LastName_PhDapplication” to djachow@clemson.edu. Applications will start being reviewed by November 5, and no applications will be accepted after November 14, 2025. The selected student would ideally start at Clemson in January 2026, although a slightly delayed start in negotiable.
The selected student will be awarded a 4-year graduate assistantship (starting at $35,000/year, health benefits, along with tuition waiver) to attend Clemson University. Grant support covers all field and travel costs for the student, including a large field crew to assist with data collection. The student will be advised by Dr. David Jachowski within the Department of Forestry and Wildlife Conservation. Clemson University is the largest public land grant university in the state of South Carolina and nationally recognized as an R1 (“very high research activity”) institution. Clemson is a small town located in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains and along the shores of Lake Hartwell. Campus is surrounded by the 17,500-acre Clemson Experimental Forest, providing abundant opportunities for recreation, research and education.
Contact
David Jachowski
djachow@clemson.edu (preferred contact method)