The Ecology Intercollege Graduate Degree Program at Penn State University is recruiting students with interest in microbial ecology and/or microbiomes. Students will be fully funded throughout their program (at least 2 years funding guaranteed to M.S. students, and 5 years funding guaranteed to Ph.D. students), and may start in either Fall 2020 or Spring 2021. Students will also have the option of interacting with Penn State's Microbiome Center, which facilitates interdisciplinary collaboration in the area of microbiomes.
Specific projects are listed below, along with contact information for the project advisor. We ask that students communicate directly with project advisors before applying to the Ecology program, in order to better assess fit.
Soil microbiomes
The Couradeau Lab (estelle@psu.edu ) is recruiting students to work on topics that emphasize soil microbial ecology and soil microbiomes. The lab uses interdisciplinary approaches to probe the active fraction of soil microbiomes and to understand their contribution to soils emergent properties. In collaboration with the PI, each student will develop a project using various tools from molecular biology, microbiology, omics and advanced imagery to investigate the role of biological soil crusts communities in arid lands soil fertility, stability and predict their behavior facing climate change. (Prospective students can enroll for a dual title in Biogeochemistry & Ecology and may also apply through the Soil Science graduate program)
Lab website: www.couradeau.com
Harnessing the microbiome to mitigate drought impact in agriculture
The Dini-Andreote Lab (andreote@psu.edu ) is recruiting a graduate student to work at the interface of plant-associated microbiomes, root biology and drought stress tolerance. The overall goal is to better understand the impact of drought on plant microbiomes and harness the potential of specific microbial functions that help the plant to cope with such stress in natural and agricultural settings. The student will have the possibility to use various tools, including molecular biology, bioinformatics, statistical and simulation modeling, and laboratory experiments. (Prospective students may also apply through the Plant Biology graduate program)
Roots of success: legumes and nitrogen-fixing rhizobia
The Burghardt Lab (ltb5167@psu.edu ) is recruiting a graduate student to develop a research project on the evolutionary ecology of plant-microbe-climate interactions. While projects range from fundamental to applied, the PI is particularly interested in students who want to perform lab, field, or in silico experimental work with a legume-rhizobia model system and/or leguminous forages and cover crops. The lab is highly interdisciplinary, with trainees having the opportunity to learn a diverse set of tools including manipulative experiments, image analysis, genomics and bioinformatics, molecular biology, and simulation modeling. (Prospective students may also apply through the Plant Biology, Bioinformatics and Genomics, and Plant Sciences graduate programs)
Lab website: www.lianaburghardtlab.com
Capturing and functionally comparing soil microorganisms based on ecological traits
The Bell Lab (thb15@psu.edu ) is looking for graduate students who are interested in developing and applying systems for collecting different ecological types of microorganisms. The main goals of the project are to determine 1) how the loss of certain ecological types impacts the function of microbial assemblages, and 2) whether selecting for ecological traits of interest can enhance the development and reliable application of microbial inoculants for agriculture (i.e. agricultural probiotics). Another objective of the project is to determine the cost to bacteria of expanding their habitat breadth along different environmental axes. (Prospective students may also apply through the Plant Pathology graduate program)
Lab website: www.microbiomemanipulationlab.weebly.com
