Prospective students

If you are thinking about working with me as an undergraduate, graduate, student or a postdoc, first thank you for your interest. The majority of graduate and postdoc students I accept bring in their own funding. I am also happy to work with undergrads looking for a research experience under several scenarios including volunteer, for academic credit, and in rare cases for pay.

Below you will find listings of specific slots that I have funding for which are exceptions to this general rule. These are relatively rare and the list is often empty. This means you need to get organized early enough to meet appropriate NSF deadlines (Autumn for grad students and postdocs).

Under the right circumstances, I can accept students into any of the following gradute programs:
School of Biology and Ecology
Ecology and Environmental Science
Sustainability Solutions Initiative (technically the application and degree is to one of the above programs)

If you would like to work with me:

  1. Read my web page and figure out what I do. Is it a good fit? You'd be surprised how many people email me that don't know what I do and aren't really interested in what I do.
  2. Contact me by email (mail@brianmcgill.org) being sure to include:
    1. What type of work (Master/PhD/Undergrad Summer/Undergrad honors)
    2. A brief research statement. This is important! Do not skip this step. Obviously I expect postdoc prospects to have a much more fully developed idea of what they want to do than undergrads. And it doesn't have to be a work of art (or good enough for a grant application). But please give me a couple of sentences that indicate what type of science interests you.
    3. What your funding status is. Do you already have funding? Are you planning to apply for an NSERC? Willing to work with me to apply for funding?
    4. Include your GPA
    5. Attach a CV
    6. If you have GRE test scores (or TOEFL if applicable) please include them (note these are mostly used in the US and only students applying to US schools will have them)
  3. Follow through on applying for funding
  4. Applications are due roughly January 15th for the fall semester, but check the websites for details. Apply according to the instructions for the appropriate program (SBE and EES). Do not apply to the department without talking to me first. I do not consider applications that have not contacted me first as in step 2.

Please note that I receive many contacts every year, and I may not to reply to emails that don't at least come close to following these steps.

Philosophy

I take a wide variety of students. They need to plan to do research in some area of large-scale ecology. But it can be field, lab, computer or theoretical. It can be with any taxa. I expect students to show a large degree of independence. I am not an adviser who expects you to do research on one of my projects and who will guide you through the whole thing in great detail. My job is to teach you how to do it yourself. That said, I will meet with you regularly, you will have a lab of peers, and we have frequent lab meetings.

Current Openings

None currently