Applications are accepted at any time; however, to receive full consideration for fellowships, campus interview, and financial aid, students should apply by December 1 for admission in the following fall semester.
To apply to the Ecology graduate program, students should first contact program faculty members with whom they are interested in working to find out if they have space in their laboratories. Once an appropriate match between student and faculty member has been made, students should review the admission requirements of the J. Jeffrey and Ann Marie Fox Graduate School.
The following documents will be required as part of the Fox Graduate School application process:
- Three letters of recommendation
- Personal statement of motivations and goals
- Curriculum vitae/resume
- Transcript(s)
The graduate programs and Fox Graduate School are committed to verification of application materials; therefore, please ensure that all of your documents can be readily verified as being accurate and authentic.
Admission is granted jointly by the Fox Graduate School and the Ecology graduate program.
Apply to the Fox Graduate School at Penn StateIn recruiting graduate students, we value both their research potential and the potential for students to bring new and distinct perspectives to the program that enrich approaches to scholarship, outreach, and/or service to the institution.
Current Opportunities
Carolyn Lowry (Plant Science) and Estelle Couradeau (Ecosystem Science and Management)
We are seeking PhD applicants interested in agricultural, microbial, and weed ecology to begin a PhD program in PSU’s prestigious Intercollege Graduate Degree Program in Ecology. The student will investigate how distinct organic management practices affect soil and weed seed microbiomes, and explore methods to increase the mortality of weed seeds in the soil seedbank. The student will have the opportunity to be exposed to diverse training experiences, including research methods in microbial and plant ecology, bioinformatics and data analysis, as well as developing effective extension programming for organic farmers.
Interested students should send a cover letter and curriculum vitae—including names of at least two people able to provide references—to Carolyn Lowry.
Eliane Gomes-Alves (Ecosystem Science and Management)
We are seeking highly motivated PhD applicants with interests in forest ecophysiology, plant secondary metabolism, biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs), and Amazonian wetlands ecology. The successful applicant will join the prestigious Intercollege Graduate Degree Program in Ecology at Penn State University (PSU) and focus their PhD research on leaf gas exchange and BVOC emissions from flooded forest trees across a topographic gradient in northwestern Amazonia. Fieldwork will also include areas previously affected by large-scale fires, providing an opportunity to assess how environmental stressors influence BVOC emissions in an underexplored landscape.
This position offers a unique opportunity for interdisciplinary training in both the U.S. and Brazil, including hands-on experience with field and lab methods in tree physiology and plant ecology, advanced data analysis, and collaborative research with a diverse, international team of scientists working in Ecology and Earth system science.
Interested students should send a cover letter and curriculum vitae—including names of three people able to provide references—to egomes@bgc-jena.mpg.de preferably by November 5.
*Note that unlisted opportunities are available with other Ecology faculty. The postings above only indicate some of the available projects in the program. Please contact the listed faculty members for more details about each of these projects.