[Coral-List] For New Graduate Students Looking for Experience

Jim Hendee jim.hendee at noaa.gov
Mon Oct 29 09:20:59 EDT 2007


Greetings,

    I quite often get requests from newly beginning graduate students 
who are looking for experience in the field, either along the lines of 
their interests, or not sure what might be of interest to them 
specifically, but interested in coral research nonetheless.  Here are 
some tips, and I'm sure other coral-listers will likely have additional 
tips:

    * Look at the former International Coral Reef Symposium papers and
      topics at
      http://www.reefbase.org/resource_center/publication/icrs.aspx and
      see which ones interest you the most.  See which authors wrote
      those articles, find out which institutions they're from (it's on
      the papers themselves), then write to them inquiring about study
      or work at their school or institution.  Be sure to write a
      carefully crafted and thoughtful letter that shows you've given
      the subject some research and thought; otherwise, your letter may
      be counterproductive.
    * View the Coral-List archives at
      http://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/pipermail/coral-list/ and again see
      which topics and authors intrigue you most.  (Not only will you
      discover topics, but quite often you can get insight into the
      instructor's personality, too!)  Most often the authors'
      affiliations are listed at the bottom of their messages.  Also,
      there are job opportunities posted all the time on Coral-List. 
      Another useful list is Carib-Coral-Reefs (see the Yahoo Groups at
      http://groups.yahoo.com/).
    * Visit the Web page of the Association of Marine Laboratories of
      the Caribbean at http://www.amlc-carib.org/en/ and study the
      different newsletters, job listings, and topics and develop some
      contacts along your lines of interest. There are other similar
      organizations as these.
    * See the list of Caribbean Marine Protected Areas at
      http://www.coral.noaa.gov/mpa/sites/ and determine (through
      perseverance) if any of those might have opportunities for you. 
      If you're willing to volunteer, you'll have a fair chance of
      getting some very interesting work at a beautiful place, as long
      as you can afford to get and stay there.  There is no doubt a
      similar list for Pacific and Indian Ocean MPAs.
    * There are a lot of universities with marine biology field programs
      which are a ton of fun and full of experience at remote field
      stations.  Do the research and you'll be rewarded big time.
    * And of course you should conduct a Google search for your
      interests to see which schools might have something for you.

    I hope this helps!

    Cheers,
    Jim




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