Prospective graduate students, postdocs,

and folks going on sabbatical

 

Tired of 'Top Ten Reasons why...' lists?  So am I - here goes:

 

Why Moscow is a great place for E&E biologists:

 

1) The people

1) The country

 

As part of the general BioSci graduate program, we offer a core E&E graduate program in the department.  It is the gateway to a wealth of integrative biologists and facilities on the UI campus and at near-by Washington State University with whom we network to provide training at all levels. 

 

 

We are also part of the newly created Initiative for Bioinformatics and Evolutionary Studies, IBEST, which offers a special degree program in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology.  It combines strengths from Biological Sciences, Statistics, and Mathematics, and offers exceptional computational resources.   

 

Many people in Entomology, Fish & Wildlife, Forest Resources, and Rangeland Ecology  are superb resources in areas of ecology, biometry, phylogeography, genetics, systematics and natural history.

 

 

Washington State University in Pullman, WA, is a bike ride away and we enjoy great interactions with our colleagues there. We have recently launched a joint program in Initiative in Organismal Interactions, IOI, with about fifty investigators participating in cross-lab projects, seminar series, etc.  We also have joint journal clubs, an informal evening colloqium program (PEES), and team teach graduate courses.

 

Between the two universities, you would be part of a deep and diverse group of E&E biologists.

 

 

And the country can't be beat

 

Here you are in exceptionally good country for serious fieldwork. Within a few hours drive, you can reach a remarkable range of habitats -- desert, alpine, subalpine, grassland prairie, sagebrush steppe, sand dunes, mesic and dry forest, just to name a few.  You can have elevations from the bottom of the Snake River (about 250 m) to the Wallowas or the Northern Rockies (about 3000 m). One consequence is that you can experience spring from early Feb to mid June by climbing in elevation.

 

We are located close to the junction between Idaho, Oregon, and Washington, and located at the interface between the Columbia Basin physiographic province and the Northern Rockies. Locally, we are on deep loess soils largely converted to agriculture, but you can find prairie reserves especially on vast granite outcrops in the prevailing basalt landscape, and in the Snake River canyon 25 min away.  

 

Go south and you can be in Hells Canyon of the Snake River -- the deepest canyon in North America -- in an hour, then up in the subalpine forests of the Wallowas or the Blue Mountains in a little more.  In the shadow of the Wallowas, The Nature Conservancy holds one of the largest remaining grasslands of its kind, the Zumwalt Prairie, and it would be perfect for many research projects. A little farther to the south-southeast, you pick up the Salmon River -- the longest undammed river in the contiguous US, and one with extraordinary wilderness and important phylogeographic history (see Scott Nuismer's site for pics). Go up from Riggins on the Salmon a ways and you will hit an abrupt geological transition from the coastal plate to the Rockies.

 

Just east of Moscow are the Rockies foothills, with extensive mesic coniferous forests. You can be at alpine lakes in a little over two hours, or just lots of trails through wooded areas.  45 min to the northeast is Clarkia, a fossil site with Miocene deposits of non-lithified deposits of plants and some insects of exquisite preparation ­ the first claim of fossil DNA was made from a magnolia leaf collected there. 

 

Go north and you get into extensive pinyon pine forests, and also the channeled scablands. Those are the strikingly eroded basalt landscape where flash floods from breaching ice dams of Lake Missoula that repeatedly washed through the area to the Columbia and all the way to the Pacific.  Move on, and you can be in Glacier National Park and Yellowstone by the afternoon.  And if Precambrian fossils are your cup of tea, the Burgess Shale is not far into Canada (then again similar deposits exist in Idaho, too).

 

Go east a few hours and you will find yourself in a patchy landscape of remaining sagebrush steppe in central Washington, with exceptional geology as well.

 

 

Location, location, location... life in Moscow

 

Moscow is a small university community (~ 20,000 residents), with all the attractive aspects typical of a college town. Hey, the Moscow Food Coop bought out Kentucky Fried Chicken to get enough space. If you like small progressive towns, this is one. In addition, although we're on the edge of a large agricultural area, we are close to spectacular recreational opportunities, such as camping (car- and wilderness), hiking, skiing (downhill & cross country), canoeing and whitewater rafting, climbing, fishing, mountain biking, etc. And Idaho is said to have a higher density of hot springs than any other state (232 registered ones).  This ain't no craton.