Thank you for your interest in the Biodiversity & Landscape Modeling Group within the Department of Renewable Resources, University of Alberta. Our group was established in September 2003, thanks to the support of the Canada Research Chair program. We are currently in rapid growth, expecting to build a highly competitive group consisting of graduate students, post-doctoral fellows and visiting scientists. We welcome any prospective students and post-doctoral fellows who are passionately and genuinely interested in ecology, evolution, mathematics and statistics to join our group.

The central goal of our research is to understand assembly patterns and mechanisms of populations and communities from the spatial perspective, i.e., to understand how and why species disperse, colonize, persist, and distribute in landscapes. We embrace empirical, field, theoretical, and mathematical approaches to pursuing our goal, although some basic quantitative skills are essential for effective communication within the group.

We provide students with maximum freedom in developing their own research projects in (but not limited to) one or more of the following areas: community ecology, biogeography, species diversity, landscape ecology, metapopulation dynamics, biological conservation, mathematical/statistical ecology, and spatial statistics.

Students seeking to join our group must possess the following qualities: committed wholeheartedly to their graduate program, not be turned off by the hard work and dedication required to become a successful graduate student and productive scientist, be self-motivated and able to work independently.

If your interests coincide with those of ours, and if you are convinced that you wish to pursue a graduate degree (or post-doctoral research), then please contact Prof. Fangliang He (fhe@ualberta.ca) for more information.