The Dudycha Lab at USC is recruiting graduate students interested in evolutionary biology to start in our Ph.D. or M.S. program in Fall of 2027.
I am particularly recruiting students for a newly funded project on the evolution of vision, using Daphnia as a model system.  The project incorporates field surveys of eye-size distributions, measuring selection gradients, quantifying visual function, assessing the physiological and fitness costs of eyes, and ecological experiments to tease out mechanisms of selection.  It largely grew out of our previous work on selection on eye size (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jeb.12711 ) and subsequent unpublished work on sexual dimorphism and costs of eyes in females.
I’m also considering students whose interests are more aligned with my lab’s historical work on life history evolution, phenotypic plasticity, quantitative genetics & genomics, and functional genetics.  Interested students can find more about what we do at my lab website (http://www.atangledbank.org).
Our department at the University of South Carolina is a great place for neonate evolutionary biologists to develop.  We have twelve active research labs that focus on evolutionary questions in all sorts of organisms, and several of these colleagues (including Brian Hollis, Tim Mousseau, Cathy Hernandez, Sean Ehlman, Jordan Lewis, and Bryan Gitschlag) are also considering applicants this year.  We have a robust EEB graduate group, with regularly offered graduate courses in ecology, evolution, experimental design, and data science.  Our alumni have good success with post-degree opportunities. Columbia is an affordable place to live, and a diverse community that welcomes everyone.
I encourage prospective students to contact me prior to submitting an application.
Cheers,
Jeff Dudycha
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 Jeffry L. Dudycha
 Professor
 Dept. of Biological Sciences
 University of South Carolina
 Columbia, SC  29208
 dudycha [at] biol.sc.edu
http://www.atangledbank.org
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