Natural Reserve System

UC Natural Reserve System and Chile's CONICYT Fellowship

NRS graduate research flyer

This web page is designed to help potential Chilean graduate students who

want to apply to the University of California;
are interested in conducting research at one or more UC Natural Reserves; and
plan to apply for a Masters or Ph.D. student fellowship through the CONICYT (Comisión Nacional de Investigatión Científica y Tecnológica) program.

All Chilean graduate students who have been accepted into the University of California and meet the other criteria set by CONICYT are eligible for this fellowship.

The process involves three steps:

finding a University of California faculty member to serve as your graduate student advisor
applying to the University of California
applying for the CONICYT fellowship

Finding a faculty advisor

If you're interested in doing research at the Natural Reserve System reserves, it's easiest to start by identifying a potential faculty advisor who actively conducts research at NRS sites.

Below is a list of UC faculty who have worked at NRS sites over the past three years, organized by campus:

We encourage you to learn more about these faculty members by visiting their websites, and to contact those you might consider as a graduate advisor.

UC Berkeley
Faculty	Research Interests	Department
Ronald Amundson	Pedology isotope biogeochemistry, impact of climate and life on earth processes, soils in biogeochemical cycles, human impacts on soils and ecosystems	Environmental Science, Policy and Management
Doris Bachtrog	Evolutionary significance of sex and recombination, the mode and tempo of genome evolution, the genomics of speciation, and the evolution of epigenetic modifications	Integrative Biology
John Battles	Forest ecology and ecosystem dynamics	Environmental Science, Policy and Management
Todd Dawson	Physiological plant ecology, stable isotope biogeochemistry	Integrative Biology
Damian Elias	Behavioral ecology, mechanisms of behavior, acoustic communications	Environmental Science, Policy and Management
Paul Fine	Origin and maintenance of Amazonian rain forest tree diversity	Integrative Biology
Eileen Lacey	Evolution of behavioral diversity among vertebrates, ecological causes of sociality, genetic consequences of sociality	Integrative Biology
Michael Manga	Physical volcanology, geodynamics, hydrogeology, and geomorphology	Earth and Planetary Science
Mary Power	Freshwater ecology, food webs	Integrative Biology
Rudolf Schmid	Flora of mediteranean regions, morphology of land plants, history of botany	Integrative Biology
Ellen Simms	Evolutionary implications of ecological interactions between plants and other organisms	Integrative Biology
William Stewart	Watershed management, forest management, resource economics	Environmental Science, Policy and Management
Jonathon Stillman	Drivers of physiological diversity in relation to changes in the marine environment	Integrative Biology
Sally Thompson	Surface hydrology	Civil and Environmental Engineering
Kipling Will	Carabid beetles, insect systematics	Environmental Science, Policy and Management
UC Davis
Faculty	Research Interests	Department
Alison Berry	Biological nitrogen fixation; root and rhizosphere plant-microbe associations, and applications in agroecology; soil microbial ecology; microbial genomics; tree root architecture; plant nutrition and ecophysiology; microbial deconstruction of cellulosic biomass and microbial biofuels	Plant Sciences
Ernest Chang	Mechanisms of development and the physiological ecology of marine and other invertebrates, especially those mechanisms involving hormonal and pheromonal cues	Bodega Marine Laboratory
Holly Ernest	Interdisciplinary applied and basic research in genetics, genomics, biology, and disease ecology for wildlife conservation and population health	Veterinary Medicine
Ian Faloona	Atmospheric photochemistry, marine biogeochemistry, and the turbulent dynamics of planetary boundary layers	Land, Air, and Water Resources
Edwin Grosholz	Ecology, conservation and restoration of marine and estuarine systems	Environmental Science and Policy
Susan Harrison	Plant ecology, patterns of diversity, conservation	Environmental Science and Policy
Tessa Hill	Geochemistry of microfossils and corals to determine rates and magnitude of climate change and forcing mechanisms behind recent (Quaternary) climate change	Geology
Douglas Kelt	Ecology and biogeography of mammals, especially small mammals. Emphasis on California and Chile.	Wildlife, Fish, and Conservation Biology
Brian Moore	Phylogenetics	Evolution and Ecology
Steven Morgan	Marine ecology, evolution & behavior, biological oceanography, conservation biology, invertebrates, fishes, and plankton	Bodega Marine Laboratory
Malcolm North	Stand dynamics, disturbance regimes, and ecosystem processes of western coniferous forests	Plant Sciences
Jay Rosenheim	Insect ecology and biological control	Entomology
Eric Sanford	Climate change, biogeography, and local adaptation	Evolution and Ecology
Karen Shapiro	Zoonotic pathogens: epidemiology, transmission, and detection	Veterinary Medicine
Youngsuk Suh	Photography	Art Studio
John Wingfield	Neurobiology, physiology and behavior	Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior
Louie Yang	Behavioral, population, community and ecosystem ecology	Entomology
UC Irvine
Faculty	Research Interests	Department
Timothy Bradley	Physiology, ecology, cell biology and pathology of insects	Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Kailen Mooney	Community ecology, evolutionary ecology, plant-insect interactions	Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
UC Los Angeles
Faculty	Research Interests	Department
Priyanga Amarasekare	Mechanisms that maintain biological diversity in variable environments	Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Jeanne Arnold	Archaeological anthropology	Anthropology
Peter Nonacs	intersection of evolutionary and behavioral ecology, skew, parental investment, biocontrol of invasive species	Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Philip Rundel	Adaptations of plants to environmental stress, mediterranean, desert, and tropical ecosystems; environmental sensor arrays for ecological research	Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
H. Bradley Shaffer	Phylogenetics, population dynamics, amphibians and reptiles	Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Thomas Smith	Evolutionary ecology, speciation, and conservation of vertebrates, especially in the tropics	Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Victoria Sork	Using genomic tools and population genetic markers to understand adaptation, population structure and gene flow in plant populations	Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
UC Merced
Faculty	Research Interests	Department
Roger Bales	Mountain hydrology	Sierra Nevada Research Institute
Michael Beman	Marine/aquatic biology, microbial ecology, and biogeochemistry	Sierra Nevada Research Institute
Benoit Dayrat	Ecology	Sierra Nevada Research Institute
Martha Conklin	Biogeochemistry, groundwater, K-12 environmental education	Sierra Nevada Research Institute
Carolin Frank	Genome evolution in prokaryotes and yeast	Sierra Nevada Research Institute
Qinghua Guo	Remote sensing, geocomputation, landscape ecology	Sierra Nevada Research Institute
Steve Hart	Terrestrial ecosystems	Sierra Nevada Research Institute
Kathleen Hull	Anthropological archaeology	Sierra Nevada Research Institute
Lara Kueppers	Climate-ecosystem feedbacks, regional climate change, land-use change	Sierra Nevada Research Institute
Anthony Westerling	Climate-wildfire connections ,environmental policy	Sierra Nevada Research Institute
UC Riverside
Faculty	Research Interests	Department
Edith Allen	Restoration ecology	Botany and Plant Sciences
James Baldwin	Nematode evolution	Nematology
Paul De Ley	Ecology, phylogeny, and taxonomy of nematodes	Nematology
Kimberly Hammond	Animal physiological ecology and evolutionary physiology; how anatomical and physiological capacities meet environmental demands	Biology
Tim Higham	Biomechanics	Biology
Michael Rust	Urban entomology, pest biology	Entomology
UC San Diego
Faculty	Research Interests	Department
Elsa Cleland	Global environmental changes and their impacts on community ecology and ecosystem ecology	Ecology, Behavior and Evolution
Paul Dayton	benthic ecology, marine conservation and policy, evolution and natural history, general ecology	Scripps Institution of Oceanography
David Holway	Biological invasions	Division of Biological Sciences
Carolyn Kurle	Foraging ecology, isotope biogeochemistry, conservation	Ecology, Behavior, and Evolution
Lisa Levin	Larval dispersal and population connectivity; ecology of deep-sea reducing environments and soft-sediment habitats wetlands restoration; species invasions	Scripps Institution of Oceanography
James Nieh	Evolution of foraging communication behavior in social bees, honeybee health	Biological Sciences
Kaustuv Roy	Spatial gradients in biodiversity, biotic effects of climate change	Ecology, Behavior and Evolution
Jonathan Shurin	Connections between population, community, and ecosystem ecology in aquatic environments	Ecology, Behavior and Evolution
UC Santa Barbara
Faculty	Research Interests	Department
Peter Alagona	Environmental history, history of land use and natural resource management	History and Environmental Studies
Bodo Bookhagen	Quaternary climate change, geomorphic processes, landscape evolution, tectonic processes	Geography Department
Cherie Briggs	Theoretical ecology, disease ecology, population dynamics, systems biology, sudden oak death, chytrid fungus, parasitoid coexistence	Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology
Carla d'Antonio	Plant and ecosystem ecology, invasive species, species effects on ecosystem processes, restoration ecology	Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology
Frank Davis	Application of conservation science and geographical analysis to land use planning and conservation of wild species	Bren School of Environmental Science and Management
Lynn Gamble	Sociopolitical complexity among hunter-gatherer societies in southern California, especially the Chumash	Anthropology
Scott Hodges	Plant evolutionary biology, molecular approaches to population biology, ecological genetics, systematics	Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology
Sally Holbrook	Community ecology; marine vertebrate predation and competition	Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology
Patricia Holden	Environmental microbiology; coastal water qualitiy in urban environments; interactions of soil, water, nutrients on deep-soil bacterial processes	Bren School of Environmental Science and Management
Jonathan Levine	Factors controlling exotic plant invasions, species diversity and ecosystem function, determinants of commonness, rarity, coexistence	Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology
Philip Lubin	Experimental cosmology, early universe studies, high altitude balloon-borne astrophysics	Physics
John Melack	Ecological processes in lakes, wetlands, and streams	Bren School of Environmental Science and Management
William Rice	Genetic basis of evolution; speciation, adaptive significance of sexual recombination, intersexual antagonistic coevolution, sex chromosomes	Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology
Josh Schimel	Soil ecology; microbial controls of ecosystem processes; terrestrial biogeochemistry	Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology
Alexander Simms	Coastal sediments, Holocene sea levels, stratigraphy	Earth Science
UC Santa Cruz
Faculty	Research Interests	Department
Daniel Costa	Physiological ecology of marine mammals and birds	Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Don Croll	Marine ecology, marine conservation biology	Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Noah Finnegan	Geomorphology, active tectonics	Earth and Planetary Sciences
Laurel Fox	Population and community ecology, plant-herbivore interactions	Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Melissa Gwyn	Painting, drawing, growth and collapse through naturalistic and abstract organic imagery	Art
Karen Holl	Factors limiting recovery of ecosystems from human-induced disturbance, restoration strategies	Environmental Studies
Bruce Lyon	Ecological and evolutionary basis of reproductive strategies and social behavior in animals, reproductive parasitism, parental care, mating systems	Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Ingrid Parker	Plant ecology, biology of species invasions, plant distribution and abundance, plant-insect mutualisms, plant-pathogen interactions	Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Jarmila Pittermann	Plant physiology, adaptive strategies underlying physiological and morphological diversity, effects of climate change on California flora	Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Barry Sinervo	Behavioral ecology, natural and sexual selection on reproduction, behavior, reptilian communities, speciation	Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Applying to the University of California

Once you have identified a UC faculty member willing to sponsor you as a graduate student, you must apply for acceptance into the University of California.

Learn more about graduate admissions at the University of California here: http://graduate.universityofcalifornia.edu/admissions/

Applying for the CONICYT fellowship Once you have been accepted into a University of California graduate program, you are eligible to apply for the CONICYT fellowship.