ACCS provides research opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students in the University of Alaska system. Volunteer opportunities are available through the UAA Herbarium. Summer internships are available for undergraduate students and recent graduates through the Chicago Botanical Garden. Additional opportunities and job openings will be posted here as available.
Graduate and Undergraduate Students
Hunter Gravley
Graduate Student | hagravley (at) alaska.edu
Hunter is a graduate student pursuing a M.S. in Biological Sciences at UAA. He is currently a graduate research assistant with ACCS working on a vegetation classification of select National Wildlife Refuges in collaboration with the Alaska Regional Inventory and Monitoring branch of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. He is interested in learning more about ecological drivers of plant community assemblages, the distribution of plants and plant communities through time and space, as well as leveraging knowledge gained through these interests for practical applications.
Megan Gravley
Graduate Student | 907-786-7016 | mcgravley (at) alaska.edu
Meg is currently pursuing a M.S. in Biology at UAA, studying colonization genetics of the sea sandwort, Honckenya peploides, and the impact of immigration versus legacy vegetation on a disturbed island habitat. She works at the U. S. Geological Survey, Alaska Science Center’s Molecular Ecology Laboratory and collaborates with ACCS. She is interested in using genetic data, such as microsatellites, to explore population genetic structure and gene flow in many organisms.
Christopher Guo
Graduate Student | 907-235-1342 | chguo (at) alaska.edu
Chris is a graduate student in the College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences at UAF. He had made his way to Homer, Alaska, where he quickly adopted its community and became enamored with the surrounding coastal environment. His research focuses on spatial and temporal patterns of estuarine fish assemblages and their relationship to habitat conditions. Chris is also an aquatic biologist at KBNERR within ACCS.
Timm Nawrocki
Graduate Student | 907-786-6359 | twnawrocki (at) alaska.edu
Timm is a graduate student in the UAA Biology Department. Wilderness travel in Alaska sparked his interest in exploring the landscape scale spatial and temporal interactions of environmental gradients, plants, wildlife, and ecological processes. His graduate research focuses on linking plant foliar cover, geophysical properties, and caribou resource selection to environmental and remote sensing data using statistical learning models. Timm is also an assistant ecologist at ACCS.
Jeff Wagner
Wildlife Ecology Technician | jawagner5 (at) alaska.edu
Jeff is an undergraduate in the UAA Biology Department. Hailing from the bustling East Coast—his time in Alaska and the western U.S. has sparked a fascination with wildlife spatial and population ecology. His undergraduate research involves estimating occupancy and abundance of small mammals in Alaska. He is also a technician at ACCS, assisting wildlife ecologists with a study of collared pika (Ochotona collaris) population ecology.
Lindsey Taylor
Wildlife Ecology Intern | lataylor3 (at) alaska.edu
Lindsey Taylor was born and raised in Alaska and is working towards a B.S. in Biology at the University of Alaska Anchorage with plans to strive for a M.S. in Ecology afterward. Her interests include wildlife ecology, large mammals, botany, environmental change through time, and habitat restoration. She is currently assisting wildlife ecologists at ACCS with a study of Pika population and habitat.
Internships
ACCS in cooperation with partner organizations offers unique internships opportunities that target those with an interest in conservation biology. Since 2007, ACCS has partnered with the BLM Alaska Field Office (BLM-AFO) to provide internship opportunities through the Chicago Botanical Garden’s Conservation and Land Management (CLM) Internship Program. Each year this program matches recent graduates with conservation and land management agencies across the western United States. Successful interns have prior experience in botany, ecology, or wildlife biology. At ACCS, interns typically contribute to the BLM Seeds of Success initiative, help maintain the UAA Herbarium, and assist with a variety of tasks related to rare and/or invasive plant management. Plant identification skills are essential, and experience with GIS or herbarium maintenance is a plus. If you are interested, please apply to through CLM.
Volunteer Opportunities
Opportunities exist for students looking for additional experience and interested members of the public to collaborate with Alaska Center for Conservation Science. Available opportunities depend on interest and experience. Additionally, student jobs are available for students looking to gain work experience in a conservation-related field. The UAA Herbarium (UAAH) is always looking for volunteers to assist with curation of specimens. Please contact Justin Fulkerson if you are interested in volunteering.
