Students, Collaborators & Sponsors
The Large Carnivore Conservation Lab relies on graduate students and post-docs to conduct the bulk of our research – so they are, by far, the most important part of the lab. Unfortunately, my department does not provide teaching assistantships (TAs), research assistantships (RAs), scholarships, and tuition waivers for students and post-docs or summer salary (3 mo) for faculty. All researchers in the lab rely solely on extramural research grants that we must obtain ourselves. Due to the current financial crisis – the lab has no grant support for the past 3 years and all researchers are now completely self-funded (personal savings & loans). Therefore, unlike most university labs, I cannot accept unfunded students into the program, regardless of how promising they or their projects are. A source of funds for living expenses and tuition must be available for a student or post-doc to be considered for entry into the lab. The lab accepts only about 5% of applicants and projects because of lack of grad student and summer salary support.
Our work has helped save thousands of grizzly bears, brown bears, black bears, cougars, lynx, deer, and caribou – while reducing people/predator conflicts. If you are a potential sponsor, or just passionate about large carnivore conservation, please consider making a tax-deductable donation to help support our dedicated researchers in their work.
If you are interested in becoming involved with the LCCL, either as an undergraduate, graduate, post-doc, collaborator, or sponsor, please contact Rob Wielgus at wielgus@wsu.edu or write or call at:
Dr. Robert Wielgus - Director
Large Carnivore Conservation Lab
School of the Environment
Washington State University
Pullman, WA 99164-6410
USA
Phone (509) 335-2796
Fax (509) 335-7862
