George Roderick

(scroll down for K-12 education, undergraduate research  and graduate school)

Recent undergraduate and graduate teaching

1. •Freshman Seminar, Invasive Species: Why, When and Where? (ESPM 24)
   

2. •Insect Natural History (ESPM 42)
   

3. •Invasive Species (DeCal Course, ESPM 98/ ESPM 198)
   

4. •Biology and Geomorphology of Tropical Islands--Field course in Moorea, French Polynesia (IB C158 = ESPM C107)
   

5. •Molecular Ecology (IB C149/C149L = ESPM C149/C149L)
   

6. •General Entomology (ESPM 140)
   

7. •Environmental Forum (ESPM 201C)
   

8. •Applications in Population and Conservation Genetics (ESPM 290)
   

9. •Arthropod Biodiversity Science (ESPM 290)
   

K-12 education, Exploring California Biodiversity (PI: Rosemary Gillespie)

The primary goal of this project at Berkeley is to inspire in urban children an appreciation for the overwhelming diversity of life and a recognition that biodiversity is not confined to the rain forests of exotic places, but exists even within their own school yards. This project, funded by NSF, develops a learning community among graduate student fellows, classroom teachers, and their students that focuses on understanding the natural environment. Graduate fellows associated with the UC Berkeley Natural History Museums (BNHM) work with middle and high schools in the San Francisco Bay Area using the facilities and resources of the BNHM and the Berkeley Natural History Field Stations. The program involves field trips, the building and studying of natural history collections in the K-12 schools, additional study of BNHM collections, and the use of interpretive tools.

Undergraduate research and science careers

Undergraduate research is an exciting way to get a feeling for what science is really all about and it can provide the opportunity for independent work.  Here is an article in Science magazine on the importance of undergraduate research.  In our laboratory, we have a number of opportunities for undergraduate research, some of which are funded by UC Berkeley sources, such as Undergraduate Research Apprentice Program (URAP) and our College’s Sponsored Projects for Undergraduate Research Program (SPUR). Science has also just published feature articles on science careers targeted for undergraduates.  Click here for these articles and here for a list of funding sources for research.

Applying for graduate study at Berkeley? 

Since 1999, Rosemary Gillespie and I have been on the faculty at UC Berkeley, in a large multidisciplinary department covering all aspects of Environmental Science.  For ecologically minded students, see our Ecology @ Berkeley page for a list of potential advisors and other links; for systematics and evolution, see the Systematics @ Berkeley page; and for arthropod science, see the Berkeley Arthropod Science Program. The Berkeley Natural History Museums pages are also good places to see what potential advisors work on and where they work. Previously, at the University of Hawaii, Manoa, I advised students in both Zoology and Entomology, now Plant and Environmental Protection Sciences (PEPS) and I continue on the Graduate Faculty as an affiliate. Our students also participated in the Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation Biology (EECB) graduate program. Before that, I taught at the University of Maryland, College Park, in Entomology and participated in the Marine Estuarine Environmental Science (MEES) graduate program. Respective programs should be contacted for application materials and for further information.

UC Berkeley’s graduate programs in ecology, evolutionary biology, conservation biology, and environmental sciences, are consistently ranked very highly, though one should always think carefully about the types of data that go into these rankings, and whether these sorts of data are indicative of the program in which you may be interested.  In 2007, The Chronicle of Higher Education ranked UC Berkeley 1st in faculty scholarly productivity in Environmental Sciences.  In 2007, U.S. News and World Report ranked Berkeley in the top 3 graduate graduate schools (2nd with Harvard, after Chicago) in the Biological Specialties: Ecology/Evolutionary Biology, and in the top 3 (after MIT and Stanford) in the Biological Sciences. JB Grant and colleagues in an article in the journal Conservation Biology in 2007, ranked UC Berkeley’s program 6th in Productivity in Conservation Biology, after Oregon State, UCs Santa Barbara, Davis, Santa Cruz, and Wisconsin.  In world comparisons of the top universities for UC Berkeley is highly ranked (2nd after Harvard in the 2008 Shanghai List, Jiao Tong University, China in the natural sciences, and 3rd in the life sciences, and in the top 5 in the life sciences in the 2009 Times Higher Education Supplement, UK, and top 3 in natural sciences.  In a 2008 ranking of the world’s best colleges and universities, U.S. News and World Report didn’t rank Berkeley highly, though a recent review by Washington Monthly that emphasized what universities do for the world and local communities (and that was critical of the U.S. News and World Report methodology), ranked Berkeley 1st.

Click here for a useful article by Walter Carson from the Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America about getting into graduate school in ecology and evolutionary biology (page down in the pdf).  If you do not have access to this, email me and I’ll send you the pdf.  In my opinion, the comments in Carson’s pdf about choosing an advisor, visiting the school before applying, and talking to current students, are particularly important. Here is an article in Nature about choosing a mentor.

Click this link for some of my comments in Science magazine about careers in genomics and environmental biology.

Students and postdocs have gone on to a variety of careers in academia, state and federal agencies, NGO's and foundations, and the private sector.  Current and past employers include, BASF, Center for Biological Diversity, Field Museum Chicago, International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), State of Hawaii, Gump South Pacific Research Station Moorea, USDA, USGS, and colleges and universities: Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, National Chung Hsing University Taiwan, Texas State, UCs Berkeley, Riverside, San Diego, University College London, San Diego State, São Paulo Brazil, Siena Italy, US Virgin Islands, Vermont, and Washington. See our Evolab page for links to current and former students and postdocs.