Hello, I am Eli Anderson a 4th year Zoology major at Colorado State University and have been looking at different grad schools over the past couple months (I intend on applying this and next winter, depending how this one goes). I wasn’t able to find any in time for this round of applications but I have been trying to find a professor that does mainly research in the field of Zoology/Ecology but has specialized skills in statistics and/or programming. As I am interested in various aspects of life sciences, particularly Hibernation physiology but I also have developed a deep interest in how statistics, math, and programming can be used to elevate research in such fields. I have been fascinated by the development of statistical theories in biology and was wondering if anyone would be gracious enough to point me in the right direction.
Hi, @Eli_Anderson and welcome to the Stan forums. We’re usually looking for posts about Stan, but I might be able to help a bit here.
You’ll find that there is a huge range of different types of statistics being applied in biology/zoology/ecology. ISEC is the big conference within statistical ecology—here’s the web site for the 2024 conference: https://statisticalecology.org. You can find who’s working in these areas by looking at the program. Matt Schofield was a plenary speaker this year—he’s a professor in New Zealand, who did his postdoc with Andrew Gelman and used Hamiltonian Monte Carlo before we put it into Stan.
Zoology is much closer to biology and that’s much wider in scope than the kinds of population ecology you see at ISEC. There you get everything from genomics to biophysical models of locomotion to the kinds of physiology you mention, all of which can involve statistics and mathematical modeling.
If you reach out directly to faculty with something that looks personal rather than a form letter, I’ve found that most will write back with at least a short note.
P.S. Deadlines have been moving up for grad school applications, so I’d check when they’re due.