Prospective Students

I am always interested in hearing from potential students, particularly people who are enthusiastic about applying mathematical and statistical tools to solving real-world problems.  I am not very picky about the specific subject area and have worked on a wide range of things including contemporary evolution, population dynamics, nonlinear forecasting, invasive species, competitive interactions in plant communities, parasite community ecology, nonparametric Bayesian analysis, epigenetics and transgenerational plasticity, synchrony, hurricane and storm surge prediction, the evolution of senescence, and life history theory.

Graduate students can join the group through UCSC’s departments of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Applied Mathematics, or Statistics.  Regardless of the home department, students who want to work with me should a) have a keen interest in mathematical modeling, theory, or statistics, and b) some experience in scientific programming (e.g. Python, Matlab, C++, R).

If you’d like to join the lab, drop me a note at smunch@ucsc.edu describing the scientific problems you are interested in and the mathematical tools you are thinking of applying.