The Illinois Natural History Survey in conjunction with the University of Illinois provides graduate training leading to M.S. and Ph.D. degrees with specializations in Aquatic Ecology and Fisheries Biology. Prospective students will find faculty working at all scales of organization (individual, population, community, and ecosystem), with a wide variety of vertebrate and invertebrate taxa, in a range of aquatic habitats (including wetlands, streams, rivers, ponds, reservoirs, and lakes), and across a diversity of biogeographic areas ranging from the tropics to northern boreal forests. Research approaches range from laboratory oriented behavioral/genetic/physiological studies to field orientated ecological studies.

Facilities include wet laboratories and experimental ponds on the University of Illinois campus. In addition, the Survey operates biological field stations on several reservoirs, Lake Michigan, and the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers.

Students may apply to any of several academic units (Biology Program; Department of Ecology, Ethology, and Evolution; Department of Entomology; Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences; Department of Urban and Regional Planning). Students are encouraged to contact individual faculty or program coordinators before applying to individual departments or programs.

Financial aid is available in the form of tuition and fee waivers and teaching and research assistantships. Additional information and applications may be obtained by writing to any of the faculty listed below.

John H. Chick (Ph.D. 1997, University of Georgia) population dynamics and community level interactions of freshwater fishes; early life history stages of fishes; trophic interactions/food web ecology; questions related to how spatial variability affects population, community, and ecosystem level processes

John M. Epifanio (Ph.D. 1992, University of Illinois) conservation genetics and molecular ecology; examination of structure & function of genetic variation for aquatic resource management, conservation, and rehabilitation; efficacy and effects of hybridization and non-native taxa

Robert A. Herendeen (Ph.D. 1970, Cornell University) ecological modeling; environmental quality; energy issues; modeling of fish populations

Walter Hill (Ph.D. 1987, University of California, Davis) freshwater phycology and primary production, aquatic-terrestrial interactions, metaltransport and fate in aquatic ecosystems, stream ecology, effects of riparian shading on ecosystem processes, grazer-algal interactions, UV-B impacts on freshwater biota, ecological energetics, freshwater invertebrates

David P. Philipp (Ph.D. 1976, University of Massachusetts) conservation genetics; evolution of fish reproductive behavior; reproductive/recruitment relationships

Daniel W. Schneider (Ph.D. 1990, University of Wisconsin) community, behavioral and physiological ecology of aquatic invertebrates, historical ecology, watershed management

David H. Wahl (Ph.D. 1988, The Ohio State University) fish ecology, behavior, and management; trophic ecology; predator-prey interactions; bioenergetics

You may also contact any of our Adjunct Scientists listed below.

Carla E. Cáceres (Ph.D. 1997, Cornell University) population and community ecology of zooplankton; zooplankton diapause; limnology

John M. Dettmers (Ph.D. 1995, The Ohio State University) ecology and management of fishes; food web structure and dynamics; recruitment processes of fish; predator-prey interactions

Robert "Bud" Fischer, Jr. (Ph.D, University of South Carolina) effects of land-use practices on stream ecosystems

Tony Goldberg (Ph.D, Harvard University, D.V.M., University of Illinois) epidemiology and evolutionary ecology of infectious disease in primates, pigs and fish

Steve Kohler - Population and Community Ecology/Aquatic Ecology

Mark A. Pegg (Ph.D. 2000, Iowa State University) River and applied fisheries ecology including temporal and spatial river community responses to environmental conditions such as hydrology, habitat availability, and water temperature using a system-wide approach; assessment of aquatic organism growth and growth rates; and impacts of non-native species

Richard "Rip" Sparks - Large river ecology

Patrick J. Weatherhead (Ph.D. 1978, Queen's University) Behavioral Ecology