The Center for Aquatic Ecology and Conservation (CAEC) hosts a variety of opportunities for volunteers, students, and professionals. Internships, student hourly appointments, and graduate student appointments are offered through the Illinois Natural History Survey’s Human Resources Department (see the INHS main page). Our center offers the applicant the possibility of working with some of the most pre-eminent scientists and researchers in the area of aquatic ecology.

Information 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