or “Who the hell am I to talk about this issue, anyways?!” Late last year, I was asked to write a blog for the Early Career Ecologist Section of the ESA, and I initially chose to focus it on a rather controversial topic: gender bias in academia. Now, the truth is that I’ve been a bit hesitant to get my…

My name is Eric Gustafson and I am a landscape ecologist who specializes in forest landscape simulation modeling, particularly with the LANDIS-II model (http://www.landis-ii.org/).  I received my PhD from Purdue University in 1992, and have been a Research Ecologist for the Northern Research Station of the U.S. Forest Service since then.  I am tempted to list my accomplishments so that…

My friends from grad school knew me as the go-getter, the one with boundless energy and capacity to do “all the things!” During my PhD career, I juggled (largely successfully) multiple side research and writing projects, leading a local chapter for the Society for Conservation Biology (SCB), organizing BBQ’s and parties, a long-distance partner, and a voracious novel-reading habit along…

We are excited to announce that our long-range planning grant has been funded by ESA, which will allow us to run a semi-formal Early Career Mentoring Program at ESA 2016 in Ft. Lauderdale!

Lessons learned so far I am just a couple of days away from starting my second semester as an Assistant Professor, and it seems like a good time to reflect on what I’ve learned so far. First, a brief background. I received a PhD in Ecology and Evolution from Stony Brook University in April 2014. I began a postdoc at…

As a professional society and a generation of early career ecologists, I’d argue that collectively we’re more aware of the importance of diversity than ever before. ESA has a diversity statement, dedicated diversity staff, and multiple programs focused on maintaining and improving a diverse community of ecologists. And with good reasons – our community’s own traditional currency, published peer reviewed…

Post written by Sarah Supp In October, we took a brief survey of our members to try to identify what topics are of key concern for the Early Career Ecologist (ECE) Section and to address a few questions that ESA leadership specifically had regarding early career perspectives on ESA membership. I attended the ESA Governing Board meeting November 5-6, 2015…

Early career experience with the panel system My name is Christel Kern. I am a Research Forester for the USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station. I have been working as government scientist since I received my PhD in 2011. The first few years of life as a government scientist have worked well for me so far. Before I get into…

# Early Career Ecologists organizational meeting  This meeting was held primarily for the current board members to introduce ourselves to each other and to discuss activities we are planning on proposing, sponsoring, and/or supporting as a section.   ## Attendees  Sarah Supp (Chair); Rob Salguero-Gomez (Vice-Chair); Matt Aiello-Lammens (Secretary); Christel Kern (Blog Editor)   ## Minutes  Meeting started shortly after…

ESA Early Career Ecologist Section Invitation for Blog Posts The goal of this blog is to create awareness and support for early career ecologists. The blog will chronicle experiences of section members and guests on topics important during the early phase of a scientific career. We would like to increase activity on the blog by inviting section members and guests…

When and Where: ESA 100, Baltimore Convention Center, 6:30-7.30 pm Tuesday August 23rd 2015 Meeting Chairs: Daniel Scholes (Univeristy of Illinois-Urbana Champaign; outgoing section chair), Sarah Supp (University of Wisconsin-Madison; incoming chair) Secretary: Daniel Stanton (University of Minnesota-Twin Cities) Attendance: Sarah Supp, Daniel Scholes, Daniel Stanton, Matt Aiello-Lammens, Mike Allen, Sigrid Smith, Seema Sheth, Cameron Douglass, and additional attendee who…

Conferences provide unique opportunities for biologists to interact with others in their field; however, these opportunities are rarely structured to promote meaningful interactions between the next generation ecologists and more senior scientists. Access to strong mentors both within and outside of their main institution is critical to support early career ecologists and to help them gain the necessary skills to…