Position 1.  Field/ Experimental Ecology (Ecol) (McPhail slot)

The two pivotal issues for biology in the 21^st century will be the use of agricultural biotechnology and the pacts of humans on global ecological function.  Experimental ecology lies at the forefront of the latter field.  We need to explore the consequences of habitat fragmentation and the introduction of exotic species experimentally, and to understand how disturbances alter the structure of food webs. We currently have an excellent international reputation in experimental ecology in Zoology at UBC and, we believe, the strongest pure ecology research group in Canada.  A new position in this field would complement our existing faculty in ecology and evolution ideally, and would help us maintain this strong international reputation.

We seek an experimental ecologist working on populations and communities facing biotic and physical disturbances.  We expect the appointee to solve ecological problems by experimental manipulation, and to have a strong organismal interest to contribute to the Centre for Biodiversity Research

In the spring of 1999 we interviewed six candidates for this position, and we identified an outstanding couple in this research area, Drs. Sharon Lawler and Marcel Holyoak, currently at the University of California at Davis, as our preferred candidates.  We were unable to recruit them and the position has been readvertised as a single position

Rationale for the Position

We are about to lose our best-known scientist, Dr. Charles Krebs, through retirement, and we have also lost two other well-known scientists in this area this year to retirement, Drs. Geoff Scudder and Don McPhail.  We feel this position will complement and sustain our present excellence in ecology and evolutionary biology, help us meet one of the major biological challenges of the 21^st century, and it will fill a critical gap that is appearing in our faculty through retirements.  Experimental ecology has been one of  the principal strengths of the Zoology Department at UBC over the past 30 years. This position will strongly complement existing faculty in the Department of Zoology and the Biodiversity Researh Centre and the appointments in empirical evolutionary biology and field physiology and environmental physiology outlined below.