Faculty

Advisory Board

Ecology Center Faculty Advisory Board

Scott Hotaling; Assistant Professor, Watershed Sciences; Email: scott.hotaling@usu.edu

Stefani Crabtree; Assistant Professor, Environment and Society; Email: stefani.crabtree@usu.edu

Kezia Manlove; Assistant Professor, Wildland Resources; Email: kezia.manlove@usu.edu

Tammy Rittenour; Professor, Geosciences; Email: tammy.rittenour@usu.edu

Wei Zhang; Assistant Professor, Plants, Soils, & Climate; Email: w.zhang@usu.edu

Norah Saarman; Assistant Professor, Biology; Email: norah.saarman@usu.edu

Support

Participation in Professional Meetings

The Ecology Center sometimes can provide partial support for travel to regional or national professional meetings for presentations as first or sole author. Apply for such travel by email request to the Director, Peter Adler (peter.adler@usu.edu). Include the name and dates of the meeting, the title and authorship of the presentation, and your estimated costs to attend the meeting. Also provide an estimate of other sources of support for your participation in the meeting. Occasionally, the Ecology Center may contribute to participation in international meetings.

Policy on Use of the Ecology Center as Cost Center

The Ecology Center and Deans of the College of Agriculture and Applied Sciences, Quinney College of Natural Resources, and College of Science have agreed to the following policy on use of the Ecology Center as a cost center.

Any faculty associate of the Ecology Center has a free choice of having grants and contracts administered by the Ecology Center or other cost centers. The following provisions apply for use of the Ecology Center as a cost center:

  1. The research involved must be ecological in nature.
  2. Of the 30% indirect costs (F&A) returned to the Center:
    • 40% (12% of total indirect costs) will be returned to the PI with the understanding these funds are to be used at the PI's discretion for purposes that are allowable under USU policies for expenditure of funds. The Ecology Center can set up and administer an account for PI indirect.
    • 20% (6% of total indirect costs) will be returned to the PI's department.
    • 40% (12% of total indirect costs) would remain in the Center for discretionary spending unless the PI has an appointment with the Agricultural Experiment Station (AES), in which case the Ecology Center will retain 9% of the total and pass 3% to the AES.
  3. If the Ecology Center supplies matching funds on a grant or contract, the Center will recover the cost of the match from indirect cost returns before passing on funds to the department and PI.
  4. All grants and contracts administered by the Ecology Center will have the availability of the Center accounting and clerical services.
  5. If a PI leaves employment at USU, the indirect return account of the PI will no longer accrue returned indirect costs from any grants still in force, but the department will continue to receive its share. If the PI has completed association with USU, any funds remaining in the PI's indirect account will be passed to the PI’s department for its discretionary use. This does not apply to faculty who retire at USU, who may continue to use returned indirect costs for professional activities. If a departed PI continues with an adjunct USU position, such as to help USU graduate students finish their degrees, the PI can use remaining returned indirect costs for purposes associated with research still based at USU.

Investing in new ecological research initiatives

The Ecology Center will entertain proposals from faculty associates for financial assistance in developing new research endeavors. It takes much time and effort to develop competitive proposals and new initiatives and the Ecology Center seeks to facilitate this development. Potential forms of financial assistance the Ecology Center will consider are:

  • Travel support for collaborators from other institutions to come to Logan for proposal development
  • Support of workshops that can lead to new research initiatives
  • Travel support for faculty associates to collaborate in proposal development at other institutions
  • Working Groups

If you are interested in applying for such assistance, please contact Peter Adler by personal visit or email (peter.adler@usu.edu) and we can discuss your ideas. This would be followed by a short written proposal to the Center. Priority will be given to ideas that will lead to potentially fruitful proposal development for new research funding (especially for competitive grants and contracts), collaborative ventures with co-PI’s from USU or other institutions, and interdisciplinary efforts. The main thrust of the work must be ecological in nature.

Join Us

Qualifications

Must do one of the following:

  • Publish articles of an ecological nature in appropriate, peer-reviewed journals
  • Teach courses that support the education of Ecology MS and PhD students

Application Process

  1. Submit a letter of application that includes evidence of meeting the above criteria as well as CV
  2. Applications submitted, but rejected by the Director can be appealed to the Center's Faculty Advisory Board

Benefits

  • May be major professor for a student pursuing the Ecology degree
  • Will receive email notice of Ecology Center activities, job openings, funding opportunities, etc.
  • May apply for travel funds to help support presentation of an ecological nature at appropriate national meetings
  • May apply for assistance with page charges for ecological papers in appropriate peer-reviewed journals
  • May use the Ecology Center as a cost center for grants and contracts

Expectations

Ecology Center Associates should note their affiliation with the Center in presentations at meetings and in publications supported in part by the Center.  The latter is generally done by including the affiliation in the author's address.

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