Hi there! I'm Emma, and I'm a cuttlefish nut. (Hi, Emma.) :wink:

I'm a geology major in Colorado, and in the accepted fashion of third-year geology majors, I'm now switching to marine biology. :) I'm going for the full run, all the way through PhD and into the academic abyss beyond. Is there anyone here I can speak to who has been through the swamps of academia and come out the other side with a doctorate in playing with cephalopods? I have a few questions before I make the leap.

Neogondactylis (sp?) is Dr. Roy Caldwell of Berkley, What school are you in Emma?

Oh wow, so the answer would be a definite "yes"! Wonderful.

I'm at Mesa State College in Grand Junction, mostly because it's a cheap place to get my undergraduate degree so I can then move on to bigger and better things. I spent 8 years out of school, deciding what I wanted to do, and then went back and pretty much immediately changed my mind. :D

:welcome:

I only did that in an alternate life, so I can't give real experiences...

The pros and cons on such career research things were being discussed on the yahoo ceph list recently, I think the plan is to put a page up on http://www.thecephalopodpage.org/ summarizing what was discussed but I don't see it in the "what's new" so I think it doesn't exist yet.

I'm at The Fort, so does Mesa state have a Marine Biology program?

:welcome: creatureteacher. I'm just finishing corrections to my PhD on squid and hope to graduate this Dec! plus of course there's the great Dr O and his pod of students.

good luck!!!!!

J

Mesa's got mostly generalized programs. You really have to work to pick up the things you want to have. But that's okay, I don't mind being in school. I'm actually glad I waited so long before beginning my college career in earnest. Now I feel wise. ;D

Mostly I am interested in ceph ethology and ecology, with an eye toward conservation. (Living animals, in other words). I think the majority of people have no idea how interesting cephs are, and so they don't really think about behavior and conservation. My concern is that I'll figure out halfway through my MS that there's no funding in studying the living animals, and I'll be struggling the rest of my life to find money so I can eat. Does anyone know what sort of careers, other than academic, are out there for an octopus doctor who is interested in ethology? (Not that I have anything against academia, I just want to explore my options.)

:welcome: creatureteacher. I'm just finishing corrections to my PhD on squid and hope to graduate this Dec! plus of course there's the great Dr O and his pod of students.

good luck!!!!!

J

Thanks so much! You know you're getting into a good field when it's full of friendly, happy people! :grin: Congratulations on your impending doctorate escape!

Welcome, oh fellow Cephologist ! Grand Junction...now that brings back some memories! Yipes (in a good way)

Glad you found us, be sure to hit up O'Shea for ideas!

Greg

There is always aquaculture. You can raise them and sell them for money and write papers on the side, it would however be a significant investment and moving to California or Florida might be a good idea.

:welcome: Well, you have a long way to go before you get that doctorate, so that gives you time to do a a lot of research on job opportunities. You might need to consider transferring to a U that specializes in cephalopods, or at least in marine biology. Hang around here for a while and you'll find out about a lot of them.

:welcome: Well, you have a long way to go before you get that doctorate, so that gives you time to do a a lot of research on job opportunities. You might need to consider transferring to a U that specializes in cephalopods, or at least in marine biology. Hang around here for a while and you'll find out about a lot of them.

Thanks! I figure I'm pretty okay in a broad, inclusive program like we have at Mesa State for my BS, then I can specialize with my MS. That was the plan with my (aborted) geology degree; get environmental geology BS, move on to an MS in paleoecology. But, again, we won't be doing that anymore. :D

Does anyone know specifically if there are good marine bio MS programs in the northwest US?

...and is there somewhere else on the forums I should be having this discussion about academics? (Don't want to tread on any forum tentacles, after all!)

For grad work you may also want to think outside the box and don't just look in the continental US. Cuttlegirl can give you some info about Hawaii too. Ask gjbarord about Texas and the nrcc. Taollan, where do you go?
Does Dalhousie have a grad program, or is it only undergrad? And of course, as Jean pointed out, you can always go and be a squid slave for our own :oshea:. You can always lie and tell him you like Neil Diamond, that should open the door a crack. :sagrin:

You can always lie and tell him you like Neil Diamond, that should open the door a crack. :sagrin:

LOL. Kissing butt is always the first step. :D

I'm not too interested in profit breeding. I'm really intrigued by ceph ethology (behavior in the wild). I'll probably aim for the wild research sector. Maybe I can get lucky and get a job with NOAA or something. Many, many years from now, at any rate!

University of California, Berkely.

Dr. Caldwell ordered fiddlers from us for a research study. He would be your audience.

Good Luck!

Chad Smith
TarBay Ag.Wldlf. Res.Ctr
www.unboundground.com/tarbay

edit: I've gone dyslexic, good thing I mentioned Seattle... Woods Hole is (obviously the North East... I'm having one of those days, but I'll leave the original for general amusement)

Woods Hole comes to mind as a marine bio place in the NorthWest... Hanlon's there: http://www.mbl.edu/mrc/hanlon/index.html

I don't know for sure that they have an MS program, they seem to do a lot of "biologists from other schools visit for a summer or a year" sorts of things.

Gilly's lab at Stanford's Hopkins Marine Lab is another West Coast possibility, and Seattle ( is that UW?) has some good researchers, too. I think Roland Anderson is the main guy there...

Does anyone know what sort of careers, other than academic, are out there for an octopus doctor who is interested in ethology? (Not that I have anything against academia, I just want to explore my options.)

Aquarium husbandry springs to mind , government agencies, museums, etc etc



BTW love the dog in your avatar!

J

Berkley is in the west at least. I think its hard to beat Dr. Roy for marine invert ethology.

BTW love the dog in your avatar!

J

Thanks, I love him too! That's my only child, Ollie. He's a little slobbery, but he never tries to borrow money or my car.

Thanks, I love him too! That's my only child, Ollie. He's a little slobbery, but he never tries to borrow money or my car.

Neither does mine (Seamus an English Cocker!) but he DOES steal my bed!!!

J