The heart of GDPE is our people – students, postdocs and faculty members. As members of GDPE, faculty become part of a community of scientists who share interests in ecology as an interdisciplinary field. GDPE also provides an outstanding pool of applicants to graduate school as well as resources for current students (research grants, travel funds, a few assistantships as well as a supportive community and professional development opportunities).

Members of GDPE providing their expertise to the community, and are expected to participate in events as much as possible through attending GDPE seminars and socials, participating in the Front Range Student Ecology Symposium (e.g., serving as a judge, attending talks, posters). Faculty members also contribute to teaching courses (ECOL courses and seminars, and departmental courses with substantial ecological content). Faculty members, like all of our CSU community, are expected to follow CSU’s Principles of Community. See our DEIJ page for details.

We have three types of membership:

GDPE Faculty: Have been granted authority by a CSU academic department to act as a primary major advisor (committee chair) for graduate students, and can do so for GDPE students as well.

GDPE Faculty Affiliate: Can serve as a voting member on a graduate student committee as long as the affiliate has a degree equivalent to (or higher than) the degree program level of the student. Non-CSU scientists who have a formal affiliate status with an academic department, but do not have authority to act as a primary major advisor for graduate students often apply for affiliate status.

GDPE Associate: MS or PhD scientists, including postdocs, who do not have an affiliate appointment with a CSU academic department and therefore are not eligible to serve as voting members of graduate student committees; however, they may serve as non-voting members on graduate student committees.

  • Descriptions of these faculty membership types are found just above.





















  • For people from outside CSU, an affiliation with a regular department is required prior to joining GDPE.
  • For example, assistant professor – full professor, affiliate faculty member, postdoc
  • Can you serve as advisor, co-advisor, committee member?
  • Please write a short paragraph about your interest in joining the GDPE program.
  • Please write a short paragraph telling us about your experience with mentoring students.
  • Accepted file types: doc, pdf, Max. file size: 41 MB.

For accessibility issues, contact the website administrator at ecology@colostate.edu.