FALL 2025 (FOR ADMISSION FALL 2026)

Welcome! If you’ve landed here, you might be interested in pursuing research on ecology, climate impacts, and climate adaptation with me at the University of Minnesota (UMN).

You’ll also want to check out the Institute on the Environment (IonE), an interdisciplinary research and leadership unit that I direct that spans all areas of sustainability across the UMN. Students who work with me interact with a community of students and researchers associated with IonE.

GRADUATE PROGRAMS

Students can study with me from the Graduate Program in Conservation Science (PhD or masters) or theGraduate Program in Ecology, Evolution and Behavior in the College of Biological Sciences (PhD). I am also open to co-advising with other faculty at the UMN, particularly with folks in the EEB graduate faculty. I also serve on the committee of several graduate students in these programs, and you might want to consider me as a committee member (rather than an advisor) if you are admitted to one of these programs.

Cons Sci and EEB differ in the way that students receive financial support and the focus of student work. They also have slightly different admission requirements. You’ll want to have a look at the individual programs and see which would be a better fit for you. Do know that admission to the UMN for graduate school in all of these programs is very competitive, requiring a strong undergraduate GPA and substantive research or other related experience.

POSSIBLE TOPICS FOR RESEARCH

Graduate students working with me would pursue a project aligned with one or both of the following:

1) The ecological effects of climate change. This could include, for example, research on how climate change affects species’ interactions and therefore the dynamics of species within ecosystems, or the role of evolutionary history in determining the response of species to changing climate. I’ve published quite a bit on these topics over the couple of decades (see publications page), particularly with an emphasis on insects or plants. This research can involve field work, remotely sensed data, genomics, mathematical models or other tools. Warming experiments, for example, have been a hallmark of much of my past research. I expect any student working on ecology and climate change to also consider how management strategies (i.e., “climate change adaptation”) can overcome negative consequences of climate for species of conservation importance or species providing essential ecosystem services.

2) Strategies for conserving biodiversity under climate change. We will need to manage natural ecosystems in new ways to reduce the effects of climate change, and discovering ways of doing that effectively is the purpose of a research center I direct called the Midwest Climate Adaptation Science Center (MW CASC). I seek students who will interact with the MW CASC and define a research project that explores how adaptation techniques can reduce biodiversity loss and increase ecosystem services. This research could involve modeling or synthesis from the literature and existing data sets; it could also involve techniques from social science and management science in ways that interfaces with ecology.  This research should involve collaboration with landowners, managers, and other officials — and the CASC will facilitate those connections.

OTHER RESEARCH IN THE LAB

I have a variety of other research interests that graduate students working with me would have exposure to, but I’m not seeking student projects in these areas. This includes environmental monitoring to drive greenhouse gas emission reduction. Specifically, I collaborate with a group of researchers at the intersection of remote sensing, data mining and data metrics to compile information about methane emissions from oil and gas production. This work is associated with Geofinancial Analytics. I’m also involved in collaborative research on climate and human health via the Mni Sota Center for Weather and Health and in developing methods that measure and track private-sector commitments to biodiversity conservation, an effort arising from the Midwest Carbon Leadership Project.

EXPECTATIONS

Regardless of research focus, students working with me should have a high degree of intellectual curiosity, an excellent track record, and an ability to seek counsel from a wide range of collaborators and other experts. I also expect students to work with me to seek external funding for research during their graduate studies. (Before starting grad school, you should check out and apply for a NSF graduate fellowship.) Grant-writing is a key part of being a scholar, whether one works for a NGO, government, corporation or a university, and the ability to articulate research goals and methods is essential to research excellence.

GRAD STUDIES AT THE UMN

The University of Minnesota is truly a great place to be–whether you work with me or someone else. Importantly, our university still has some of the very best ecology and environmental science in the world.  (For example, UMN EEB is the best US university for ecology in the world.) UMN is also the top public US university in interdisciplinary science and the Institute on the Environment is a hive of interdisciplinary research and environmental innovation. The Twin Cities provides an excellent quality of life, and the university has a large and thriving graduate student culture, ranging from nature to the arts.

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UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH PROGRAMS

Undergraduate researchers are also a critical component of our research group — and research at the Institute on the Environment. Undergrads typically participate in a larger project while also exploring their own independent sub-project. There are many opportunities for undergraduates listed on the Institute’s leadership and education webpage.

Visit us

  

The Hellmann Lab is located on the fifth floor of the Ecology Building, 1987 Upper Buford Circle, University of Minnesota St. Paul campus. 

The physical home of Institute on the Environment is located in the Learning and Environmental Sciences Building on the St. Paul Campus.