Fully Funded MS and PhD Scholarship in Freshwater Ecology at the University of North Dakota USA

Most fully funded graduate positions ask you to fit an existing project. This one asks something rarer. Dr. Matt Dunkle is recruiting one or more MS or PhD students into a new freshwater ecology lab in the Department of Biology at the University of North Dakota, with a target start in Summer or Fall 2027. Because the lab is new, incoming students will have real input into its culture and research direction.

That is the practical reason this fully funded MS, PhD freshwater ecology opening is worth a careful look. The scientific reason is sharper. The work asks how climate change and disturbance rewrite who eats whom in lakes and streams.

Scholarship Summary

• Host Country: USA
• Host University: University of North Dakota (Department of Biology, Grand Forks, North Dakota)
• Scholarship Category: Masters Scholarships / PhD Scholarships
• Eligible Country: Not restricted by nationality in the lab call. Applicants from any country may inquire, provided they can meet University of North Dakota graduate admission requirements, including English-language and visa rules for international students. Formal admission is a separate step from the lab inquiry.
• Scholarship Benefits: Full Tuition Fee, Living Stipend, etc.
• Scholarship Deadline: Rolling review until January 31, 2027 (job board lists February 1, 2027). Formal application to the UND Biology graduate program is due February 15. Target start between May 15 and August 15, 2027.

Why This Lab is Opening Now

Dunkle joined UND as Assistant Professor of Freshwater Ecology in August 2026. His training runs through a B.S. in wildland restoration at the University of Montana, an M.S. in fisheries and a Ph.D. in water resources at the University of Idaho, and postdoctoral work at the University of Alaska Fairbanks on long-term lake water-quality trends in southwest Alaska. His dissertation examined how hydrologic heterogeneity builds food-web diversity on a glacial meltwater landscape. His master’s thesis tracked how Pacific lamprey carcasses enter stream food webs.

That background matters for applicants. The questions in this lab are not abstract. They sit at the junction of diet, stable isotopes, secondary production, and physical disturbance. Students who want a funded graduate position in freshwater ecology that still lets them help define the first projects will find the timing unusual. Most labs recruit into a settled program. This one is still being built.

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What the Research Actually Covers

The lab examines food-web and trophic dynamics in freshwater ecosystems using diet, stable isotope, and related approaches. The particular interest is how climate change and disturbance reshape lake and stream food webs. Disturbance here includes wildfire and shifting thermal and hydrologic regimes.

Dunkle’s own field experience spans watersheds in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest. He is equally interested in students who want to develop projects in North Dakota’s own waters, or just across the state line in northern Minnesota. Named systems in the call include:

• Prairie pothole lakes
• The Red River
• Devils Lake
• Northern Minnesota’s boundary waters and the prairie-to-boreal ecotone

Potential research directions listed in the posting are not a closed menu. They include:

• Fish and invertebrate secondary production in streams, rivers, and lakes
• Trophic responses of lakes and streams to wildfire or other acute disturbances
• Climate-driven shifts in thermal regime and cascading effects on food webs
• Braided river channel production and food web dynamics
• Stable isotope and biomarker approaches to tracking energy flow in aquatic systems
• Comparative food web structure across gradients of hydrologic connectivity or land use

For a student comparing funded MS PhD freshwater ecology openings, the range is the point. A project could sit in a glacial-style or wildfire system familiar from the PI’s earlier work, or it could be built around the Northern Great Plains. Prairie potholes are shallow, productive, and hydrologically variable. Devils Lake has a long record of level change. The Red River is a working river with land-use pressure. Those are legitimate food-web systems, not fallback sites.

Training You Should Expect

Students will be trained in traditional stream ecology, stable isotope methods, quantitative food web analysis, field sampling design, statistical and programming approaches in R, and scientific writing. The posting also states that students will be supported in attending and presenting at national conferences.

That mix is worth reading carefully. Stable isotope ecology is a method, not a personality. Labs that use it well still need people who can design a field season, keep a sampling protocol honest in bad weather, and write a paper someone else can replicate. Preference is given to applicants who already have field or laboratory research experience and some familiarity with R or another statistical environment. Those are preferred qualifications, not a closed door.

The job board lists “at least 4 years” of experience as a required field. The PI’s own text does not set a four-year minimum. Required qualifications in the description are a B.S. in ecology, biology, environmental science, or a related field; genuine interest in freshwater ecosystems; willingness to develop independent research skills; ability to work alone and with others; and willingness to do fieldwork in variable conditions. If your timeline is shorter than four years but your research record is real, the email to the PI is the place to clarify that, not the job-board filter.

Funding: What “Fully Funded” Means Here

This is a graduate assistantship, not a named external fellowship. Incoming students begin on a Department of Biology teaching assistantship.

• MS stipend: roughly $1,888 per month
• PhD stipend: roughly $2,388 per month
• Tuition waiver
• Health insurance
• About 40 hours per week

A transition to a research assistantship is anticipated, pending success of grant proposals still in play. That sentence should be read as written. The teaching assistantship is the committed starting package. The research assistantship is expected, not guaranteed, until those proposals land. For many applicants that is still a strong package: a living stipend, a tuition waiver, and health coverage, inside a lab that will train them in methods with a clear job market in agencies, universities, and consulting.

Annualized, the monthly figures are on the order of $22,700 for an MS student and $28,700 for a PhD student before any summer top-up or later RA shift. Confirm the exact appointment term with the department. Monthly stipends are not the same thing as a 12-month guarantee unless the offer letter says so.

See Also

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  2026 Surf Scholarship at Keele University | Fully Funded Scholarships in UK
• 
  Southampton Business School Scholarship 2025 For International Students in UK

Who Should Apply for The Fully Funded MS and PhD Scholarship

The strongest fit is someone who already cares about freshwater food webs and can say why in one page. A cover letter that only repeats the posting will not help. A letter that connects a specific direction — wildfire trophic response, prairie pothole energy flow, braided-river production, climate-driven thermal shifts — to something you have already done will.

You do not need a finished project. You do need evidence that you can learn one. Prior field or lab work, a senior thesis, a technician season, or a clear R workflow are all useful. So is honesty about what you have not done yet.

International applicants should treat two clocks as separate. The lab review is one process. Admission to the UND Biology graduate program, funding paperwork, and any visa timeline are another. The posting says the PI is happy to discuss timing.

Useful official pages while you prepare:

• UND Biology faculty directory entry for Dr. Dunkle
• UND graduate programs overview
• UND international admissions
• Society for Freshwater Science, a core professional home for this kind of work: freshwater-science.org

How to Apply For The Fully Funded MS and PhD Scholarship Without Wasting the First Email

Interested applicants should send one PDF to matthew.dunkle@und.edu. The subject line must be “GA Position (Last Name)”.

The PDF should contain three items:

1. A one-page cover letter on research interests, relevant experience, and career goals
2. A CV or resume
3. Contact information for three references

Review is rolling until January 31, 2027. The formal UND Biology graduate application is a separate step, due February 15. Starting dates fall between May 15 and August 15, 2027.

A few practical notes that improve a first contact:

• Use the exact subject line. Lab inboxes sort on it.
• Keep the cover letter to one page. Name one or two research directions from the list and say what you would need to learn to pursue them.
• Put references’ names, titles, institutions, and emails in the PDF. Do not make the PI hunt for them.
• If you are also applying to the graduate program, say so and ask about sequencing. The posting explicitly invites that conversation.
• Do not attach transcripts, manuscripts, or a five-page research proposal unless asked. The requested packet is short on purpose.

What a Strong First Year in This Lab is Likely to Look Like

A new lab rewards students who can help build process, not only collect samples. Expect early work on sampling design, isotope preparation, and data hygiene in R. Field conditions in the northern plains and in lake districts are variable: wind, cold water, soft sediment, and short ice-free seasons all show up in the methods. The posting is direct about that.

Scientifically, the first projects are likely to sit close to the PI’s published questions. Dunkle’s doctoral work argued that hydrologic heterogeneity creates food-web diversity on a glacial meltwater landscape. His Alaska postdoc looked at long-term lake water quality under climate change. A student who reads those threads before writing the cover letter will sound like a colleague, not a subscriber.

Conference support is part of the offer. Presenting at a national meeting in year two or three is normal in this field, and the posting commits to supporting that. Budget your own expectation accordingly: a thesis or dissertation that can be split into papers, not a single internal report.

How this Compares with a Typical Ecology Assistantship

Many MS and PhD openings in ecology are funded, but the funding source changes the job. A student on a defined grant often inherits objectives, sites, and a timeline. A student on a departmental teaching assistantship in a new lab often has more say over the question and more teaching load in the first year. Neither is automatically better. The first is more predictable. The second is how this University of North Dakota graduate assistantship is structured.

If your goal is a stable isotope ecology PhD with room to propose a North Dakota or Minnesota system, this match is unusually direct. If you need a fully specified project and a guaranteed research assistantship from month one, ask that question in the first email rather than assuming it.

Timeline if You are Reading This in Fall 2026

Applications are already open. Rolling review means a complete packet sent in October or November is read before one sent in late January, not instead of it, but earlier files get earlier attention.

A sensible sequence:

• October to December 2026: send the lab PDF and request a short call if the fit looks real
• Before February 15, 2027: submit the formal UND Biology graduate application if the lab conversation supports it
• Spring 2027: admission and assistantship paperwork
• May 15 to August 15, 2027: start window

Missing the lab email and only submitting the graduate application is the wrong order. The posting treats the lab inquiry as the first step.

Bottom Line

This funded MS PhD freshwater ecology opening is a new-lab hire at the University of North Dakota, paid as a biology teaching assistantship, with a tuition waiver and health insurance, and with an anticipated path onto research funding. The science is food webs under climate and disturbance, using diet and stable isotopes, in Alaska-to-Plains freshwater systems. The application is one PDF, one subject line, and a deadline of January 31, 2027 for lab review.

Send the packet to matthew.dunkle@und.edu. Read the full call at jobs.rwfm.tamu.edu/view-job/?id=118802 before you write the letter. The students who get these offers are usually the ones who can already explain which food web they want to measure, and why that measurement belongs in this lab.

The official listing is on the Natural Resources Job Board: Graduate Student Position (MS or PhD) — Freshwater Ecology, University of North Dakota. Dr. Dunkle’s campus profile is here: Matthew Dunkle, University of North Dakota.