I will NOT be taking on any further graduate students (or summer undergraduate work-study students) at this time (unless you have significant sources of external financial support - and I do mean significant - a grad student costs ~ $45-50k/yr here at Cornell). Please be advised that this situation is subject to change, usually on an annual basis, depending on degrees of success with grant applications. At present, it doesn't look as if I'll be taking on any new students until at least 2012.

  However, when funding is available, I'll advertize that I'm recruiting students here. At such time, students with interests in both application (i.e., field work) and theory (i.e., spending time fooling with computers) are particularly encouraged to contact me. A background in math would be useful for some projects, but is not essential. More important is a willingness to learn new things. Modern study of biology in general involves quantitiative methods and theory. The days of idyllic trips to observe the natural history of species "X" in some exotic locale are few and far between, and really shouldn't factor highly in your motivation to pursue graduate training. If they do, then I'd suggest looking elsewhere for opportunities.