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標題: Sharing from an evolutionary biology student [打印本頁]

作者: Dinosaurprince 時間: 2015-10-17 05:54 AM 標題: Sharing from an evolutionary biology student

Hello guys. Recently I am transferred in University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) for my Evolution, Ecology and Behavior major. As I know a lot of young student here want to be a paleontologist or evolutionary biologist, I would love to share my experience for classes, researches and also information that I know for assist you guys to consider the major.

Nowadays, paleontology is normally a discipline for evolutionary biology or planetary science course. The use of paleontology is to serve as a dating method in dating the earth's formation and a study to understand the course of evolution in biological approach. Since the major or the concentration is outdated, aspiration student to be will either major in planetary science related major or biological science related major and go to graduate school afterward. As an undergraduate student, it is advised to take as much geology and biology course as you can to understand the basics such as datings and molecular clock. After graduate from bachelor you could apply for graduate school for the related field that you are interested. Since only 6901 offers the similar courses in Hong Kong, I think bachelor of science of HKU is the only opportunity that can help you to enter the field in Hong Kong. Afterward, you could consider apply school outside HK for the graduate studies ( unlike undergraduate, graduate schools oversea normally offers scholarships or even "hire" graduate students into their department to assist their researches).

I would love to answer question here if you have any further question about how to become a paleontologist/ evolutionary biologist. However, since the workload of my college, I might not able to come to here oftenly and it might take me awhile to reach you. And I can probably able to anwser any questions during the weekend.

P.S. I could share my lecture notes for the history of life course if you want. However, since the file of each lecture is pretty large, I could only send it by email and you could always message me your email if you want the lecture notes.

作者: fossilshk 時間: 2015-10-17 08:17 AM

Thanks for your sharing. It should be useful.

作者: 達爾文 時間: 2015-10-18 06:52 PM

Long time no see dinosaur prince wor.

作者: Dinosaurprince 時間: 2015-10-20 05:07 AM 標題: 回復 #3 達爾文的帖子

I am busy with school and part time job ma

作者: trump 時間: 2015-10-28 03:02 PM

How many years have to studying be a paleontologist?

作者: Dinosaurprince 時間: 2015-11-5 12:56 PM 標題: 回復 #5 trump 的帖子

In USA normally 4 years of undergrad + 7 years PhD
But now in most of the top-ranked college in USA, you can apply to be an undergrad researcher if you have distinguish academic performance. eg. I am trying to apply for the origin of life research or paleoclimatology research in the coming winter quarter in UCLA

作者: c7 時間: 2015-11-24 12:16 PM

QUOTE:

原帖由 Dinosaurprince 於 2015-11-5 12:56 PM 發表
In USA normally 4 years of undergrad + 7 years PhD
But now in most of the top-ranked college in USA, you can apply to be an undergrad researcher if you have distinguish academic performance. eg. ...

11 年

作者: oviraptor 時間: 2015-11-28 05:01 PM

Anymore choice to be a paleontologist?

作者: Dinosaurprince 時間: 2015-11-30 02:31 AM 標題: 回復 #8 oviraptor 的帖子

To be honest, getting PhD is nearly a must if you want to land on academic or researches field, although certain lower paying positions in university are filled by undergrad or PhD students.
However, paleontology is a broad field to study that you don't have to only major in evolutionary biology or geology as certain area like oceanography, biology, and geography conduct researches such as paleocenography, evo devo and paleoclimatology which is related to paleontology. The advantage about consider those area is that since suject like paleoclimatology and evo-devo (evolutionary development) are application of paleontology in a practical area and do more thing than just digging up dinosaurs, the opportunities are much broader when the subjects like climate change (relate to paleoclimatology) or medicines (relate to evo-devo) are some of the most important area of modern society and it is much easier to land a job position other than the major institutes when applying the paleontology knowledge and skills with extreme high salary ( the climate scientist year salary is between US$89260-US$134730 in US depending on the states and job nature).
Also as the traditional job for paleontologist, you can also work for petroleum companies if your discipline is related to geology and know basic knowledge such as how to find oils.

作者: Dinosaurprince 時間: 2015-12-1 04:30 AM

One think I forgot to emphasis is that it is essential to have good English communication and writing skills to do science. Since English is the international language and widely used as a communication in science. No matter where you want to go to do research or study, you will need to use English all the time. It is especially important in reading the paper for paleontology research as the wording for scientific report is generally more difficult than other science field such as ecology. In order to succeed in this competitive area, you must have a very good comprehensive skills for English reading.

作者: trump 時間: 2016-8-11 03:20 AM

我肯定做不到，英文唔好，又無恆心擺10年時間……

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