Opportunities Posted!

Hey everyone!

We just updated our website and have a brand new page listing all the ways you can get involved with The Echinacea Project. Check it out!

https://echinaceaproject.org/opportunities/

This summer we’re looking to hire both undergraduates and graduates interested in learning more about the evolution and ecology of prairie systems. If you know anyone who might fit the bill, pass this information along!

Additionally, we’ve added a new component to our application process that we’re calling a “brown M&M.” Stuart was inspired by a section of the book The Checklist Manifesto written by Atul Gawande where musician David Lee Roth (of the rock band Van Halen) famously demanded that all brown M&Ms be removed from his bowl of candy backstage. While it might seem like a ridiculous request, Roth was testing his concert venues. The clause where all brown M&Ms must be removed was buried deep within a huge document specifying all sorts of technical details about the production of Van Halen’s shows. If brown M&Ms were not removed from the candy bowl Roth knew that there must be other details that were probably missed and so he would cancel the show all together.

Here at The Echinacea Project we aren’t as stringent as Roth, but we have included our own form of a “brown M&M” on the project’s website. If any potential applicants are reading this and wondering how to make their application go above and beyond the call of duty, make sure you read carefully about The Echinacea Project’s summer field work and put “brown M&M” somewhere in your cover letter!