baa43003 wrote:You don't necessarily have to find a school with a karst specialist (although it does help) to do graduate work in speleology. For my graduate degree I chose advisors who were sedimentologists, hydrologists, and geochemists.
This is good advice if you already have an undergrad background in your grad subject of choice, and have a project in mind, (and maybe even a hypothesis to be tested) from which you cannot be dissuaded. If a person just has a vague notion they want to study speleology or something to do with caves, going to an integrated karst program can save a lot of misdirection.
I started grad school with a project in mind, but not exactly sure about how to attack it. I was amazed there were people in grad school who hadn't decided on a project except they had narrowed it to the field of their undergrad degree. Also, remember that professors have projects of their own for which they need grad student help; karst-inclined professors are likely to have one or two of these around which undecided grad students might adopt as their own.
I thought of another prof on the undergrad level: Dr. David Ashley, invertebrate biologist and parasitologist, at Missouri Western St. University in St. Joseph. Dave caves, and teaches a couple of cave classes -- he would be a good advisor for an undergrad karst thesis. (I don't think Mo. Western has a grad program, but I might be mistaken.)