School of Earth & Sustainability
Graduate Student Research Opportunities
Admissions for Fall 2022 are complete. If you are interested in beginning graduate school in Fall 2023, please start by reaching out to individual faculty about your specific research interests. It is a good idea to be in touch with potential advisors a few months before the January 1 application deadline.
Join the School of Earth & Sustainability for your graduate school experience! Here is a list of projects/research foci available for students starting Fall 2023 in a thesis-based Master’s program (MS Geology or MS Environmental Sciences & Policy) or in our PhD Program in Earth Sciences and Environmental Sustainability.
If you are interested in applying to our graduate programs, talk to any faculty member you are interested in working with about whether they are accepting new students and whether they have funding available to support you and your research. Some funding is also available via Teaching Assistantships. All funding decisions are made as part of the standard admissions process, which starts after the January 1st deadline. SES is committed to providing funding and support to serve a diverse and inclusive student body in our programs.
To learn more about any of the following projects, follow the link or email the faculty member (PI).
| PI | MS GLG | MS ES&P | PhD | Topic |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Best | x | Maintaining aquatic biodiversity across climate gradients using natural vs. anthropogenic habitats | ||
| Best | x | Ecology and evolution of plasticity in riparian trees and the ecosystems they support | ||
| Biggs | x | Herding for health: The interface of conservation, rangeland restoration, and rural development in Africa | ||
| Huntzinger | x | x | Land-atmosphere carbon exchange and how the terrestrial carbon cycle impacts and is influenced by climate | |
| Johnson | x | x | Mycorrhizal microbiomes of biofuel sorghum | |
| Kaufman | x | x | Amino acid geochronology: methods and applications | |
| McKay, Kaufman, Erb | x | Collaborative Research: Patterns and processes of abrupt Arctic warming based on paleoclimate observations and models | ||
| Perry | x | x | Advancing riverine biodiversity conservation through assessing resilience | |
| Porter | x | Seismic Monitoring of Debris Flow Associated with the Museum Fire | ||
| Porter | x | Earth Analogues of Planetary Geophysical Exploration | ||
| Porter | x | Thermal and Compositional State of the Western US from Seismic Imaging | ||
| Regalla | x | Late Holocene paleoseismicity in the Eastern California Shear Zone | ||
| Regalla | x | Fault slip histories in the Cascadia, Nankai, and Japan subduction forearcs | ||
| Regalla | Earthquake hazards in Cascadia, Japan, and Arizona (structural geology, geomorphology, paleoseismology, geophysics) | |||
| Rowe | x | Restoration in the Sonoran Desert - testing seed mixes and site treatments (RestoreNet) | ||
| Rowe | x | x | Assessing global conservation status of priority Sonoran Desert plant species (IUCN) | |
| Rowe | x | Biodiversity monitoring on public lands: how do we decide what to survey and what to skip? | ||
| Sankey | x | Remote sensing assessment of forest restoration treatments for hydrological benefits | ||
| Shillington | x | x | Examining the subduction zone offshore Mexico with marine seismic reflection and refraction data | |
| Shillington | x | x | Quantifying synrift sediment properties and fault slip in the Gulf of Corinth from seismic waveform inversion | |
| Shillington | x | x | Crustal thinning in the Malawi Rift, East Africa, from 3D seismic refraction modeling | |
| Smith | x | x | Lacustrine and fluvial environmental response to climate change in Eocene Wyoming | |
| Souther | x | Evaluation of drought and changing climate on a southwestern cultural keystone species | ||
| Souther | x | Ecoevolutionary evaluation of a federally endangered sky island plant species to improve conservation measures | ||
| Souther | x | Ecological and spatial investigation of oak range dynamics to inform restoration in the Southwest | ||
| Springer | x | x | Assessing hydrological responses of land management practices | |
| Springer | x | Karst hydrogeology projects in the Greater Grand Canyon region and the Southern Colorado Plateau | ||
| Springer | x | Restoration, management and sustainability of springs ecosystems | ||
| Springer | x | x | Groundwater recharge under changing climate and land management conditions | |
| Tierney | x | Using andesites to investigate the crustal and magmatic evolution of San Juan volcanism |