Geo Graduate Student Research Opportunities
The Department of Geosciences at Utah State University invites applicants for multiple PhD and MSc positions. Graduate research opportunities coalesce around two themes.
USU and the Geosciences department are committed to cultivating an inclusive learning and research environment. If interested, please contact the respective faculty member(s) associated with the projects below. Review of applications start the first week of January 2025.
Earthquake Science, Hazards, and Forecasting
Dr. Dascher-Cousineau seeks graduate students to investigate earthquake interactions using modern earthquake catalogs, earthquake forecasting models to advance early warning techniques and aftershock forecasting, and quantifying the limits of earthquake predictability.
kelian.dascher-cousineau@usu.edu
alexis.ault@usu.edu
Climate, Critical Zone Processes, and Biogeochemical Cycling
Dr. Dehler and the deep-time collaborative group has funding for enthusiastic graduate students to work on Tonian strata of the western US and China. Specific questions include: Where is the transition from a prokaryotic dominated Earth to the eukaryotic world, and what are the driving forces for this change? Were late Tonian oceans cold and providing unique refugia for advanced single-celled eukaryotes? Is there a low-latitude glaciation at ca. 750 Ma, 30 Ma prior to the Snowball Earth? Dehler’s student(s) will focus on the sedimentology, stratigraphy, geochronology, and outreach of the project in Grand Canyon National Park and eastern China.
Dr. Rittenour has multiple new projects including reconstructing glacial advances in SW Alaska, investigating mega-fauna and stratigraphy along the southeast US coast, and exploring fingerprints of fire in sediment and soil records in the western US.
tammy.rittenour@usu.edu
Paleontology and Sedimentary
benjamin.burger@usu.edu