Graduate Student Assistantships

I am recruiting M.S. and Ph.D. students to work on two National Science Foundation-funded grants to explore coastal geomorphic processes in the U.S. Great Lakes.  

One project, entitled “Sediment Transport Mechanisms and Geomorphic Processes Associated with Shore Ice along Cold Climate Coastlines (NSF Award- 1950101; https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1950101&HistoricalAwards=false)” is aimed at improving our scientific understanding of the role winter shore ice plays in shaping coastal landscapes. 

The other is an EAGER project funded under the Coastlines and People (CoPe) initiative and is entitled “Development of a Drone-Based Coastal Change Monitoring Program through Citizen Science Partnership and Capacity Building (NSF Award- 1939979; https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1939979&HistoricalAwards=false)”.  The two primary goals of this study are to: 1) improve coastal management in the Great Lakes by empowering local leaders to gather their own high quality coastal change data using drones and 2) explore regional variations in coastal geomorphic processes in Lakes Michigan, Superior, and Huron.      

Students will join the Coastal Processes and Geomorphology Lab http://geo.msu.edu/people/ethan-j-theuerkauf/ in the Department of Geography, Environment, and Spatial Sciences at Michigan State University (East Lansing, Michigan).  Both positions will begin in the Fall 2020, but the selected candidates will be encouraged to start in Summer 2020 in order to participate in field work.  Top applicants will have backgrounds in geography, geology, remote sensing, and other related earth and environmental science fields.  A strong interest in field-oriented and quantitative research in coastal geomorphology, geology, remote sensing, and/or oceanography is required.  Applicants that are committed to promoting diversity and inclusion are particularly encouraged to apply.

Interested students should contact Dr. Ethan Theuerkauf (theuerk5@msu.edu) for additional information.  Applications for Fall 2020 are due by December 31, 2019.  Further details on the application can be found at http://geo.msu.edu/graduate-information/apply/.