Opportunities

Come work with us in Bellingham Washington!  –

Are you a high school student trying to decide where to go to college?  Or a perspective Graduate Student, Postdoc or Scientist?  WWU is located in the glorious Pacific Northwest, in Bellingham Washington, just a few miles south of the Canadian boarder.  If you like the outdoors, or access to the ocean, you can’t go wrong.  Or if you enjoy rainy evenings cuddled up with a good book and some take out (or a microbrew), we’ve got that too. Not to mention a great community of scientists and friends.  Come work with us!

Perspective Graduate Students and Postdocs

I am currently looking for Masters students and Posdocs to work on NSF funded projects that involve data collection, analysis and interpretation.  If you are interested in learning more, please email me.  It’s useful to include some background on your educational and any research experience, courses you’ve taken, skills you think might be useful and if possible, include a CV.

A few examples of projects I’m current recruiting students or postdocs to come work on include:

  • Exploring Transpressional Tectonics – Seismic Imaging of the Queen Charlotte Fault in South East Alaska and British Columbia.  This project will be funded in association with NSF Grant #824165.  It will involve using seismic tomography to characterize plate boundary structure across a ocean-continental fault with high slip rates (>5 cm/yr).  A significant field project is planned spanning two summers (2021-2022) that would provide data for this project – including Ocean Bottom Seismometer and active source marine seismic data.
  • Seafloor morphology and shallow structure at Oceanic Transform Faults – linking structure to fault mechanics using AUV data.  How does the hydrothermal makeup and shallow damage zone structure at oceanic transform faults inform our understanding of how strain is released at these plate boundary faults?  This project would be coordinated with an interdisciplinary team of PIs to focus on understanding the primary controlling factors that influence earthquakes at the Gofar Oceanic Transform Fault just south of the Equator on the EPR.  Cruises throughout the past decade, and planned for 2021 and 2022 have and will continue to collect cutting edge seismic and geophysical datasets.  The 2022 cruise will use the AUV Sentry to image the shallow fault in the vicinity of large earthquake ruptures.
  • Megathrust earthquakes along the Alaska Peninsula.  This project would be focused on characterizing earthquakes that occur along and adjacent to the subduction zone Megethrust stretching south of the Alaska Peninsula.  This was the focus of a large community experiment in 2018-2019 called the Alaska Amphibious Community Experiment, and this project would use some of this unprecedented amphibious seismic data set to explore how microseismicity can help us to understand the factors that influence subduction zone earthquakes.
  • Crustal Faulting in Puget Sound.  I am always looking for students and colleagues who are interested in exploring how crustal faults accommodate deformation in our back yard.  I have had a series of USGS-NEHRP funded projects to work on the Seattle Fault and am always thinking up the next target for marine geophysical work in this are.  Get in touch to chat about ideas.

Perspective Undergraduate Research Assistants

I love meeting and working with motivated undergraduates who are interested in gaining some research experience – it helps if you’re interested in working in the field (or at sea) and with computers. Get in touch if you want to learn more about undergraduate projects in my lab.

Our group at WWU welcomes students and colleagues from all backgrounds and with diverse experiences and goals.  Don’t hesitate to get in touch, even if you haven’t have significant prior experience with Geology, Marine Science, or Geophysics.

Scholarships, Fellowships and Internships:

I’ll try to post these as I come across them and keep them updated. If you find something that’s incomplete or out of date, drop a note.

General:

NOAA – Ernest F. Hollings Undergraduate Scholarship Marine Science, Due September 2022   Webpage Here.

General NSF Research Experience for Undergraduates – REU Page with LOTS of opportunities listed: Search Page Here

Fall 2020:

PNW Chapter of the Society of Women GeoscientistsAnnouncement Here.

Ocean Policy Fellowship with National Caucus of Environmental Legislators.  Announcement Here.   Eligibility: Must hold a Bachelor’s degree from accredited college or university

Coastal Resilience Fellowship with Oregon Sea Grant. Announcement HereEligibility: Must hold a post-graduate degree (Masters, PhD, or other related professional degrees) from any university or college (US or international) with focus in coastal resilience.

Winter 2021:

IODP is hiring Marine Technicians: Details concerning the job and how to apply are given in the online job ad at:  https://tamus.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/TAMU_External/job/Program-Aide_R-035049.

Work in Progress Q&A Document on Navigating Applications Here

Example Jobs for Folks with a degree in Geophysics or Marine Science –  Read More Here.

More on the Programs in Geology AND Marine and Coastal Sciences – including how to apply

WWU Geology Department………………………….                                                                                             Information on how to declare your major in Geology or Geophysics Here
WWU Marine and Coastal Sciences Major………
Apply Here