We're particularly interested in welcoming new students, visiting scientists, research fellows, and postdocs with an interest in one or more of the following:

  • Reconstructions of past climate variability, change, and extreme events
  • Paleoclimate data assimilation and the application of other advanced statistical techniques
  • Collecting and developing new tree-ring chronologies for reconstructions of temperature, precipitation, drought, snow, and ocean-atmosphere dynamics
  • Quantitative wood anatomy (QWA) for climate and extreme event reconstructions
  • Tropical dendrochronology and recent tropical climate variability, particularly in Central America
  • Stable or radiogenic isotope dendrochronology, particularly focused on reconstructing ocean-atmospheric circulation, tropical climate variability, or providing precise chronology for important events in Earth's history
  • Paleoclimate dynamics using the combined power of paleoclimate proxies and models, including the connection between climate and ecological processes (productivity, fire, forest dynamics), understanding large-scale modes of climate variability, and using networks of proxies to understand past ocean-atmosphere variability.
  • Research integrating climate data and paleoclimate reconstructions with historical, archaeological, and modern social science data to better understand the interactions and feedbacks between coupled human and natural systems in the past, present, and future
  • Central American climate — past, present, and/or future — using methods from the physical and/or social sciences


May 2024: I am particularly interested in supporting postdocs, students, or long-term visitors with previous experience and interest in quantitative wood anatomy. At the LTRR we have now established the facilities to perform all aspects of QWA research, so please get in touch if you would like to explore any opportunities in our lab.

Potential graduate students and postdoctoral scientists are highly encouraged to contact current and previous members of the lab to gain an independent perspective on academic life at the University of Arizona, living in Tucson and the southwest, and the style and history of mentorship and training in our lab.

The US National Science Foundation (NSF) maintains a website that is a clearinghouse for various funding opportunities for graduate students and postdoctoral scientists here: https://new.nsf.gov/science-matters/nsf-101-graduate-postdoctoral-researcher-funding

Postdoctoral Scholar and Fellow Opportunities


If you are interested in preparing NOAA, NSF, NASA, or other postdoctoral fellowship applications to come to the University of Arizona, please contact me to discuss options and your plan for a research proposal. Our lab welcomes postdoctoral scientists broadly interested in working on research questions related to any aspect of past, present, and future climate and environments as well as coupled natural-human systems and the dynamics of socio-environmental systems.

The NOAA Climate & Global Change Postdoctoral Program provides an excellent opportunity for postdoctoral research (our somewhat outdated host description is here). The deadline is typically very early in January every year. Unlike the NSF opportunities below, the NOAA program is open to non-US citizens and non-permanent residents on a visa.

If you have a Ph.D. in Geography (or anticipate completing your Ph.D. in the coming year) and you are a US citizen or permanent resident (a 'green card' holder), you may want to consider the Postdoctoral Fellowship Program at NSF SBE. The deadline is typically in November. Please contact me if you're interested in submitting a proposal to join our lab and the School of Geography, Development, and Environment as a Postdoctoral Fellow. Note there are two possible tracks for SBE Postdoctoral Fellows: Fundamental Research in the SBE Sciences (SPRF-FR) or Broadening Participation in the SBE Sciences (SPRF-BP).

If you have a Ph.D. in the Earth, Ocean, Atmospheric, or Environmental Sciences (and you are a US citizen or permanent resident),you may want to consider the Postdoctoral Fellowship Program from NSF AGS (which has a rolling deadline) or the Postdoctoral Fellowship Program from NSF EAR (which has a September deadline).

Postdoctoral Fellowships are also now available through a new call from NSF's Office of Polar Programs. The deadline is each February. If you'd like to join us to do work at high-latitude treelines or Arctic ecosystems, please consider this program and get in touch. As with other NSF postdoctoral programs, you need to be US citizen or permanent resident at the time of the application.

Graduate Student Opportunities



2024-2025: I would like to admit one graduate student to the Master's or Ph.D. program in Geography in the 2024-2025 admission cycle (application deadline in January 5th, 2025, program beginning Fall 2025). That student will have a broad interest in some aspect of paleoclimatology. Please contact me if you'd be interested in applying. In your email, you should describe specifically (1) how your academic background and current scientific interests align with those of my laboratory, and (2) why specifically you would like to come to University of Arizona to work with me and my team.

Students in my lab work in a range of research areas including multiproxy dendrochronology, spatiotemporal data analysis and data assimilation, coupled human-natural systems and the connection between climate change and human society, and paleoclimatology across a range of timescales and different proxy systems around the world. What is most important is not the tools we use, but rather the questions we ask and the impacts they have for society.

Graduate school application deadlines are in earliest January of each year for autumn admissions. I mentor and advise students in Geography, as well as the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research. More information on the graduate program (including admissions requirements and deadlines) in Geography is available here (Masters) and here (PhD). I am no longer accepting new students through Geosciences, although I will continue to serve on Geosciences graduate committees.

Graduate students may also wish to consider simultaneously applying to the American Meteorological Society Graduate Fellowship program (only available to 1st year graduate students) and the US National Science Foundation's Graduate Research Fellowship Program (available to 1st or 2nd year graduate students only, so applying early may help increase your opportunities). Other relevant graduate fellowships include the DOE's Computational Science Graduate Fellowship, the US Department of Defense National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship, and NASA's Future Investigators in Earth and Space Science and Technology Students might also consider whether the are eligible for the USGS's Diverse Knowledge Systems for Climate Adaptation Fellowship, which supports graduate students as they use their diverse experiences, viewpoints, value systems, and cultural knowledge to strengthen climate adaptation efforts.

Visitors


The Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research has the Agnese N. Haury Visiting Scholar & Trainee Fellowship, which provides limited funding to support visitors to the LTRR for several weeks to learn new skills in dendrochronology and collaborate with LTRR investigators. In those years when the program is offered and there is sufficient funding, the deadline for applications is typically in the late spring. For the 2025-2026 round of visits, the application deadline was May 15, 2024.