The goals of this interdisciplinary project are to reconstruct the vegetation of interior and coastal sites on the emergent Bering Land Bridge and evaluate the relationship between sea ice extent and aridity during the Pleistocene and Holocene. The PhD student will kick-start their PhD research with a month-long cruise in the Bering Sea to collect sediment cores in August, 2023. Applicants must be accepted into the UAF graduate program and enroll for Fall semester prior to the start date of the summer research assistantship.
Students interested in paleoclimatology, paleoecology, and/or sedimentology are encouraged to apply. The PhD student will use diatoms and fossil pollen as markers for environmental change and thus it is imperative that the student is comfortable using a microscope for long hours. Prior taxonomic experience is not necessary but would be an advantage.
Prospective students are encouraged to contact Dr. Sarah Fowell (sjfowell@alaska.edu) or Dr. Beth Caissie (bcaissie@usgs.gov) for more information.
This position is open to both U.S. and non-U.S. applicants.
Application deadline: 15 January 2023
For information about the graduate program at UAF, go to:
UAF Graduate Program webpage
For questions, contact:
Beth Cassie
Email: bcaissie@usgs.gov
Sarah Fowell, University of Alaska
Email: sjfowell@alaska.edu