Join Atmospheric Chemistry Group at UM
We are always seeking bright graduate and undergraduate students to join us. Potential projects include characterizing PTR-MS measurements for VOCs, data analysis of fire emission and smoke observations from our previous and future field campaigns, and box and 3D chemical modeling of the chemical impact of fire-related VOCs and ozone. Good candidates are expected to be comfortable with math and numbers, since programming will be needed for all potential projects. It is okay if you don't have any programming skills yet; they can be learned on the job as all my students did.
Note: Sorry I won't be able to reply to all emails from prospective students as I've been receiving many daily. Please make sure you express interest in my lab in your application so that I can look for it when we start to review it in January.
Specific opportunities for Fall 2025:
We will have 2 fully funded PhD student openings this year. We are gearing up for an aircraft project to study summer ozone pollution in Salt Lake City and a project to study prescribed fires and their impact on regional air quality in the U.S. These field projects will involve developing and deploying our mass spectrometer and other instruments in new flying and mobile laboratories. Students will have opportunities to lead highly collaborative field projects and/or modeling efforts for these topics with substantial societal implications. If interested, please apply here (The priority deadline is December 15; reach out if you apply after this date).
Examples of awards received by our students and postdocs:
- Emily Cope, honorable mention of the NSF Graduate Research Fellowships Program (GRFP), 2024
- Lixu Jin, Cicerone Visiting Fellowship, NCAR, 2024
- Joseph Knudsen, Best Oral Presentation award for the Physical Sciences category at UM Conference for Undergraduate Research, 2024
- Mercedes Tucker, 猎奇重口 Space Grant Fellowship, 2024 (declined)
- Lixu Jin, Bertha Morton Scholarship, U of 猎奇重口, 2024
- Wade Permar, Top cited article 2021-2022 in J. Geophys. Res., 2023
- Damien Ketcherside, travel award to the PACES Open Science Meeting in Helsinki, Finland, 2023
- Joseph Knudsen, 猎奇重口 Space Grant Fellowship, 2023, 2024
- Amy Christiansen, invited to attend the 16th Atmospheric Chemistry Colloquium for Emerging Senior Scientists (ACCESS XVI), 2021
- Vanessa Selimovic, invited to attend the 16th Atmospheric Chemistry Colloquium for Emerging Senior Scientists (ACCESS XVI), 2021
- Damien Ketcherside, Honorable Mention in the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program, 2021
- Wade Permar, Outstanding Student Presentation Award at AGU Fall Meeting 2020
- Qian Wang, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences Postgraduate Program Fellowship, 2017-2018
Click the People page to see where previous group members went after graduation.
Check out these fun videos from our past WE-CAN project:
- The Student of WE-CAN:
- The WE-CAN Team:
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