Graduate Student Positions

The EES department is always seeking graduate student applicants each fall admission cycle. Graduate students are typically supported by fellowships, research assistantships or teaching assistantships. The graduate admission process is described in detail here with application deadlines at the end of the year. Below are some of the graduate student research opportunities being specifically sought for admission in the 2026 cycle, and we also encourage you to contact the faculty members working on topics that interest you directly.

InSAR and Complex Deformation. Professors Julie Elliott and Jeff Freymueller are seeking PhD students to work on a newly funded project that will use spaceborne synthetic aperture radar interferometry (InSAR) along with other geodetic data sets to characterize complex surface deformation that varies in time and space due to combinations of tectonic, hydrologic, and volcanic signals. Students will gain experience with data processing and analysis of large geophysical data sets (including data from the newly launched NISAR satellite mission) and modeling to constrain the sources of deformation while working within a collaborative, multi-institutional project. You can find more information here.

Asteroid Composition and Dynamical History. Professor Seth Jacobson is seeking a PhD student to study the history of the asteroid belt using compositional constraints from newly obtained James Webb Space Telescope data. In order to interpret this data, the student will use numerical modeling to assess possible asteroid origin scenarios as well as geophysical models of asteroid surfaces and interiors.