Research in the NevPAL focuses on understanding and reconstructing past environmental change using dendrochronologic records, including stable isotopes, and other geochemical records.
We are particularly interested in welcoming new students, visiting scientists, and postdocs with an interest in one or more of the following:
- Reconstructions of past climate and ecological changes using tree-rings or other proxies
- Building new tree-ring chronologies for reconstructions of climate and environmental change
- Stable isotope and radiogenic isotope dendrochronology for applications in climate or ecology
- Research integrating climate data and paleoclimate reconstructions with historical, archaeological, and modern social science data to better understand coupled human and natural systems
Prospective students and postdocs are encouraged to contact current and former members of the lab to learn more about the University of Nevada, Reno our lab and what it is like living in the eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains.
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 Nevada, Reno, please contact me to discuss options. Our lab welcomes postdoctoral scientists broadly interested in working on research questions related to past and present climate and ecosystem impacts as well as coupled human-natural systems.
Our lab’s NOAA Climate & Global Change Postdoctoral Program 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 Department of Geography 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
Students in the NevPAL work in a range of research areas including multiproxy dendrochronology, ecohydrology, ecosystem responses to climate, coupled human-natural systems and the connections between climate change and human society, and paleoclimatology on a wide range of timescales and different proxy types in diverse parts of the world. What is most important is not the tools we use, but rather the questions we ask.
Potential Masters and Ph.D. students interested in coming to the University of Nevada, Reno to join NevPAL are encouraged to get in touch with me via email at [acsank@unr.edu] to discuss potential opportunities. In your email, please be sure to describe how your previous background and future interests aligns specifically with those of my laboratory.
Graduate school application deadlines are in mid-December of each year for Fall semester admissions. I mentor students in Geography (https://www.unr.edu/geography/graduate) but depending on student interests students may also apply to enroll through either the interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Hydrologic Sciences (https://www.unr.edu/hydrologic-sciences), the Graduate Program in Ecology, Evolution and Conservation Biology (https://www.unr.edu/eecb) or the Graduate Program in Atmospheric Sciences (https://www.unr.edu/atmospheric-sciences/graduate-programs).
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