Opportunity to join an international glaciology and climate modelling team
We are seeking to recruit two PhD students to join an international glaciology and climate modelling team. Our project, supported by the Royal Society Marsden Fund, aims to identify the drivers of the Antarctic Cold Reversal, a Southern Hemisphere climate change that occurred around 14,000 years ago.
The students will join an international glaciology and climate modelling team seeking to identify the drivers of the Antarctic Cold Reversal, a Southern Hemisphere climate change that occurred around 14,000 years ago. This project is supported by the New Zealand Royal Society Marsden Fund, and it will start on September 1st, 2018.
We are seeking to fill two positions:
Position 1 – Glacial geology and Beryllium-10 dating. The candidate will carry out geological/geomorphological field work in a small team on and around the beautiful and remote glaciers in New Zealand’s Southern Alps. In Wellington, this student work in our cutting edge cosmogenic nuclide laboratory. This student may also, depending on aptitude, skills and experience, contribute to the development or application of glacier models to palaeoclimate problems.
Position 2 – Glacier and palaeoclimate modelling. The candidate will carry out numerical modelling of glaciers in modern and past climates. This student will be based in our glacier modelling group but will also have the opportunity to work in other, international climate modelling centres. This student will also have the chance to join fieldwork in the New Zealand Southern Alps.
Both students require a first class Master’s degree in an appropriate field (geology, geophysics, physical geography, meteorology/climatology, oceanography). An ideal candidate for Position 1 would have a background in physical geoscience with strong field skills and an aptitude for geochemical work, along with GIS skills and quantitative /computing ability. A strong candidate for position 2 would have a geophysics/climate/oceanography background, including well-developed programming skills (e.g. Matlab, Python, Linux).
The Marsden Fund is providing support for one PhD studentship (tuition fees + stipend). We will encourage a second, suitably qualified candidate, to apply for a Victoria Doctoral Scholarship. These scholarships are competitive, and require a high GPA. Evidence of research success (e.g. peer-reviewed publications) also hold weight in the assessment process. Victoria Doctoral Scholarship applications close on July 1st and candidates require our assistance and support to submit an application.
Both students will be supervised by a Wellington-based team, including Professor Andrew Mackintosh (project leader), Dr Kevin Norton, Dr Brian Anderson, Dr Shaun Eaves, and Professor Lionel Carter. The PhD students will also have the chance to interact with international co-investigators, Dr Feng He (USA), Dr Laurie Menviel (Australia), Dr Joel Pedro (Denmark/Australia), Dr Maisa Rojas (Chile) and Dr Esteban Sagredo (Chile).
Candidates should in the first instance send to Andrew.Mackintosh@vuw.ac.nz a CV, academic transcripts, and a letter containing the following information – which position (1 or 2) interests them, why they are applying, what they hope to get out of PhD study, why they are suited to the position and the name and contact details of two or more scientific referees. We will accept initial applications up until June 15th 2018, in time for the July 1st scholarship deadline. We hope that the successful candidates will begin their doctoral projects on September 1st or shortly thereafter.
More information is provided here