Priority will be given to candidates with a BS or MS degree in engineering or physical science. Lab work for this project could end itself to many different disciplines; contact the PI to discuss your educational interests. A good student for this position will have a strong interest in soils, physical chemistry, surface chemistry, and NMR, ESEM, and/or XRD measurement techniques. The research assistantship is expected to provide a 12 month salary (~$30K/yr) plus insurance and tuition for up to four years for a student in good standing.
Applications will be reviewed immediately upon receipt. Interested candidates should contact Dr. Margaret M. Darrow (mmdarrow@uaf.edu); please include a letter describing your interest in the position, a CV, unofficial transcripts, and the contact details (including email addresses) of two references.
For more information on the research project, please click here.
PhD position open at UAF: Unfrozen Water in Frozen Soils
Tue, Jul 23, 2013
Funding is available for a PhD student to study water mobility in frozen soils, through a research project sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF). This project will use a combination of state-of-the-art easurement techniques to quantify relationships among key variables in soil freezing and thawing processes, namely unfrozen water content and mobility, soil zeta potential, and soil micro-fabric. Results from this interdisciplinary research will improve our understanding of how frozen ground behaves as it interacts with thermal changes in the surrounding environment. The research results may help to improve frost heave theory, determining strength of frozen round, and thermal modeling for infrastructure development and long-term permafrost stability.