The Department of Earth Sciences is now accepting applications for graduate admission in the Fall of 2010. Listed below are some specific research opportunities for prospective graduate student applicants in the coming year. Prospective graduate students are encouraged to directly contact the listed professors to express an interest in any of the research opportunities described below.
Rachel Abercrombie is seeking students who are interested in earthquakes and their rupture processes. For example, how earthquakes start and grow, and what factors govern the size, location and timing of earthquake slip. Current research projects include studying earthquakes in a range of tectonic settings (including oceanic earthquakes, and intraplate earthquakes) to resolve any significant differences. Any variations are important to our understanding of earthquake physics, and also to seismic hazard studies, and nuclear monitoring. Students with geological, geophysical or physics/engineering backgrounds are all encouraged to apply.
Ethan Baxter is looking for students interested in developing innovative field and lab-based studies to measure the rates and durations of metamorphic, tectonic and earth surface processes. Field areas include Greece, Austria, Norway and Scotland. Students with broad interests in isotope geochemistry and geochronology are encouraged to apply. The NSF-funded Thermal Ionization Mass Spectrometer Facility will provide an exciting tool for this research.
Colleen Dalton welcomes graduate students interested in studying the Earth’s interior with seismic waves on global and regional scales. There are also opportunities to study earthquake source properties and processes. Students with computational and/or field interests are strongly encouraged to apply.
Sergio Fagherazzi is seeking graduate students interested in coastal and fluvial geomorphology, tidal and wave dynamics, hydrology, numerical modeling of surface processes, and coupling between ecology and geomorphology (ecogeomorphology). Research projects are organized in two groups: fieldwork and numerical modeling. Current research projects are conducted in Plum Island Sound, Massachusetts; Florida Panhandle; Eastern Shore of Virginia; Louisiana’s Chenier Plains; Thailand’s Andaman Coast; Venice Lagoon, Italy; and Fly River, Papua New Guinea. Ongoing research is supported by the National Science Foundation, the Office of Naval Research, the Petroleum Research Fund, and the Department of Energy.
Duncan FitzGerald is seeking graduate students interested in shallow marine sediment transport, coastal evolution, wetlands, tidal inlet hydraulics, and hydrodynamics. These studies involve fieldwork, lab analyses, and numerical modeling. Research will be conducted in Gulf of Maine, North Carolina, the Mississippi River delta, and the Santa Catarina coast of Brazil. Ongoing research is supported by the NOAA, National Park Service, USGS, Minerals Management Service, and UNIVALI, Brazil.
Paul Hall is seeking graduate students interested in convection in the Earth’s mantle. Students will have the opportunity to employ both numerical (i.e., computational fluid dynamics) and laboratory (i.e., fluid tanks) models to investigate the interactions between plate tectonics and mantle convection that give rise to volcanism at the Earth’s surface.
Andy Kurtz is seeking graduate students interested in the relationship between chemical weathering processes, geomorphology, and hydrology. Research areas include Puerto Rico, Papua New Guinea, and Hawaii. Future projects will take advantage of BU’s new TIMS facility to develop powerful new isotopic tracers of weathering and biogeochemical cycling.
David Marchant is seeking graduate students interested in quantifying rates of landscape evolution in polar deserts and exploiting comparisons between buried glaciers in Antarctica and buried ice on Mars. Students will conduct field research in the Dry Valleys region of Antarctica (helicopter-supported field camps) for at least two months while enrolled at Boston University.
Rick Murray is seeking graduate students interested in geochemical paleoceanography to work on projects relating to the redox history of the Cariaco Basin off the coast of Venezuela, with specific interests in comparing studies based on modern sediment traps to those targeting the longer Holocene and Pleistocene evolution of the tropics.