2 PhD positions at the University of Wyoming

The Departments of Botany and Ecosystem Science and Management at the University of Wyoming seek motivated applicants for two PhD student positions. The PhD students will join a watershed eco-hydrology team led by Drs. Fabian Nippgen , Ginger Paige , and David Williams working on a new NSF EPSCoR project aimed at addressing the ecological and socioeconomic consequences of climate driven changes to water supply in a key region in northwestern Wyoming. More information about this project is located further down.

One PhD position will focus on hydrologic modeling of water resources in the headwaters of the Columbia, Colorado, and Missouri River Basins in northwestern Wyoming using WRF-Hydro. The other PhD position will focus on eco-hydrologic modeling and observations of vegetation dynamics along gradients of disturbance and climate change scenarios. Both PhD positions include modeling and field-based data collection of hydrologic and meteorologic variables, such as streamflow, snow cover, and precipitation, as well as work with eddy covariance data. Initial work will focus on medium to large-scale modeling applications, with the goal to downscale at later stages in the project.

Both successful applicants will also work with economists and social scientists for other parts of the project. The students will be part of the “Interdisciplinary PhD in Hydrologic Sciences ” program at the University of Wyoming.

Start date is the spring semester 2023.

If you are interested in either position, please contact Dr. Fabian Nippgen . Applications are accepted until the positions are filled.

Sincerely,

Fabian Nippgen

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Assistant Professor of Watershed Hydrology

University of Wyoming | Ecosystem Science and Management | College of Agriculture and Natural Resources

Agriculture Building 2009 | 1000 E. University Ave. | Dept. # 3354 | Laramie, WY 82071

[email protected] | 307-766-5012 | www.watershed-hydrology.com

WY- ACT: Wyoming Anticipating Climate Transitions

The University of Wyoming announced in May 2022 that it had received a $20 million grant from the National Science Foundation to study climate-driven changes to Wyoming’s water supply and all the impacts that will follow. The grant was made through the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) of NSF, which supports efforts to enhance research, science and mathematics education, and workforce development. The project will significantly augment capabilities for refining and applying models tailored to the needs of communities that predict and communicate scenarios related to long term and severe drought. 

Project Background: Water resources in Wyoming and the Rocky Mountain region are under significant threat from climate change. A shift from snow- to rain-dominated precipitation over the mountains, higher rates of evaporation, and increasing interannual variability elevate risks to watershed and ecosystem functioning and diminish the quality of natural resources that underpin social and economic stability in the region. Our capacity to identify and quantify risks and predict societal consequences of shifting climate conditions in the nation’s critical headwater areas, like in Wyoming, are limited by uncertainties in how hydrological, ecological and sociological systems interact. Humans are central agents in watershed behavior but quantitative understanding of feedbacks between human actions and hydrological/ecological functioning in a warming climate is generally not available to decision-makers. Through high performance computing, we will quantify the likely range of responses of streamflow, aquatic ecosystems, and vegetation to a changing climate in America’s key headwater region. The gap between scientific understanding and community responses addresses the very nature of how scientific research is conducted. This project will narrow the gap by adopting a transdisciplinary framework of knowledge coproduction that puts stakeholders at the center of the scientific enterprise. We will use this framework to improve representation of social, economic, ecological and hydrological interactions and processes in integrated models