We have ongoing opportunities for Ph.D. students to work on subduction zone seafloor geodesy and megathrust processes at the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics (UTIG). The doctoral program is based at the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences in the Jackson School of Geosciences, ranked one of the best geophysics graduate programs in the US.
About the Opportunity
The University of Texas Institute for Geophysics (UTIG) supports a range of Solid Earth Dynamics science including the study of fault systems and earthquake hazards from observational, experimental, and modeling perspectives. We have ongoing opportunities to recruit Ph.D. students to work at UTIG as graduate research assistants.
Successful candidates will pursue collaborative research on the earthquake source, including mechanistic aspects of fault interactions, physics-informed and physics discovery machine learning, as well as seismic hazard applications. They will interact with a diverse group of researchers with expertise spanning from rock mechanics, to geophysical imaging, to theoretical and computational modeling. UTIG is known for integrative science efforts and international field programs in geophysics, climate science, planetary science, and energy geoscience. We also have strong ties to other UT campus units, including the Oden Institute for Computational Engineering & Sciences and the Texas Advanced Computing Center.
About the Graduate Research Positions
We are looking for Ph.D. students with suggested research topics that are connected through a desire to better understand earthquake dynamics and the implications for seismic hazard.
We focus on improved physical and mathematical descriptions of laboratory and field-constrained constitutive behavior and their dynamical implications.
Student projects will connect with ongoing funded efforts including:
- the NSF FRES Megathrust Modeling Framework (MTMOD) project, and
- an NSF Geophysics project focused on linking laboratory measurements of rheology for natural fault rocks with models describing megathrust slip behavior.
How to Apply
Interested applicants are encouraged to consider individual researcher’s web pages for information and reach out to potential advisers Thorsten Becker and Demian Saffer by email to explore opportunities.
Graduate school applications are made to the Jackson School of Geosciences’s graduate committee with application details found on the Jackson School’s website.