Conservation Program Associate - Richard King Mellon Foundation
The Richard King Mellon Foundation (Foundation) strives to improve the quality of life and vitality of Southwestern Pennsylvania, particularly the City of Pittsburgh and its neighborhoods. The Foundation also provides funding to protect important habitats and natural amenities in Western Pennsylvania and across the United States.
The Conservation Program Associate serves a hands-on role in advancing the Foundation’s conservation goals. Working closely with the Conservation program officer and Foundation Director, this position will engage in tactical activities that ensure the Foundation’s strategy is thoughtfully implemented.
The work of the Conservation Program Associate will require an individual to be both analytical and administrative. The Foundation’s Conservation Program is divided into four sections: Habitat Conservation - protection and enhancement of biodiversity by conserving landscapes in the United States through the purchase of land; the use of conservation easements; and the use of other structures that ensure durable conservation outcomes; Activation - sustainable economic development in rural communities where it has made historic investments in habitat conservation; Stewardship -support the restoration and enhancement of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems in high-priority landscapes; and Sustainable Communities - support improving environmental quality, sustainability and the livability of communities in Western Pennsylvania, and other geographies, where it has made historic investments. The Conservation Program Associate will work across all areas of the foundation’s conservation portfolio but will have a priority focus on the Activation work of the foundation’s conservation grantmaking.
The Conservation Program Associate will monitor grantee activities, track conservation outcomes, and conduct research on emerging issues such as habitat restoration, water quality, land stewardship, and community-based conservation models. The Conservation Program Associate will prepare briefings, and other materials required to keep foundation decision makers informed and engaged. They will maintain dashboards and grant tracking systems, support measurement and learning efforts, and assist with convenings— planning, preparing agendas, and capturing insights from the field to inform future investments.
The Conservation Program Associate should also be an individual who is committed to the Foundation’s mission across its other program areas of economic development, economic mobility, health and well-being, organizational effectiveness, and social impact investments. The Program Associate will help facilitate the impact of the Foundation through interaction with public, private, and other civic leaders.
More information is available on the Richard King Mellon Foundation website.
PhD Opportunity in Seismotectonics - Purdue University
The Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences (EAPS; https://www.eaps.purdue.edu) at Purdue University invites Ph.D student applications for Fall 2027 to work with Dr. Xiaotao Yang (http://www.eaps.purdue.edu/people/faculty-pages/yang.html) on an NSF-funded seismic imaging project to study the lithospheric architecture of ancient continents and their implications on lithospheric stability and long-term evolution. As part of a multidisciplinary department, students work in a collaborative environment and get exposure to a variety of expertise in earth and planetary systems, such as seismology, geodesy, petrology, lithosphere dynamics, tectonics, structural geology, planetary geology, and broader earth system interactions. Students have access to a suite of geophysical field equipment (both passive and active source seismology) and high-performance computing resources.
The intended project will involve the application and development of full-wave seismic imaging methods and tectonic interpretations of the resultant seismic velocity models. Students with M.S. degrees (or B.S. with demonstrated research experience and achievements) with solid background in geophysics, geology, physics, or closely related fields are all welcome to apply.
To be considered for financial support for Fall 2027 admission, please submit your application by January 6, 2027. Check http://www.eaps.purdue.edu/for_students/graduate/grad_admissions.html for details on application requirements. Applicants are encouraged to contact Dr. Yang to discuss the project and application (xtyang@purdue.edu).
PhD Opportunities in Geodesy - Michigan State University
The Geodesy Group in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Michigan State University is recruiting PhD students to start in Fall 2027. Students will work on a newly funded project that will use InSAR along with other geodetic data sets to characterize complex, time-variable surface deformation. The exact projects will depend on student interests, but our current studies of active tectonics, volcanism, and hydrology focus on areas of complex deformation including Alaska, western Canada, the Caribbean, East Africa, and the Caucasus and Central Asia.
Students will gain experience with data processing and analysis of large geophysical data sets (including data from the recently launched NISAR satellite mission), InSAR time series techniques, the integration of InSAR and GNSS data, and modeling to constrain sources of deformation while working within a collaborative, multi-institutional project.
Prospective geodesy students should have a strong quantitative background and programming experience (MATLAB, Python) would be helpful. Prior geodesy experience is not required, but would be a plus. Students should have the ability and willingness to fill any knowledge gaps in physics, math, and programming.
If you are interested in a graduate position, please get in touch with Julie Elliott (ellio372@msu.edu) and Jeff Freymueller (freymuel@msu.edu) prior to applying. To receive full consideration for university and college recruitment fellowships, potential PhD students must apply by November 30.
The standard application deadline for Fall 2027 admission is December 31.
More information about the application process can be found here: https://ees.natsci.msu.edu/academics/graduate/application.aspx
For more information about our graduate programs, see the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences website: https://ees.natsci.msu.edu/academics/graduate/index.aspx
Survey Geologist (2 Positions) - West Virginia Geological and Economic Survey
The West Virginia Geological and Economic Survey has two open positions.One position is in the Geoscience & Mapping group and the other is in the Oil & Gas program. Individuals are welcome to apply for both, but have to explicitly indicate that.
The position in the Geoscience & Mapping Program is primarily a mapping position that will work on projects such as STATEMAP and Earth MRI.
The position in the Oil & Gas Program will work on subsurface mapping and modeling.
The descriptions and instructions on applying are available here: https://www.wvgs.wvnet.edu/www/news/jobs.htm
If anyone has any questions, please contact Phil Dinterman (pdinterman@wvgs.wvnet.edu)
Application Deadline: October 15th, 2026
PhD Positions in Physics, Geophysics, & Geodesy - RING Project, Germany
We would like to draw your attention to the 4-year RING project recently funded by the German Research Foundation (extendable to 8 years).
Successful candidates will have the opportunity to join a vibrant, multidisciplinary team formed by 14 PhD students, one postdoc, the lead and associate scientists tackling various science questions in the unique environment of the RING research unit in the fields of laser physics, geodesy, geophysics, hydrology, and seismology.
The project aims at pushing the sensitivity and stability limits of rotational motion sensing with ring laser technology into new realms using approaches from quantum optics and metrology. The ultimate goal is to enable ring laser observations as a complement to classic space-geodetic methods towards more precise, high-rate estimation of Earth Orientation Parameters (EOP). This will lead to a better understanding what affects polar motion and length-of-day variations on small time scales. Furthermore, we plan to develop (trans-) portable ring lasers fit for weak, broadband 6 degree-of-freedom ground motion observations towards better understanding of atmosphere-solid Earth coupling (also relevant for seismic decoupling of gravitational wave detection facilities).
More information, links to the individual research projects and open positions can be found here: https://www.ringlaser.de