Group Information
Group Pages
During the academic year, group meetings are generally held on Wednesdays in person at LDEO. During the summer, we have a number of meetings during the week.
Joining the group
Prospective undergraduate students
Undergraduates with strong backgrounds in physics, chemistry, mathematics, statistics, atmospheric, climate or environmental sciences or engineering are encouraged to apply to the Summer Internship Opportunities at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University to join the group.
Other (non-Columbia) summer programs that current and former group members have participated in and highly recommend include:
- NASA SARP Student Airborne Research Program
- Polaris Arctic Research Program funded by NSF
- Harvard Forest REU program
Prospective graduate students
I will not be taking on new graduate students in Sept 2024.
Graduate School applicants are welcome to apply through the Dept. of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University. Although the Columbia application allows you to be ambivalent about which professor you wish to work with, in practice we get so many applications that potential supervisors only look seriously at the ones that express a clear intent to work with them (your statement of purpose is important for this).
There are strict limits on the number of students admitted to DEES/Lamont in any year. DEES guarantees 12 months of funding for each graduate student in the program (as all programs should!). If the student doesn't have a fellowship (e.g. NSF or NASA) to cover this, then the PI will provide this funding from projects. So I will only take on students as funding allows. There is also a requirement for two semesters of physics, chemistry and math to be admitted to the graduate program. Some exceptions are possible but they need to be negotiated with the admissions committee.
Graduate students in my group follow the Atmospheric track through DEES. They will have to take classes that are often heavy in calculus so I expect students to have a strong math background including differential equations as part of their undergraduate courses. Some experience in coding in any language is also going to make classes a lot easier, but our group predominantly uses R and python, so those are preferred. I look for students with a demonstrated interest in making atmospheric observations of trace gases using laser spectroscopy with the application of those techniques to biospheric or anthropogenic sources (including the carbon flux side of ecology). Experience with field observations of trace gases or aerosols would be a distinct advantage for joining my group. Candidates with strong backgrounds in mathematics, and physics, chemistry, atmospheric, or environmental sciences are also encouraged to get in touch. But if you think you want to do pure modeling or climate dynamics then you should consider other research groups in DEES.
For years that I am taking students (noted above), I encourage you to email me in November to express interest, so that I can give you feedback on your preparation and also look out for your application. I am committed to gender and racial diversity in the group and specifically encourage applications from under-represented minorities. Please include a short paragraph on how your research interests would fit within our ongoing research program and if you will be attending meetings such as AGU or AMS where you could meet with Róisín or current group members.
Prospective postdoctoral fellows
Potential postdocs interested in joining our group should please email Roisin with a CV and a short paragraph on how your research interests would fit within our research program. Funded positions will be advertised but outside of that, you are also encouraged to apply for a relevant fellowship, including:
Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory Postdoc Fellow program
Earth Institute at Columbia University PostDoc Fellow program
NOAA Climate & Global Change fellowship
NSF Earth Science postdoctoral fellowship