Past Event: Summer 2025 Field Ecology Internship (YSE)

A YSE PhD student is seeking a field research assistant interested in environmental science, ecology, and/or earth sciences to join a field-based research project in biogeochemistry in the Western US from May - July of 2025. This project investigates how historical climate interacts with global change factors (i.e., rising temperatures and nitrogen deposition) to affect soil greenhouse gases and carbon storage in grasslands. Field work will involve traveling the length of the North American Central Grasslands. Sites are in or near Marfa, TX; Portales, NM; Lamar, CO; Nunn, CO; Bill, WY; Malta, MT. The project will involve taking soil greenhouse gas samples, measuring plant production, conducting nitrogen additions, and traveling between sites every few days. This internship has the potential to support data collection for an independent research project on a topic adjacent to the study. Independent projects have the potential to culminate in a manuscript ready for submission to a peer-reviewed journal. Accommodations during the trip will involve a mixture of field houses, motels, and camping. This project will provide experience in many of the research methods commonly used in ecosystem ecology and soil science. This job provides an opportunity to travel across the American West while gaining valuable field experience. There are opportunities for working in the lab during the school year.

Funding: Candidates will be expected to secure their own funding such as the Yale College, Summer Experience Award, Summer Environmental Fellowship, Summer Climate Technologies Fellowship, Yale College Public Service Research Grant - Research for a Better World, or Richter Fellowship. Depending on project funding, housing and travel costs may be covered or partly covered by the project coordinator.

 Qualifications & Requirements: 

● The candidate should be able to lift up to 50lbs. 

● They should be comfortable working outdoors for extended periods of time. 

● The candidate must be flexible to changing environmental and working conditions and ideally bring an open, positive attitude to this experience. 

If interested, please send a CV/resume and a short paragraph describing your interest in the project to uthara.vengrai@yale.edu.