2026 Internship Opportunities

Wildfires have become more frequent and severe in recent years and been found to be linked to the increase of vapor pressure deficit (VPD), the difference (deficit) between the amount of moisture in the air and how much moisture the air can hold when it is saturated. Yet it is unclear to what extent this trend is due to long term climate change or internal climate variability and whether it would continue in the future. To address these questions, we propose to examine VPD over global land areas by looking into both observations and a suite of high-resolution climate model simulations. This work will lead to a better understanding of dynamics and variability of fire-related weather and climate.

The student would extract necessary data from existing model output dataset archived on the Princeton University’s cluster server and analyze these data using modern softwares. Student would also read some literature on the topics of VPD.

The student would gain experience working with large dataset from climate model simulations, data analysis and statistical methods commonly used in climate science. Student would also get equipped with knowledge on VPD and its links to climate.

Scientific and/or quantitative background is preferred. In particular, student should have taken the typical 2-3 semester introductory physics and mathematics sequences.

Some experience with analytical software (e.g. Python, R, Matlab, etc.)

Laptop for data analysis required.

• If you are interested in drought, wildfire or data analysis of large dataset, this project would be a good fit.
• General reading on climate science basics and relevant topics like vapor pressure deficit prior to the start of the internship is helpful.
• Students are responsible for securing accommodations for the duration of their internship. On-campus summer housing is typically available the first week of June until the first week of August (details to become available in Spring 2026). If the internship falls outside of on-campus housing availability, students will need to secure alternate housing.