2026 Internship Opportunities

Of the major nutrients required for primary production, nitrogen is the one that is usually in short supply in ocean surface waters, such that nitrogen can be said to limit primary production. There are two sources of “new” nitrogen to support the growth of photosynthetic phytoplankton in the surface ocean. 1) Nitrate (NO3-) is produced by the process of nitrification, the oxidation of ammonium (NH4+) to nitrite (NO2-) and then to nitrate. 2) Nitrogen fixation, in which dinitrogen gas (N2) is converted to ammonium by microbial nitrogen fixers, makes the vast reservoir of atmospheric dinitrogen accessible to phytoplankton, which mostly…

The Southern Ocean accounts for a significant portion of the total ocean uptake of heat and carbon. Therefore, air-sea fluxes in this region are crucial to the entire global climate system. However, collecting observations in this remote and extreme environment is extremely difficult. The longest record of sustained air-sea flux measurements in the Southern Ocean is from a flux mooring south of Tasmania. This dataset is important because it captures variations in air-sea heat and carbon fluxes across a wide range of time scales. Preliminary analysis suggests that extreme heat loss and carbon outgassing events can be tied to synoptic…

Students will have the opportunity to assist with curatorial work and research in the Princeton Bird Collection, a remarkable collection of approximately 6,000 taxidermy bird specimens that will move to a new facility in Briger Hall in 2026. Working alongside postdoctoral researchers, students will help update and organize the collection, creating a state-of-the-art, geo-referenced inventory of specimens in the process. Students will also have the opportunity to assist with hands-on research, including advanced 3D imaging of specimens, and will help design outreach and education activities for the Princeton University community and beyond.

This project will explore both organic and 2D transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) semiconductors – and in particular their interfaces – for heterogeneous photoredox catalysis. Organic chromophores have been widely developed for this application, but have several limitations that TMDs might be able to address. For example, hybrids of these two materials that operate in close analogy with photosynthetic systems might be able to lower the rather large exciton binding energies of organics that hold back applicability. Also, the higher mobility of excitons and charge carriers in TMDs could aid recycling of catalysts in heterogeneous schemes.

Toxic element contamination of soils from human induced activities is of a major global environmental problem. Many of these elements/metals, such as arsenic, selenium, cadmium, mercury, lead, are common in such contaminated soils. Under low soil pH and high organic matter content, many of these elements become highly soluble and enter the food web, first through the plants and then ultimately to humans. Interestingly the geochemical behavior of many of these toxic metals is similar to those of important plant nutrients, such as calcium, iron and phosphorous, and plant does not distinguish these elements well. Among plants, blue berries (Vaccinium…

This project will compare the composition of fire related traits in forests and savannas in the eastern United States. This region spans a diversity of ecosystems and associated fire regimes, from the high fire frequency, highly flammable long-leaf pine savannas to lower fire frequency, but still fire-tolerant hardwood oak-hickory forests, and to mesic, fire-suppressing forests. Depending on the fire regime they experience, tree species across the region likewise possess a range of traits for living with fire, ranging from actively promoting fire spread to actively suppressing it. This project will combine species composition data from long-term fire experiments across the…

Sub-Saharan Africa hosts the earliest known evidence of modern human behaviors starting ~300 thousand years ago (ka)1–3, while the transition to and proliferation of more complex cultural material may also co-occur with the successful geographic range expansion of H. sapiens4–6 of out Africa. However, the role of H. sapiens in bringing cultural innovation to Eurasia is debated in part due to the lack of precise dating on either human fossils and/or archaeological sites. While many sites hosting these technologies remain poorly dated at present, they also host ostrich eggshells (OES) which may be dated by a novel application of uranium…

Understanding low-pressure/near-vacuum gas flows is important for many environmental science and technology. For example, the upper atmosphere is a typical low-pressure environment, whose study helps clarify transport and diffusion phenomena of trace gases that play key roles in regulating ozone and the greenhouse effect. Closer to ground level, understanding low-pressure gas flow can enable more precise air quality monitoring for safety and health, as well as monitoring and control of pollutants in extreme or enclosed environments, such as in semiconductor production processes. Finally, many emerging environmental technologies involve low-pressure gas flows, such as carbon capture and storage, vacuum-based waste treatments,…

Antarctic Ice Sheet (AIS) melting has accelerated in recent decades and could contribute up to one meter of global sea level rise by the end of the century. AIS melt is primarily driven by oceanic heat. In particular, by warm, offshore waters that intrude toward the ice sheet in troughs that cut across the continental shelf. Therefore, these warm water intrusions are very variable in space and in time. Therefore, understanding what controls the timing and frequency of these heat intrusions is crucial to understanding fluctuations in ice sheet melting, and the vulnerability of the AIS under climate change. This…

Vegetation phenology, which refers to the study of cyclic and seasonal vegetation events and their relationship with climate, is essential for understanding the behaviour of terrestrial ecosystems and their connection to broader processes and variability within the climate system. Changes in vegetation phenology can have a significant impact on the exchange of carbon, water, and energy between the land surface and the atmosphere, thereby influencing surface conditions, ecosystem function, and climate feedbacks. At the same time, soil temperature and moisture conditions are among the key drivers of plant phenology, meaning that accurately representing these variables is critical for the correct…