The Earth and Environmental Sciences (EES) department at Tulane University is recruiting graduate students for Fall 2025 for a range of projects. All accepted students will be supported with a tuition waiver and stipend associated with a combination of research or teaching assistantships and fellowships. The deadline to submit graduate applications is January 10, 2025. We do not use the GRE for admissions. For more information on how to apply, please see this website.
The department has 13 faculty members and 23 graduate students. Tulane is in New Orleans – a city with tremendous diversity of cultures and community. Rarely a weekend goes by without a festival, and events like Mardi Gras, Jazz Fest, and French Quarter Fest draw tourists from around the world.
Below is a brief description of currently available research projects. Interested applicants should contact the listed professor for more details on the research. For general questions about the graduate program, contact Dr. Yanxu Zhang (yzhang127@tulane.edu), director of graduate studies in EES.
- The Sclerochronology lab is recruiting graduate students for Fall 2025 to work on projects related to coral growth and coral reef oceanography. Potential projects include reconstructing coral growth rates over recent centuries, quantifying microclimates of coral reefs, and blending climate datasets to improve global-scale prediction of coral bleaching events. Interested students should contact Dr. Tom DeCarlo (tdecarlo@tulane.edu) and for more information visit https://www.sclerochronologylab.com/.
- The Mangrove Lab has graduate student opportunities for those interested in blue carbon and nature-based solutions. This may also include mangrove ecosystem services, deforestation, conservation, and restoration. Study areas include the Gulf of Mexico, Central America and Southeast Asia. Students with a remote sensing or greenhouse gas flux background are particularly encouraged to apply. For more information, contact Dr. Dan Friess (dfriess@tulane.edu) or visit https://www.themangrovelab.com/.
- The Paleoceanography and Geochemistry Lab is recruiting graduate students starting in 2024. Students who are interested in past climate change and climate-ocean interactions are especially encouraged to apply. Potential projects include climate and ocean oxygen reconstructions of Cenozoic hyperthermals and Last Interglacial, as well as data-model comparison on ocean oxygen. For more information, contact Dr. Yi Wang (ywang145@tulane.edu) or visit https://sites.google.com/umich.edu/yiwang.
- The Environmental Biogeochemistry Modeling Group is seeking graduate students for Fall 2025. We welcome applications from students with a strong interest in environmental pollution, Earth system modeling, pollutant transport and fate, and environmental risk assessment. Our research focuses on both emerging pollutants, such as plastics and per-/polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), and legacy contaminants like mercury. For further details, please contact Dr. Yanxu Zhang (yzhang127@tulane.edu) or visit https://www.ebmg.online.
If you are interested in working with another professor in our department who isn't listed above, feel free to contact them directly. Other mechanisms for funding may arise later. All of our faculty can be found here.
