HOME WELCOME CALENDAR & NEWS PEOPLE RESEARCH
 LABS
ALUMNI
 CONTACTS

Research Opportunity in the EES department

For more information about the opportunities below, please contact the relevant faculty. Contact information for EES faculty members can be found here.

Geomechanics/Hydrology:

Alex Rinehart: projects on Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) - time-dependent high-pressure, high temperature fracture experiments, flow-through and batch experiments characterizing which fluid additives will enhance fracture, and the experiments simulating well-bore fracture at reservoir conditions, with national lab and other university collaborations

Funded MS research assistantship student position. Currently seeking a M.S. student to begin in Fall 2023 focused on vadose zone hydrology. The student will explore how climate change-driven land-use changes the water balance at the farm scale.  This work will involve monitoring soil moisture and soil water potential in farms in the High Plains of eastern New Mexico, as well as measuring water holding capacity and soil organic carbon in active fields, recently fallowed land (likely a future pathway), and land that hasn't been farmed for 50+ years. Combined with estimating groundwater changes and evapotranspiration, the student will answer questions about likely changes in the farm-scale water balance under different climate change pathways. They will also inform water-constrained economic models built by collaborators.Contact alex.rinehart@nmt.edu for more information.

Geochemistry:

Alex Gysi: MS projects are available in hydrothermal geochemistry of rare earth elements in the Ore Deposits and Critical Minerals Research group. More infos on current research from postdocs and students can be found here.

Nicole Hurtig: Various projects in economic geology, hydrothermal experimental geochemistry, geothermal energy and mineralogy. Contact me for more information (nicole.hurtig@nmt.edu).

Geology:

Evolution of the La Jencia Basin, Rio Grande Rift

Ryan Leary: This project will study the sedimentologic and paleoclimate evolution of the La Jencia basin, a sub-basin of the Rio Grande Rift just northwest of Socorro. This basin contains ~4 km of Miocene-Pleistocene lacustrine, fluvial, and alluvial fan strata that have never seen any detailed sedimentologic or provenance research. The exposure is excellent, there are numerous interbedded tuffs which will provide excellent age control, and it's about a 40 min drive from NMT. Research will be field- and laboratory-based, and the graduate student working on this project should expect to spend ~6 weeks in the field spread over their first year at NMT. 

Kevin Hobbs:  An EDMAP-funded MS project is available that involves field mapping of structural relationships at a small dike in San Juan County, New Mexico. The age, compositional variation, and emplacement mechanisms of this dike are unknown and will be investigated with a combination of field and laboratory methods. To fulfill EDMAP requirements, student must complete a GIS-based geologic map of the field area, and therefore should have some experience with ArcGIS. Student will gain experience in argon geochronology in the New Mexico Geochronologic Research Laboratory. Student must have competency in field geology and be comfortable with ~8 weeks of solo field work throughout the first academic year and summer.

Geophysics:

John Naliboff:  PhD student to work on forward modeling of deformation within the Earth’s tectonic plates. Specific topics may include opening of the Gulf California, transport of volatiles within active subduction zones, and development of new numerical methods to support these activities. Qualified candidates should have a strong foundation in physics, math, and programming, and applicants with degrees in physics, applied math, engineering, and Earth science will all be considered!

Susan Bilek: various projects in environmental seismology, subduction zone earthquake studies

Hydrology:

Dan Cadol: Over the past 4 years, my lab group has collaborated with the Bureau of Reclamation and the US Army Corps of Engineers on bedload sediment research in an ephemeral arroyo near Socorro. We have built a sediment monitoring station that includes direct bedload measurement (pit traps, aka slot samplers) acoustic surrogates (pipe-microphones) and seismic surrogates. I hope to hire one new student to use these results to evaluate and improve the sediment transport modules in the various models that the USACE has developed: HEC-RAS (1- and 2-D), and AdH. The research is motivated by river system management, and the need to maintain sediment continuity, but there are many basic science questions we've been able to pursue, including the seismic work funded by NSF.