A group of INSTAAR Graduate Students, February 2005. From left: Saedis Olafsdottir, Ursula Quillmann, Hrafnhildur Hannesdottir, Greta Bjork Kristjansdottir, Jan Pollmann, Ken Mack, Maureen Mason, and Craig Lee. Photo: T. Pfeffer (INSTAAR).

Graduate students are an integral part of INSTAAR, and they play important roles in the research conducted by the institute and its members. INSTAAR students are registered for degree programs in an appropriate department and college. Financial support is available for INSTAAR graduate students as research assistants employed on research grants.

Prospective graduate students should contact the department that they wish to enter and apply for admission to the University of Colorado. Suitable departments and programs include: Anthropology, CEA Engineering, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Geography, Geological Sciences, and Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences (ATOC). You may also wish to consider interdepartmental programs like Hydrological Sciences. Applications forms are available from the Graduate School, Campus Box 30, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309-0030.

Prospective students should also consider contacting one or several INSTAAR Directorate Members working in fields of your interest, particularly members who are professors in one of the departments listed above. Contacting individual graduate students might be helpful too (see below names and the INSTAAR directory). General INSTAAR-related student questions should be sent to instaar-info@instaar.colorado.edu.

• Graduate Student Survival Guide.
• Graduate Student Talks
• Education Page
• Publications Page

• Employment, including Student Opportunities
• Recently completed Theses
• Fifty years of 'INSTAAR' theses (1951-2001)
• Courses taught by INSTAAR faculty

Paul Abood, MS, Geography, Mark Williams. Thesis relates to the analysis of deposition data for PRIMENet National Parks.

Rebecca Anderson, Geological Sciences, Gifford Miller.

Nataly Ascarrunz, PhD, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Tim Seastedt. Dissertation relates to carbon cycling and changes in landuse.

Ty Peter Atkins, MS, Geography, Mark Williams. Interests relate to aquatic chemistry and silica cycling in Hawaiian watersheds.

Yarrow Axford, PhD, Geology, Gifford Miller. Interests relate to quaternary paleoclimate, Arctic lakes, and climate change.

Tim Bartholomaus, Geological Sciences, Robert Anderson.

Maureen Mason Berlin, PhD, Geological Sciences, Robert S. Anderson. Thesis relates to knickpoint migration and landscape evolution on the Roan Plateau, western Colorado

Jessica Black, PhD, Geological Sciences, Gifford Miller. "Investigating the Holocene Thermal Maximum at Hvitarvatn, Iceland."

Florence Bocquet, PhD, Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Detlev Helmig. "Ozone exchange at the air-snow interface at the polar site of Summit, Greenland; snow and avalanche studies."

Sean Bryan, Geological Sciences, Tom Marchitto.

Kaelin Cawley, PhD, Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering, Diane McKnight. Interests include dissolved organic matter chemistry and harmful algal blooms.

Karen Cozzetto, PhD, Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering, Diane McKnight. Interests include controls on stream and hyporheic temperatures; climate drivers of interannual streamflow variation- Taylor Valley, Antarctica.

Ryan Daly, Mechanical Engineering, Detlev Helmig.

Anthony Darrouzet-Nardi, PhD, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Bill Bowman.

Stephen DeVogel, PhD, Geology, Gifford Miller. Interests include late Quaternary extinctions and human-induced ecosystem changes, particularly in the Southern Hemisphere.

Tiffany Duhl, Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Detlev Helmig.

Adam Eisele, PhD, Mechanical Engineering, Detlev Helmig. Interests include air quality, specifically Community Scaler Air Toxics Monitoring.

Chandler Engel, MS, Geotechnical Engineering, Tad Pfeffer. Interests include calving mechanics of glaciers.

Erika Engelhaupt, PhD, Environmental Studies, Alan Townsend. Dissertation relates to soil biogeochemistry and ecosystem processes.

Erick Robert Erwin, MA, Anthropology, James Dixon. Thesis topic to be determined.

Candice Evans, MS, Environmental Studies, Jim White. Interests include global greenhouse gasses, global change.

Colleen Flanagan, MS, Environmental Studies, Diane McKnight. Thesis relates to alpine aquatic ecosystems.

Sarah Flood Page, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Diana Nemergut.

Zan Frederick, MS, Geography, Suzanne Anderson. Interests include big northern rivers, weathering and bicycles.

Zack Guido, MS, Geological Sciences, Robert Anderson. Thesis relates to the Last Glacial Maximum in the San Juan Mountains, Colorado.

Leora Nanus Gurdak , PhD, Geology, Mark Williams. Dissertation focuses on sensitivity criteria for atmospheric pollution to lakes in the National Parks of the Rocky Mountains.

Kenneth Hill, MA, Geography, Mark Williams. "Hydrochemistry and Atmospheric Deposition in an Alpine Watershed."

Nancy Hoalst-Pullen, PhD, Geography, Robert Stallard. "Assessment of soil-water interactions at multiple scales in tropical catchments of Panama, Ecuador and Malaysia."

Eric W. H. Hutton, PhD, Geophysics, James Syvitski. "Modeling sediment delivery and dispersion within the coastal ocean: Scaling across space and time."

Mary Jamieson, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Tim Seastedt.

Kortney Kirkeby, Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering, Diane McKnight.

David Knochel, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Tim Seastedt.

Joshua Koch, Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering, Diane McKnight. Interests include surface water/groundwater interactions and effects on nutrient fate and transport.

Robert Kysela, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Diana Nemergut.

Craig Lee, PhD, Anthropology, James Dixon. Dissertation relates to the early human occupation of southeastern Alaska.

Dan Liptzin, PhD, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Tim Seastedt. "Biotic constraints on regional biogeochemistry at the forest-tundra ecotone".

Ken MacClune, PhD, Geological Sciences, Jim White. "System construction and method development for high spatial and temporal resolution measurements of the deuterium of atmospheric methane."

Hans-Peter Marshall, PhD, Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering, Tad Pfeffer. " Snow Slope Stability: Modeling and Investigations using FMCW radar and Finite Elements". Web Page

Courtney Meier, PhD, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Bill Bowman. Dissertation relates to feedbacks between plant secondary chemicals and soil microbial communities.

Elisa Miller, PhD, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Tim Seastedt. "Manipulating the physical and chemical properties of soil to inhibit exotic species invasions in thinned montane forest."

Matthew Miller, Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering, Diane McKnight. Interests: Hydrology, Watershed-Scale Biogeochemistry, and Dissolved Organic Matter (DOM) Chemistry.

Shad O'Neel, PhD, Geological Sciences (Geophysics), Tad Pfeffer. Interests include glacier dynamics, tidewater glaciers and sea level change. " Web Page

Ashley Nielson, MA, Geography, Mark Williams. Interests include water quality, hydrology and biogeochemistry- specifically in alpine wetlands.

Jan Pollmann, PhD, Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Detlev Helmig.

Trevor Popp, PhD, Geological Sciences, James White. Dissertation relates to paleoclimate via stable isotopes in ice cores.

Ursula Quillmann, PhD, Geological Sciences, Anne Jennings & Thomas Marchitto. "From fjord head to fjord mouth: Holocene climatic and environmental variability in Isafjardardjup, NW Iceland.

Adina Racoviteanu, PhD, Geography, Mark Williams. "GIS for high-altitude Inca sanctuaries in the Peruvian Andes" Web Page

Sasha Reed, PhD, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Alan Townsend/Steve Schmidt. "Biogeochemical cycling and microbiological communities of soils."

Kurt Refsnider, PhD, Geology, Gifford Miller. Interests include glacial geology and geomorphology.

Ursula Rick, PhD, Program in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Tad Pfeffer. "Meltwater flow through the percolation facies of arctic ice caps."

Susan Riggins, PhD, Geography, Suzanne Anderson. Interests include terrestrial weathering, specifically regolith development.

Annalisa Schilla, PhD, Geological Sciences, Jim White. Dissertation topic relates to the stable isotopic measurements of ice from the Siple Dome ice core and implications for global climatic reconstruction.

Brian Seok, PhD, Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Detlev Helmig. Studying biosphere-atmosphere interactions, snow-atmosphere gas exchange, and development of analytical instrumentation for air analysis.

Alexandra Sinclair, PhD, Geological Sciences (Geophysics), James Syvitski. Dissertation relates to sediment transport in a coastal ocean environment.

Lee Stanish, Environmental Studies, Diane McKnight. Interests include examining the molecular and genetic bases for evolution and adaptations of Antarctic diatoms to environmental factors such as UV radiation, temperature and ecological interactions.

David Tanner, MS, Mechanical Engineering, Detlev Helmig. "Non-methane hydrocarbon measurements for long-range transport studies at Pico mountain, Azores, Portugal."

Tim Tomaszewski, PhD, Environmental Studies, Herman Sievering. Dissertation relates to nitrogen deposition at subalpine forests.

Dylan Ward, PhD, Geological Sciences, Robert Anderson. "Tectonic and geomorphic processes of exhumation and uplift in the Alaska Range."

Lindsay Weber, MS, Environmental Studies, Diane McKnight. Interests include water quality in the Green Lakes Valley, CO.

William Wieder, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Alan Townsend.

Jeff Wong, Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering, Diane McKnight.

Marcia Wyatt, Geological Sciences, Tom Marchitto and Peter Molnar.

Yarrow Axford (INSTAAR) subsampling a core of lake sediment, Langavatn, Skagi Peninsula, north Iceland, July 2003. Axford is using subfossil chironomid assemblages and light stable isotopes in their chitin to reconstruct the summer temperature history of Iceland over the Holocene. Photo: J. Briner (INSTAAR).

Dan Carlson, Jacques Hueber and Florence Bocquet (all INSTAAR) after visiting two snowpack field sites in the Niwot Ridge LTER area, near Ward Colorado, January 2005. INSTAAR's Atmospheric Research Lab is investigating gas transfer through the snowpack by drawing and analyzing air from several depths. Photo: D. Helmig (INSTAAR).

Rose Cory (INSTAAR) tries to avoid mosquitos while collecting 600 L of water from Island Lake, near the Brooks Range and the Toolik LTER, Alaska. Dissolved organic matter was extracted to study its reactivity with Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) and sunlight. June 2002. Photo: Y. Chin.

Brian Clarke, Michael Robinson, and Jason Briner (left to right, INSTAAR, CU Boulder) posing in front of a waterfall emanating from a hanging glacier in upper Clyde Inlet, Baffin Island. The cliff beyond the waterfall projects to at least 4000 feet above the fiord waters. The group was there studying the deglaciation history of the fiord. August 2001. Photo: J. Briner.

Anne Hickey (INSTAAR) shows several eighth graders the results of their efforts to filter water from Boulder Creek, INSTAAR Open House, Boulder Colorado, April 2003. Photo: J. Briner (INSTAAR).

HP Marshall (INSTAAR) measuring density in a snowpit, West Antarctica. Such measurements improve radar-based estimates of ice accumulation rates and spatial variability. December 2001. Photo: H. Conway.

Ken Mack (INSTAAR), group nine leader, shares his team spirit with several eighth graders, INSTAAR Open House, Boulder Colorado, April 2004. Photo: D. Lubinski (INSTAAR).

John Ortega (INSTAAR) preparing equipment to sample volatile organic compound emissions from the Prophet research tower (Program for Research on Oxidants: PHotochemistry, Emissions and Transport) at the University of Michigan Biological Station near Pellston, Michigan in summer 2002. Photo: D. Helmig.

Trevor Popp (INSTAAR) takes a break in the cold science trench at the NorthGRIP drilling site (North Greenland Ice core Project), Greenland Ice Sheet, July 2004. Photo: J. White (INSTAAR).

Kim Raby (INSTAAR) collects water quality samples in Cunningham Gulch outside of Silverton, Colorado, August 2004. An EPA study used water quality as an indicator of ecosystem health, with data subsequently fed into a scientifically based decision support tool for county land-use planners and resource managers. Photo: Susan Padgett (CU Denver).

David Tanner (INSTAAR) taking a well deserved break during the installation of a new non-methane hydrocarbon instrument in the International Chemical Observatory (ICO) on top of Pico Mountain, Azores, April 2004. Photo: D. Helmig (INSTAAR).

Jocelyn Turnbull (INSTAAR, AMS Radiocarbon Preparation and Research Laboratory) helps eighth graders explore concepts of radiocarbon dating by using improvised models, INSTAAR Open House, Boulder Colorado, April 2003. Samples measured in the radiocarbon lab are used to aid in understanding of geology, archeology, and climate change. Photo: J. Briner (INSTAAR).