Arid Lands Hydrology

In collaboration with the Southern Nevada Water Authority we received a new Bureau of Reclamation WaterSMART grant on “Applying Backcasting to Identify Potential Future Water Quality Changes in the Colorado River Basin”.

MS Student Eunice Ledres is joining the Arid Lands Hydrology Group. Eunice will work on modeling water quality in Lake Mead. Welcome!

MS Student Ivet Escamilla is joining the Arid Lands Hydrology Group. Ivet will work on modeling evaporation fluxes in arid lands. Welcome!

Undergraduate student Rhynhardt Mudde is joining the Critical Zone Hydrology group for a research project over the summer.

Together with Nicole Pietrasiak and Michael Nicholl we received the UNLV College of Sciences New Interdisciplinary Research Award for a project on “The Impact of Heterogeneous Biological Soil Crusts on Dryland Evaporation”.

Update: We do not accept any new applications for Fall 2024.

We invite applications for two MS Student positions in the Department of Geoscience at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). The graduate students will participate in a collaboration with the Desert Research Institute (DRI) utilizing the SEPHAS Lysimeters in a project on “Upscaling heterogeneous evaporation fluxes in arid lands”.

The project:

• Will address the challenge of upscaling evaporation fluxes from heterogeneous soil surfaces and their changes due to developing cyanobacterial surface crusts.
• Extend the measurement capabilities of the SEPHAS Lysimeters operated by the DRI through thermal infrared cameras.
• Determine spatially variable evaporation fluxes by combining thermal images with the available lysimeter data.
• Develop effective upscaled representations through employing process-based modeling and machine learning.

The graduate students will closely interact with an international team of researchers at UNLV and DRI. The positions are funded through Teaching Assistant positions with the potential for Research Assistant positions (depending on the availability of funding).

The ideal candidates will have a background in hydrologic modeling or remote sensing, as well as excellent communication skills. Experience with programming and machine learning methods is desirable.

The positions will remain open until filled and begin either Fall 2024 or Spring 2025.

If you are interested in one of the positions or if you have any questions about the positions, please contact Hannes Bauser (hannes.bauser@unlv.edu). We strongly encourage applications from veterans, individuals with disabilities, women, minorities, and members of other underrepresented groups.

Update: We do not accept any new applications for Fall 2024.

We invite applications for a MS Student position in the Department of Geoscience at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). The graduate student will participate in a collaboration with the Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA) in a project on “Applying Backcasting to Identify Potential Future Water Quality Changes in the Colorado River Basin”.

The project:

• Will inform water management of the Lower Colorado River Basin to maintain or improve water quality by determining challenge scenarios that could lead to adverse effects.
• Run and improve the calibration of the Lake Mead Model, simulating hydrodynamic and water quality of the Lower Colorado River Basin.
• Improve and train a surrogate machine learning model for the Lake Mead Model.

The graduate student will closely interact with an international team of researchers at UNLV and SNWA. The position is funded through a Teaching Assistant position with the potential of a Research Assistant position (depending on the availability of funding).

The ideal candidate will have a background in hydrologic modeling as well as excellent communication skills. Experience with programming and machine learning methods is desirable.

The position will remain open until filled and begin either Fall 2024 or Spring 2025.

If you are interested in this position or if you have any questions about this position, please contact Hannes Bauser (hannes.bauser@unlv.edu) and Deena Hannoun (Deena.Hannoun@lvvwd.com). We strongly encourage applications from veterans, individuals with disabilities, women, minorities, and members of other underrepresented groups.