Graduate Research

All incoming ASRC-advised doctoral students are eligible to compete for one-year merit-based ASRC Graduate Fellowships that carry a full tuition waiver and stipend.

ASRC's merit-based fellowships for first-year ASRC-advised doctoral students includes full tuition (9 credits per semester) and a research assistantship stipend for a 12-month period. Pending satisfactory academic performance, successful applicants can expect comparable support levels in subsequent years. All first-year doctoral students, domestic and international, interested in being advised or co-advised by an ASRC faculty member are eligible to apply. To receive full consideration for the fellowship, you must submit:

• An application for admission to the appropriate University at Albany Doctoral Program,
• A letter requesting fellowship consideration to the ASRC Graduate Fellowship Committee, c/o Dr. Fangqun Yu, [email protected]. The letter of request should be a one page cover letter alerting the committee of the applicant’s research interests and the potential ASRC advisor(s) identified.

You are strongly encouraged to coordinate your application with a faculty member at ASRC prior to submission. We may consider late applications under special circumstances.

There are many graduate student research opportunities within ASRC and the Department of Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences.

Teaching Assistantship

Eligible students can apply for a teaching assistantship. You should indicate you are interested in a teaching assistantship when you submit your application.

If you are an individual from an underrepresented group, we encourage you to contact ASRC faculty members about research opportunities. You may find other opportunities through university or external diversity fellowship programs that will allow you to work with a faculty member to craft a unique research project.

You can email individual faculty members with whom you are interested in working or contact Dr. Jorge González-Cruz ([email protected]), Chair of ASRC's Diversity and Inclusion Committee, for more information.

Current Opportunities

NOAA Cooperative Science Center in Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology (NCAS-M) Graduate Student Fellowship

ASRC hopes to recruit 1-2 underrepresented minority students for two-year NCAS-M Graduate Student Fellowships for the Fall 2024 semester, pending availability of funding. You are encouraged to apply if you are a:

• Graduate student with minimum 3.0 GPA in an academic major that aligns with NOAA’s mission including atmospheric sciences and other STEM and/or social sciences;
• U.S. citizen.

There are several benefits to becoming a fellow, including:

• Two-year financial support - full tuition and annual minimum stipend of $27,500 for doctoral students
• Training in NOAA-mission research and applications
• Mentorship and engagement with NOAA professionals
• Professional skills development workshops

ASRC Graduate research students have access to a variety of tools and areas to work with in addition to faculty members to advise them. The following research activities can help guide you to find an ASRC advisor.

• Development of forecast tools for power outage prediction, improving wind and solar power production forecasting, the effects of climate change on renewable energy resources, and the interaction of wind farms (and their performance) with the atmospheric boundary layer processes (Dr. Freedman)
• Ground- and satellite-based remote sensing to investigate vegetation-planetary boundary layer interactions, and/or improve subseasonal-to-seasonal hydrologic prediction
• Development of an autonomous, buoy-based system for measuring air-sea interaction from the sea surface to the top of the marine atmospheric boundary layer (Dr. Miller, Dr. Freedman)
• Coastal-urban systems; modeling, observations, and applications to: weather; climate; energy and air quality (Dr. J. González-Cruz)
• Dynamics of African easterly waves  and their interactions with Saharan Dust Aerosols (Dr. Thorncroft, Dr. Grogan, Dr. Lu)
• Utilizing data from a new, densely-distributed network of low-cost air quality sensors deployed in the New York City metropolitan area to determine spatial and temporal patterns, source attribution, and compare measurements with models (Dr. Lu, Dr. Miller)
• Using data from ground-based surface-atmosphere exchange networks (e.g., New York State Mesonet at regional scale, Ameriflux/Fluxnet at continental/global scale) to evaluate land surface models, land-atmosphere coupling, and planetary boundary layer schemes (Dr. Miller, Dr. Lu)
• Developing machine-learning models and employing statistical techniques to study variations and sensitivities among climate regions and their influence on predictability as well as to investigate the predictability of winter-weather effects on NY state roadways (Dr. Sulia, Dr. Thorncroft)
• Fundamentals of particle formation and evolution, aerosol-cloud-precipitation-climate interactions, solar radiation management, contrail formation and impact of hydrogen fuel aircraft, health effects of particles in the atmosphere (Dr. Yu, Dr. Lance)