We love to connect with students, and we encourage students at all levels to get hands-on experience through coursework, internships and research.

Many of our faculty employ undergraduate students through the UWM Office of Undergraduate Research.

If you are interested in a graduate program, we strongly encourage you to reach out to the faculty member whose research is of greatest interest to you. A short e-mail to introduce yourself and let us know that you are interested is a great starting point! We can continue the conversation from there.


Mesoscale and Tropical Meteorology

Dr. Clark Evans

Thank you for your interest in graduate research opportunities in our group! We do not currently have any openings for prospective graduate students (or undergraduate students or post-doctoral scholars) for Spring or Fall 2024.

Air Pollution and Microscale Meteorology

Dr. Jonathan Kahl

We seek graduate students that are broadly interested in meteorological aspects of air pollution and/or micrometeorology to join our research group beginning in Fall 2024. The specific research focus is open and to be decided by the student in consultation with Professor Kahl.

Examples of recent projects include the development of models to predict peak wind gusts, the development of a combined air quality and heat/humidity index, the assessment of the environmental impact of fine particulates (PM2.5) generated by firework displays, and and the evaluation of the accuracy of the popular Pasquill stability classification scheme.

For more information or to discuss specific research ideas, please contact Professor Kahl.

Climate Dynamics

Dr. Sergey Kravtsov

We seek one or more graduate students to join our research group in Fall 2024. We particularly welcome contact with prospective students at either level (M.S. or Ph.D.) who are interested in any of the following research areas:

Empirical Climate Modeling: Preliminary results demonstrated that it is possible to generate synthetic highly resolved data sets of the select observed fields (sea-level pressure, vector wind etc.) that closely mimic these fields’ detailed observed statistics. Such climate emulators may be used for statistical prediction, climate model error estimation, climate downscaling and many other applications. This basic strategy is proposed to be augmented to include the dependence of the empirical models on the external variables (sea-surface temperature, greenhouse gas forcing and so on). This will allow development of hybrid statistical-dynamical schemes for future climate prediction.

Synoptic eddies as building blocks of large-scale low-frequency variability in the atmosphere: Previous work attributed a surprisingly large fraction of large-scale low-frequency variability such as the North Atlantic Oscillation to ultra-low-frequency redistribution of synoptic storm tracks and suggested that synoptic eddies play a primary dynamical role in defining what’s traditionally referred to as the “mean flow.” A numerical strategy is proposed to model the observed life cycles of eddies and their long-range interactions to analyze the resulting kinematics and dynamics of the midlatitude climate.

Climate networks: A useful novel way to analyze climate variability is by regarding the climate system as a network of interacting climate subsystems represented by their respective index time series. We are working on developing and analyzing conceptual models of such networks, which may dynamically rationalize some of the observed low-frequency organization properties behind climate regime shifts.

Mesoscale air–sea interaction: The theme of mesoscale ocean–atmosphere coupling and its large-scale climate repercussions has been drawing much attention recently. This project will utilize an intermediate-complexity eddy-resolving coupled model (Q-GCM: http://www.q-gcm.org) to systematically explore the effect of increasing atmospheric-model resolution on the simulated climate variability.

Role of quasi-biennial (QB) variability in the dynamics of El Nino/Southern Oscillation (ENSO): ENSO is the leading mode of climate variability in the tropics, with teleconnections extending all over the globe resulting in numerous socioeconomic repercussions. ENSO events peak in winter and tend to occur quasi-regularly with an interval between consecutive events of 3-6 years. Recent diagnostic work utilizing tools from information theory identified a particularly pronounced role of QB variability in ENSO dynamics, despite generally small contributions of QB modes to the overall energy spectrum. The goal of this project is to resolve this paradox using advanced statistical analysis of the observed QB variability and its connections with ENSO.

For more information, please contact Professor Kravtsov.

Multiscale Meteorology and Numerical Methods

Dr. Paul Roebber

Prof. Roebber does not have any openings for prospective graduate students for Spring or Fall 2024.

Physical Hydrology and Ecohydrology

Dr. Xinyi Shen

The Hydro-Intelligence Lab is seeking three fully funded thesis-based students at Master or Ph.D. level (preferred), to join Spring or Fall 2024. We are also enthusiastic to support prospective undergraduates who are interested in our topics. We will also help students with fellowship applications (federal/university level).

We are seeking graduate students with strong programming capabilities and mathematical background with skill sets in one of three tracks: Remote Sensing/Hydrology, Climate Change Impacts on Terrestrial Biodiversity, or Social Vulnerability in Flood Hazards.

We particularly welcome prospective students who are interested in one of the following research areas: Near real-time (NRT) flood observation using Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) Satellites, flood risk analysis and numerical modeling, analysis of flood impact and drivers, or climate change on biodiversity.

Detailed information about research

For Spring 2024, all application materials need to be submitted by Oct. 1, 2023. For Fall 2024, they need to be submitted by Dec. 15, 2023.

To apply, please email Prof. Xinyi Shen your CV (most importantly, the publication list), unofficial transcript, and your preferred direction/research areas.