Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at the the University of Texas at Austin

The mission of the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences and the Jackson School of Geosciences is to advance our understanding of the Earth and to educate the next generations of geoscientists. The University of Texas at Austin has one of the oldest and most prestigious Geosciences programs in the world. U.S. News & World Report has ranked us consistently as a top Earth Sciences program. And we are also one of the country’s largest Geosciences programs, with leadership in all major research areas, from the solid Earth, to surface processes, to climate and environment, and planetary science.

Homepage: https://eps.jsg.utexas.edu/

This NASA funded PhD project will model the recolonization of the Chicxulub impact structure during the post-impact hydrothermal circulation. The aim of this project is to try and understand the role of impacts in the evolution and persistence of life on Earth and other planets. The proposed modeling is informed and motivated by observations from IODP-ICDP Expedition 364 that drilled into the impact structure. In particular, the peak-ring granite was found to be more porous and permeable than expected and contains increased biomass. Your role will be to combine models of hydrothermal circulation with models of biomass growth and transport to explore the pathways for the recolonization of the impact structure.

We are looking for a motivated graduate student with background in geophysics, subsurface engineering or applied mathematics with excellent quantitative and programming skills that is interested in planetary habitability (habitability.utexas.edu). The PhD is in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at the University of Texas at Austin under the supervision of Profs. Marc Hesse and Sean Gulick and starts in summer or fall 2026. Interested students should contact Marc Hesse (mhesse@jsg.utexas.edu) for more information and apply to the to the PhD program in Geoscience of the for the Jackson School of Geosciences (https://www.jsg.utexas.edu/academics/graduate/) by January 1, 2026.

Interested students should contact Marc Hesse (mhesse@jsg.utexas.edu) for more information and apply to the to the PhD program in Geoscience of the for the Jackson School of Geosciences (https://www.jsg.utexas.edu/academics/graduate/) by January 1, 2026.