PhD position in Marine Seismology at Syracuse University

[Joshua B Russell]

Dear Colleagues,

I am seeking an enthusiastic PhD student to join my research group in the Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences at Syracuse University in Fall 2026. Please forward this advertisement to any undergraduate or master’s students who are interested in using seismic data from the oceans to study tectonic processes in the crust and upper mantle. Applications are due by January 15th.

 

----

 

The Seismology group at Syracuse University has an opening for a fully funded PhD position in marine seismology. This student will be part of a collaborative NSF project to collect active and passive seismic data in the northwestern Atlantic Ocean. The student will participate in a 43-day research cruise aboard the R/V Marcus G. Langseth currently scheduled for Aug–Sept 2026. We will collect passive short-period ocean-bottom seismic (OBS) data as well as active-source multi-channel seismic reflection and wide-angle reflection/refraction data.

 

The main science questions this project targets are:

• What processes control shallow asthenospheric flow during early seafloor spreading, and over what timescale does flow (re)organize?
• How does the anisotropic fabric of slow spreading lithosphere differ from fast spreading, and what can this tell us about passive vs. active upwelling, drivers of mantle flow, and thermomechanical state of the incipient lithosphere?
• How quickly do enriched mantle sources become depleted during mantle melting beneath the nascent mid-ocean ridge axis?
• How does the thermal anomaly associated with continental insulation dissipate during early seafloor spreading?

To answer these questions, we will collect data along a ~700 km long profile containing 52 SPOBS and spanning ~50 Myrs of seafloor formed during the earliest stages of seafloor spreading in the Atlantic. The student at Syracuse University will primarily focus on making novel use of surface wave recordings on the OBS to constrain crust and sediment structure as well as ambient noise imaging of anisotropic fabric of the lithospheric mantle – a record of past asthenospheric flow. They will also develop new imaging techniques and inversion strategies that leverage the complementary sensitivities of passive and active-source marine seismic data to improve imaging of crustal and shallow mantle structure.

 

Applicants should have a strong physics, math, and/or computing background; previous coursework in tectonics is preferred but not strictly required. The student will interact regularly with other project team members including Dr. Brandon Shuck (lead-PI Louisiana State University), Dr. Anne Bécel (Co-PI Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory), and Dr. Harm Van Avendonk (Co-PI University of Texas at Austin Institute for Geophysics) and their groups.

 

Prospective students should contact me (jbru...@syr.edu) before applying. More information about the application process can be found here: https://artsandsciences.syracuse.edu/degree-programs/earth-sciences-phd/. Applications are due January 15th, and I will be at AGU in December and available to meet in person.

Best regards,

Josh

Joshua Russell (he/him)

Assistant Professor

Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences

Syracuse University

https://jbrussell.github.io/