Undergraduate Research Opportunities

Below are undergraduate research opportunities with SESE faculty, staff, post-doctorates, and graduate students. Use the filtering options to find the best fit for you, after selecting your filters, click "APPLY" to view the filtered table. Be sure to check out other SESE undergraduate research pathways here, as well!

For advice on contacting mentors once you've identified a possible opportunity, contact your mentor with the method listed. For email, write your potential mentors a formal email to introduce yourself, and inquire about their interest in taking an undergraduate student (you!) onto their research team. Here is an example email template. There are also more tips for contacting a possible research mentor on the main undergraduate research page.

For any issues or suggestions with this site please email Duane DeVecchio: ddevecch@ASU.EDU.

Subject Mentor Contact Project Description Position Type Location Duration Experience Required Experience Type Thesis Option
Space Physics, Astrophysics, Planetary Science Katrina Bossert Katrina.bossert@asu.edu

Research positions are available to work with images from the airglow imager placed in Alaska, and the “Gravity Wave Zoo” citizen science project (see link below). This project aims to understand variability in the near-space environment and satellite low Earth orbit region through the study of atmospheric waves near ~86km in altitude above Earth’s surface. Tasks will include processing images, uploading data on to the citizen science project, and interpreting both images and citizen science results. There will be some training to perform the processing, so we seek candidates that plan to work at least one semester, with a preference towards those who would like to stay on longer term. Research time on this project will be paid, but can also be done as an independent study or thesis. The research can be done in person or remotely and is open to both in person students and online students. Programming experience is required. 

Citizen science link: https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/jberkhei/gravity-wave-zoo

Paid In-person Academic year Programming, and coursework through the School of Earth and Space Exploration Yes
Kelin X. Whipple kxw@asu.edu

Work with researchers studying landscape evolution on Earth (the Hawaiian islands) and Mars to develop outreach materials to expand the range of topics K-12 students are exposed to on visits to SESE and ISTB4.

Paid In-person Academic year No
Planetary Science S.-H. Dan Shim SHDShim@asu.edu

High-pressure synthesis of minerals for shock wave experiments

Paid In-person Multi-year Yes Coding Experience, Laboratory experience. Background in mineralogy, petrology, or chemistry. Yes
Astrophysics Rogier Windhorst rortizii@asu.edu

Research lab and projects in Galaxy formation and evolution with HST and JWST imaging.

Unpaid Remote Academic year No Yes
Astrophysics Timothy Carleton tmcarlet@asu.edu

Studying the formation of metal-poor dwarf galaxies in different simulations.

Unpaid Remote Academic year No Yes
Astrophysics Timothy Carleton tmcarlet@asu.edu

Analysis of systematic variations in the dark current level in Hubble Space Telescope cameras.

Unpaid Remote Academic year No Yes
Astrophysics Timothy Carleton tmcarlet@asu.edu

Analysis of Large Binocular Telescope images of the MACS1149 cluster. 

Unpaid Remote Academic year No Yes
System Administration Nathan Cluff nacluff@asu.edu

System administration for various NASA missions

Paid In-person Multi-year Yes Coding Experience, Linux command line No