NOSAMS Graduate Student Internship Program
Two internships are awarded each year to U.S. based graduate students for research at the NOSAMS radiocarbon facility at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. The internships should involve innovative application of radiocarbon measurements to an important oceanographic research problem and/or development of new techniques for radiocarbon measurement and will provide 2 to 6 weeks at NOSAMS. Available funds will cover all analytical costs (for a modest number of analyses), round-trip travel, accommodation, and subsistence while in Woods Hole, but not field work and sampling.
Candidates should submit a two-page proposal outlining the proposed work and motivation and we will begin reviewing submissions starting June 1, 2025. Please include a list of the number and type of samples to be analyzed (e.g., 5 DOC samples, 10 carbonate samples, etc), which will not count toward the 2-page limit. Proposals, the requested sample analyses, and CVs (all as pdf files) should be sent to nosamsinternship@whoi.edu along with contact information. Proposals will be judged based on scientific soundness, relevance to capabilities and objectives at NOSAMS, novelty, and potential scientific impact. Priority will be given to collaborative research with PI's at NOSAMS, and that show promise for follow-on projects. Internships can be used at a mutually agreed time between September 1, 2025 and August 31, 2026.
Current Interns
Diana Dumit (MIT) used 14C of organic material to determine the age structure of sediments in the Trunk River lagoon.
Abigail Rec (University of Vermont) analyzed radiocarbon content of riverine DOC to characterize carbon sources in Arctic watersheds.
Jada Siverand (Lehigh University) analyzed deep-sea hydrothermal endmember DIC for stable and radiocarbon to study subseafloor fluid circulation in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean.
Past Interns
2023
Farzaneh Mansouri (Baylor University) measured radiocarbon in baleen whale earplugs to assess climate-related changes in carbon sources in glacier downstream ecosystems.
2022
Reed Goodman (University of Pennsylvania) used Ramped PyrOX (RPO) to study the stable and radiocarbon composition of a geoarchaeological core from southern Iraq to better understand the depositional and ecological history of the Mesopotamian delta.
Ann Marie Hulver (Ohio State University) used radiocarbon to determine the contribution of different carbon sources to coral skeletons under ocean acidification.
Marion McKenzie (University of Virginia) measured 14C in paired shells to determine a late Quaternary marine reservoir correction for coastal Washington.
2021
Layla Ghazi (Oregon State University) used ramped pyrolysis/oxidation and 14C analyses to characterize the composition of particulate organic carbon mobilized by two contrasting small mountainous rivers in the Pacific Northwest.
Kourtney Higgins (Texas A&M University) used radiocarbon to reconstruct ocean ventilation rates using proteinaceous and scleractinian deep-sea corals in the northwestern Hawaiian Islands.
Aaron Mau (University of South Carolina) used radiocarbon data to study alteration of dissolved organic carbon in hydrothermal environments.
2020
Angel Mojarro (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) used 14C to determine how fish fossils are formed and organic matter persists as lipid biomarkers.
Ryan Venturelli (University of South Florida) used radiocarbon in sediment and water samples collected from a subglacial lake in Antarctica to investigate subglacial carbon cycling and the role of marine organic carbon in the subglacial microbial ecosystem.
2019
Jenny Bowen (University of Michigan) studied the radiocarbon age of carbon dioxide produced during the oxidation of permafrost organic carbon by sunlight.
Jill Arriola (University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill) used ramped pyrolysis to explore thermal stability and radiocarbon activity of Texas salt marsh sediments impacted by Hurricane Harvey.
Margot White (Scripps Institution of Oceanography) used ramped oxidation of dissolved organic matter from the Pacific Ocean to examine the radiocarbon distribution within marine DOC.
2018
Michelle Passerotti (University of South Carolina) used archival vertebrae from oceanic whitetip sharks to investigate longevity and accuracy of band counting for age estimation.
Beverly Barnett (University of Florida) used 14C in chronological layers of fish otoliths and eye lenses, to develop natural, permanent biogeochemical markers of petrocarbon in the northern Gulf of Mexico food web following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
2017
Gen Li (University of Southern California) used ramped oxidation and radiocarbon analysis to characterize the compositions and properties of organic carbon carried by river sediments, which were sampled from areas covering a wide range of climatic and tectonic conditions.
Kelsey Rogers (Florida State University) used ramped oxidation of oiled sediments to explore the evolution of oil deposited on the sea floor after the Deepwater Horizon Blowout of 2010.
2016
Craig Connolly (University of Texas-Austin) used the radiocarbon content of groundwater dissolved organic carbon (DO14C) and soil near the Alaskan Beaufort Sea coast. He examined groundwater runoff as a source of DOC to the Beaufort Sea and its potential to increase as permafrost thaws.
Devon Firesinger (University of South Florida) used the Gas Ion Source to date foraminifera from a sediment core utilizing a Bayesian accumulation model. He investigated whether many dates at lower precision lead to a more comprehensive age model than that produced through traditional radiocarbon dating.
2015
Katie Grant (Cornell University) studied the transfer of soil organic matter to the ocean.
Will Longo (Brown University) studied the radiocarbon ages of lignin phenols as indicators of arctic terrestrial carbon cycling.
Sarah Bercovici (RSMAS, Miami) conducted a radiocarbon study of deep ocean dissolved polysaccharides.
2014
Ning Zhao (MIT/WHOI joint program) worked on sea-surface reservoir and bottom water ventilation ages from coeval wood, plantonic and benthic foraminifera.
2013
Hadley McIntosh (Virginia Institute of Marine Science) examined the radiocarbon ages of source specific fatty acid biomarkers, of terrestrial and aquatic origin, associated with particulate organic matter along the Delaware River and Bay estuarine gradient.
Sophie Hines (California Institute of Technology) studied the radiocarbon ages of different organic and inorganic components of deep sea corals in order to better understand the variable radiocarbon blanks in very old (> 150,000 yr) samples.
2012
Nicole Khan (University of Pennsylvania) worked on chronologies of paleo-environmental and relative sea-level change in mangrove environments, using radiocarbon AMS analyses of sedimentary mangrove leaf, wood, bark and root fragments.
As part of Elizabeth Williams' study of the transport of terrestrial carbon to the marine environment, Elizabeth extracted and determined the radiocarbon content of lignin from differentially treated terrestrial and marine sediment.
Ben Gaglioti (University of Alaska, Fairbanks) studied permafrost behavior during past warming events using ramped pyrolysis.
Brittany Kruger (University of Minnesota, Duluth) isolated fatty acids from sediment to study terrestrial and aquatic inputs to Lake Malawi.
2011
Mara Dougherty isolated biomarkers for sulfate reducing bacteria isolated from Beaufort Sea sediments and measured their radiocarbon content. She will use the results to shed light on the anaerobic oxidation of CH4.
2010
Brett Walker (University of California) analyzed compound classes isolated from particulate matter collected in a nearshore upwelling environment.
Ian Ball (Scripps Inst. of Oceanography) analyzed lignin phenols standards to test a method he is developing to study the radiocarbon content of lignin in oceanic DOC.
2009
Prosper Zigah (University of Minnesota) analyzed the radiocarbon content of compound classes isolated from high molecular weight DOC collected in Lake Superior.
Jeff Salacup (Brown University) used compound-specific 14C-AMS analysis of sedimentary alkenones from a muddy coastal setting to constrain and reconstruct climatic events in Naragansett Bay.
2008
Andrew Kemp (University of Pennsylvania) used high precision radiocarbon measurements to date the historical onset of accelerated relative sea-level rise.
Branwen Williams (Ohio State University) measured radiocarbon in bamboo corals to study the western Pacific warm pool.
Juzhi Hou (Brown University) developed and HPLC method to isolate and measure the radiocarbon content of lignin phenols extracted from lake sediments.
2007
Haiwei Shen (GSO, University of Rhode Island) developed a method to isolate and measure the radiocarbon content of formaldehyde collected from ambient air.
Andrew Wozniak (Virginia Institute of Marine Science) used both stable and radio- carbon isotopes to characterize the total and water-soluble fractions of organic matter in aerosol samples from watersheds.