Graduate Student Opportunity – Wisconsin USA

The Townsend Lab at the University of Wisconsin is seeking a graduate student interested in remote sensing of lake water quality using hyperspectral remote sensing. This project is in conjunction with UW-Madison’s [Center for Limnology]Center for Limnology, including Dr. Paul Hansen and Dr. Grace Wilkinson as well as Dr. Trina McMahon from Bacteriology and Dr. Bob Holz from the Space Science and Engineering Center. The Townsend Lab focuses on hyperspectral remote sensing of ecosystems. 

 We seek to prototype “LakeView” as an integrated Lake Observatory whose mission is to prepare the scientific community for the next generation of space-based Earth observatories for water quality.  The likelihood of vast quantities of spaceborne hyperspectral imagery data later this decade requires a collaborative, interdisciplinary science that connects remotely sensed hyperspectral imagery with the biophysical mechanisms underlying water quality.  LakeView will jumpstart this science by using airborne instrumentation to generate lake images equivalent to those from NASA satellites and combining those images with water quality data from UW-Madison’s lake observatories.

 For more information and to apply, please reach out to Dr. Phil Townsend at ptownsend@wisc.edu.  The student position is available to start with the Fall semester of 2023, but students interested in a January, 2024 start are also welcome to apply. This position is intended for a Ph.D. level student. But exceptional M.S. students will also be considered.