Group

Join

If you’re interested in a student or postdoc position in our lab, please read this page and then send Dr. Cowherd an email with your CV and one-page maximum description of your research interests, your goals, and how your background relates to work done in the lab. In general, we look for experience in relevant topics from school or work (snow, hydrology, climate, weather), willingness to learn coding and/or field techniques, communication skills, and enthusiasm for advancing scientific knowledge of snow and climate. We welcome applications from people with non-traditional backgrounds -- graduate school is an opportunity to learn and there are many ways to be successful. I work with graduate students through the Earth Sciences Graduate Program. Please visit those sites to learn about degree requirements and the department.

Current Montana State University undergraduates

I generally have openings for current MSU undergrads for credit or pay through various MSU programs. Please check back in January for more detailed information or come to my office hours.

Prospective graduate students

We do not have any current openings for funded MS or PhD students. Future openings will be advertised here! Graduate fellowships that would be good fits for my research group are the Department of Energy Computational Science Graduate Fellowship and the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program. If you are a prospective student who received an NSF GRFP honorable mention in the past three years and you did not go to graduate school or you did an MS and are looking to do a PhD at MSU, you may be eligible to apply for an EGFP. Please reach out via email if you are in this situation and would like to discuss opportunities at MSU. I am happy to talk with current MSU students about applying to the DOE CSGF.

Prospective postdocs

We do not have any current postdoc recruitments. If you are interested in developing a proposal to secure funding to join the group, please reach out with your current CV, graduation timeline, and a brief description of the proposal idea you would like to develop. See the following links for possible postdoc funding avenues:

NSF Earth Sciences Postdoctoral Fellowships

NOAA Climate and Global Change Postdoctoral Fellowship [Note that this program was paused in 2025 - please check the most up-to-date information you can find]