Deadline: August 31, 2023
Applications are open for the Smithsonian Climate Change Fellowships 2023-2024: Advancing Life on a Sustainable Planet. Climate change is dramatically and profoundly altering our planet, and for decades, Smithsonian researchers have been conducting studies and collecting data to understand these changes. The Smithsonian hosts one of the largest natural history collections in the world, and through its 21 museums and science and cultural research centers, the Institution conducts multidisciplinary research on climate change with partners and collaborators in over 140 countries.
Through the Smithsonian Climate Change Fellowship, the Smithsonian seeks to support five fellows as they conduct independent research in the spirit of the Smithsonian’s wide-ranging research effort and in support of the Smithsonian’s goals to understand and inform solutions to climate change. These fellows will be able to leverage the Smithsonian’s resources, including its researchers, collections, exhibits, and data sets, to advance scientific understanding of climate change and the impacts it is having on nature and human well-being.
Fellows will be hosted by a Smithsonian Museum or research center. Fellows must identify an advisor from one of the identified units and they encourage applicants to identify a second advisor from another Smithsonian Museum or research center to foster cross-institutional collaboration. All proposals are welcome, but the following focus areas have been suggested by Smithsonian scholars who are poised to serve as advisors.
Research Themes
Potential research themes include, but are not limited to:
- A world without mangroves? Effects of climate change on mangrove range contractions in the Anthropocene (SERC)
- A seascape approach to blue carbon data synthesis for climate change mitigation (SERC, STRI)
- Biodiversity breaching boundaries in a warming ocean (MarineGEO)
- Biominerals in a changing ocean (NMNH)
- Building Resilient Tropical Working Landscapes (STRI, SERC, NZCBI)
- Climate change consequences, adaptations, and responses for maintaining grassland ecosystem function and biodiversity (NZCBI)
- Early detection and response to climate change related emergence of infectious disease (NZCBI)
- Enhancing resilience of tropical marine symbiosis (STRI, SERC, NZCBI)
- Leveraging museum collections and digitized data to explore climate-influenced plant movements in the Americas (NMNH)
- Liberating Data from the Smithsonian’s Pacific Ocean Biological Survey Program to Support the Sustainable Management of Marine Ecosystems (SLA/BHL, NMNH, NZCBI)
- Mining long-term datasets to elucidate climate effects on tropical forest species interactions and ecosystem function (ForestGEO, STRI)
- Scaling climate impacts on forest growth: linking long-term monitoring and remote-sensing data (SERC, ForestGEO)
- The View from Space (SAO)
- Unifying Approaches to Oyster and Coral Reef Research to Accelerate Climate Resilience and Conservation (SERC, MarineGEO)
Stipend
- Recipients will receive a stipend of $62,000 per year for Postdoctoral Fellows. Stipends are prorated for periods of less than 24 months. A maximum research allowance up to $10,000 is available for the fellowship period.
Eligibility
- Applicants for Postdoctoral Fellowships must have or will have received the Ph.D. by the time the fellowship begins.
- Applicants must propose to conduct research in residence.
Application
Apply through the Smithsonian Online Academic Appointment System. Select “Start Your Application” and only enter the program name.
For more information, visit Smithsonian Climate Change Fellowships.
