Openings and opportunities

I am often looking for excellent postdoctoral scholars and students of all levels to join my group. If you are interested, feel free to contact me at jfkok *at* ucla *dot* edu and include your CV, (unofficial) transcripts, and a description of your background and research interests. I value a rigorous quantitative background, strong coding skills, excellent communication skills, and evidence that you have overcome obstacles in your personal and professional life.

I am passionate about broadening participation of groups that have been historically underrepresented in science, and I particularly welcome interest from female applicants and underrepresented minorities. The Aerosols & Climate Interactions group is deliberate about providing a supportive environment for students and postdocs of all backgrounds, and engages actively with UCLA’s Center for Diverse Leadership in Science. If you are interested in joining my group as a PhD student, but paying the application fee is a barrier for you, please contact me and I will try to help by using grant funds to pay the fee for you.

Information on the PhD program in the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at UCLA is available here, and details on the application process are here. To help demystify the mutual expectations in the graduate student – advisor relationship, I have put together some guidelines for graduate students in my group here.

Students and postdocs in my group generally focus on either answering a big picture question on the climatic impact of aerosols or on understanding a key atmospheric process that partially determines the impact of aerosols on the climate system. Projects in the first category often involve analyzing satellite and in-situ data, conducting radiative transfer model simulations, or working with climate model simulations. This might include operating the Community Earth System Model or examining existing simulations from initiatives like AeroCom or the CMIP6 model ensemble.

The second type of project focuses on understanding a crucial atmospheric process, such as aerosol emission/deposition or aerosol-cloud interactions. This is achieved through detailed numerical simulations, data analysis, theoretical approaches, and occasionally, laboratory and field experiments in collaboration with other research teams. Once we gain a comprehensive understanding of a process, we aim to encapsulate it in a simplified parameterization for integration into climate models.

Ongoing projects in my group, with opportunities for student involvement at different levels, include:

• NSF Project on Dust Radiative Forcing: This project focuses on constraining the direct radiative forcing caused by the the historical increase in desert dust. It has already produced some notable results, highlighted in a recent news story.
• NSF Project on Super Coarse Dust Deposition: This study aims to understand the deposition processes of super coarse dust aerosols. Climate models currently severely underestimate the atmospheric abundance of these large particles, potentially leading to a significant underestimation of their climate impact. For more information, see a recent talk on this project here.
• Impact of Historical Dust Increase in Modern Climate Changes: We’re investigating the extent to which the increase in dust since pre-industrial times has influenced contemporary climate changes.
• Dust and Ice Crystal Nucleation in Clouds: This research explores the role of dust in the nucleation of ice crystals, particularly in mixed-phase and cirrus clouds.
• Mixed-Phase Cloud Thinning (MCT) as a Climate Intervention Technique: We are examining whether MCT can be an effective strategy for mitigating the impacts of global warming, especially at the poles.
• Cirrus Cloud Thinning as a Climate Intervention Technique: Understanding the potential of cirrus cloud thinning as a climate intervention technique is another key area of our research.

Graduate and postdoctoral fellowships

If you are a prospective graduate student or postdoctoral fellow interested in joining my group, you can also apply for your own funding through a number of fellowships. Graduate students can apply for a number of prestigious fellowships, including:

• The NSF graduate fellowship (pdf)- limited to U.S. citizens and permanent residents.
• The Future Investigators in NASA Earth and Space Science and Technology (FINESST) Fellowship – open to foreign nationals.
• The National Defense Science & Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) fellowship – limited to U.S. citizens.
• The CSC-UCLA scholarship – limited to admitted and first year PhD students that are originally from China.

There also are a number of excellent fellowships for prospective postdoctoral fellows, including:

• NSF postdoctoral fellowship in atmospheric sciences or Earth sciences – limited to U.S. citizens and permanent residents.
• NOAA postdoctoral fellowship – open to foreign nationals!
• University of California President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship – Limited to U.S. citizens and permanent residents. The selection criteria for this fellowship include the applicant’s “potential for faculty careers that will contribute to diversity and equal opportunity through their teaching, research and service.”

Provided that your research interests and qualifications are a good match for my group, I would be happy to advice you in preparing your fellowship application. Keep in mind that writing a competitive proposal takes a lot of time, so it’s best to start (and contact me) well ahead of the application deadline.