Opportunities 

Graduate Student Opportunities

Research in the Kemper lab seeks to investigate a wide variety of questions and issues in contemporary geomorphology, particularly those that seek to examine how processes in different parts of the landscape and different points in time interact to transport material through river networks. Our work combines intensive field work – sampling, surveying, and many things in-between – with computational techniques, especially machine learning and statistical modeling. If these topics are of interest you, I strongly encourage you to reach out.

I am currently recruiting graduate students to start in Fall 2027 in the Department of Geosciences at Idaho State University. 

If you are interested in joining the lab, please send me an email with a CV, an informal transcript, and a brief discussion of your research interests and how you think they might align with those of our lab. I strongly encourage those interested in working with me to contact me several months before the ISU graduate application deadline; this is usually early in the Fall semester (September-November) of the year before you hope to start. Please see the ISU Graduate School page and the Geosciences Departmental page for more information about applying to grad school here at ISU.

I also encourage strong candidates to apply for external graduate fellowships, including the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship and the NASA FINESST Fellowship. If you are interested in this route or have another proposal-based avenue in mind, please contact me - I am always happy to help discuss proposal ideas. Keep in mind that the deadline for these is usually in the late summer to mid fall.

I also very much welcome informational inquiries - if you just want to learn a bit more about what we do or are on the fence about grad school and looking for a more casual chat, please don't hesitate to get in touch with me. 

Undergraduate Student Opportunities

We have several opportunities for undergraduates to participate our lab research program, and I strongly encourage anyone interested either in graduate school sometime in the future or just gaining hands-on, job relevant expertise to reach out to me. Generally these take one of two forms: 1) Field Assistants (typically in the Summer) or 2) Computer/GIS Assistants (typically in the Fall / Spring). Independent study projects or honors theses may also be possible; I encourage interested students to reach out to me to discuss possible project ideas and/or avenues for funding. 

Interested undergraduates are encouraged to email me a copy of their resume, their unofficial transcript, and a short blurb (2-3 sentences at most) about why they'd like to work in our lab. Those interested in a more informal discussion can also feel free to drop by my office (PS 215B) and see if I am there. If my door is open, I'm happy to chat!