Background
The first Lori Summa and David Awwiler Postdoctoral Fellowship was awarded in 2024 to recognize and support a promising early career scientist in the Geosciences. Postdoctoral scholars are in a unique position to contribute vital intellectual energy and vision to a department, while still benefiting from the mentorship of more experienced researchers. The goal of this fellowship is to support a postdoctoral researcher with innovative and/or cross-disciplinary research, ideally in a manner that allows the supervising faculty time for broader impact activities (which may or may not be related to a Fellowship recipient’s respective research project). Lori Summa earned a PhD in Geology from UC Davis in 1986 and serves as the Chair of the EPS Alumni Board. David Awwiller earned his PhD in Geology from University of Texas – Austin in 1992.
The fellowship provides 2 years of full time (100%) salary to support a postdoctoral scholar on a project of their choosing. The successful applicant will also have $2,000 available to support research activities and/or conference travel.
Application Process
Applications are currently closed. The next anticipated recruitment will be in 2028.
The recruitment is typically posted on the UC Davis recruitment page in January or February of recruitment years, with applications due in mid March.
Applicants are required to contact potential mentors in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences to discuss potential research project ideas and suitability of mentorship for the project. One letter of support from a potential faculty member host must be included in the application.
Please note, to ensure that all members of the EPS community benefit from the opportunity to host a postdoc fellow recipient in their area of research, the mentor(s) of the current postdoc recipient (2024) is (are) not eligible to mentor a postdoc in the next recruitment (2026).
How to Apply: Applicants should submit the following 3 documents:
- a cover letter with a brief description of their PhD research and qualifications for the proposed project,
- a statement of the proposed postdoctoral project (statement limited to 3 pages including figures; references can be in additional pages),
- a Curriculum Vitae
via the online application system at https://recruit.ucdavis.edu/JPF07491.
In addition, three reference letters, including one reference from the proposed postdoctoral mentor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, are due on the same date as the application and should be emailed by the reference writer directly to [email protected].
Qualifications
A PhD in geoscience or a related field is required at the time of appointment. To be appointed as a postdoctoral scholar candidates must be within the first 5 years of their PhD completion date. To stay in the position for the full two years of the appointment candidates must not be beyond 3 years of employment as a postdoc at the date of hiring.
Previous Recipients
- 2024: Xiaochuan Tian, Ph.D.
- Mentored by Profs. Magali Billen and Mike Oskin
- Research project description: “Ups and Downs of the Northern California Forearc.
- The First Summa and Awwiller Postdoctoral Fellow, Dr. Xiaochuan Tian, Spearheads Geohazards Mitigation