Master’s Thesis Opportunity: Tree Mortality in Long-Term Tree Experiment

Are you passionate about forests, climate change, and ecological research? Join us at EPFL to explore how trees die—and why. We are offering a Master’s thesis position to investigate tree mortality in our long-term Modoek experiment, a unique and ongoing study examining how forest trees respond to drought and atmospheric stress.

Your role:

  • Analyze patterns and drivers of tree mortality
  • Work with an existing, rich dataset from the Modoek experiment
  • Conduct fieldwork at WSL in Birmensdorf (Zurich area) over a few days spread across several weeks to track mortality events
  • Be based at EPFL in Lausanne, in a vibrant and supportive research environment

We’re looking for someone who:

  • Has a strong interest in forest ecology and climate impacts
  • Is organized, independent, and comfortable working in the field
  • Ideally has some knowledge of ecological data analysis (e.g., in R)

What we offer:

  • The opportunity to contribute to high-impact research on forest resilience
  • Hands-on experience in both fieldwork and ecological data analysis

Start date: Flexible, ideally end of summer or early autumn 2025

Duration: ~4-6 months

Contact: [email protected]