PhD Students
Most years we add 1-2 new PhD students who are keenly interested in experimental fluid mechanics, and have either a solid foundation if fluid dynamics and ideally already some experimental skills, or who have some fluid dynamics expertise but have exceptionally strong skill set relevant to ongoing or planned projects (i.e., ok to apply even if you have only taken a few fluids courses).
Candidates must apply via standard procedures. Apply to the Department of Mechanical Engineering by the Fall admission deadline. In your application, please indicate your interest in our research and your motivation to join FLOW lab. Please do not send separate email before application deadline as I can only conduct a fair review of candidates once everyone has applied. However, after application deadline has passed please email me to ask me to review your application.
For maximizing research flexibility we also encourage students to apply for external fellowships. Some of the possible graduate fellowships are listed below. Note that many fellowship deadlines are earlier than the graduate school application deadline.
- NSF Graduate Research Fellowship
- Hertz Fellowship
- SMART scholarship
- National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship
- Soros Fellowship for New Americans
- AAUW International Fellowship
- DOE NNSA Stewardship Science Graduate Fellowship
- DOE NNSA Laboratory Residence Graduate Fellowship
- NASA NSTGRO Fellowship
Postdoctoral Scholars
Postdocs with experimental fluid dynamics experience may apply. Please contact prof. Makiharju and send in one email your CV, a brief description of past research accomplishments and future goals, your three most significant papers (as pdf) and two academic references.
We are also happy to support postdocs to obtain external funding for your postdoctoral research. A variety of funding opportunities for postdoctoral scholars exist:
- President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship
- Miller Research Postdoctoral Fellowship
- Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship
- Burroughs Wellcome Fund Postdoctoral Diversity Enrichment Program
- L’Oreal Postdoctoral Woman Fellowship
- We also recommend you explore any other special fellowships you may qualify for.
Undergraduate students
Please apply via the URAP program. If we aren’t able to offer you a project one semester, please do not be discouraged and do apply again. Unfortunately due to overwhelming demand we can usually only accommodate <20% of the applicants.
Visiting Master’s and PhD students
Please reach out directly to discuss potential research opportunities. Contact prof. Makiharju and send in one email your CV, a brief description of past research accomplishments and future goals, papers (if any) and one+ academic references. Note that visiting scholar’s campus fees (usually 2-4k/visit), living and travel expenses should be supported by their home institutions or other external funding sources, but chosen visitor’s VISA fees will be covered by the lab.