Apply to SURE-EH

Program Summary

The SURE-EH program provides up to two years of hourly employment to UW undergraduate students to conduct research in areas relevant to the environmental health sciences and the mission of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.

Students entering the program can work up to 30 hours per week over the summer, and up to 13 hours per week during the academic year.

Current Application Period

Applications will open on Monday, April 6, 2026 at 9:00am and close on Monday, April 20, 2026 at 5:00pm.

After a short review period, top applicants will be contacted to set up in-person interviews during the week of May 4, 2026.  Offers will be made by the end of May.

Available Positions

We are now accepting applications for the following projects. Please read and review as you will be asked to rank up to three choices in the application (you also have the option of choosing less than three). You should also note any specific desired qualifications for each position.

Project # 1:  Wildfire Smoke and Rural Air Quality
Wildfire smoke impacts on air quality are poorly understood, particularly in rural communities. This project will use data collected from vehicles (mobile monitoring) to characterize smoke-related air pollution in Yakima, WA. The project will include a literature review on wildfire smoke impacts, with attention to urban-rural differences and gaps in existing knowledge, and will use this to help guide future research projects. The student may further investigate major air pollution sources relevant to rural agricultural environments and support efforts to improve air pollution modeling in these areas, including identification of relevant data sources, gathering and preparing data, conducting exploratory analyses, and reviewing the literature to inform modeling decisions. They will have the opportunity to work with on-road and stationary mobile monitoring data to characterize air pollution.

Key skills: Literature review and synthesis, statistical analysis, GIS or spatial analysis

Qualifications

Required

• Familiarity with reading and synthesizing scientific literature
• Strong quantitative skills and completed or in-progress coursework in statistics, biostatistics, or a related field
• Comfortable working in R (or willingness to develop R skills as a central part of the role)
• Attention to detail 

Preferred

• Statistics, epidemiology, environmental health, or related major
• Experience with GIS or spatial analysis
• Interest in public health research, including environmental epidemiology or exposure science

Project # 2:  Improving Air Quality Models Near Airports

Communities near airports face unique air pollution exposures that existing models poorly capture, limiting our ability to study health impacts. This project will develop novel model covariates – such as aircraft impact zones – to improve exposure models in airport-adjacent areas. The student will compare existing models to those with new covariates to evaluate improvements in exposure characterization.

Key Skills: Statistical analysis (e.g., modeling), R, GIS/spatial analysis

Qualifications

Required

• Familiarity with reading and synthesizing scientific literature
• Strong quantitative skills and completed or in-progress coursework in statistics, biostatistics, or a related field
• Comfortable working in R (or willingness to develop R skills as a central part of the role)
• Attention to detail 

Preferred

• Statistics, epidemiology, environmental health, or related major
• Experience with GIS or spatial analysis
• Interest in public health research, including environmental epidemiology or exposure science

Project # 3:  Using social media to understand the urban landscape of psychological and behavior responses during 
extreme heat events

Extreme climate events impact psychological well-being, yet urban planning and building codes have not integrated this into their guidance.  We are seeking an undergraduate student trainee to assist with our project aimed at improving our understanding of people’s psychological and behavioral responses to extreme heat under different housing and neighborhood conditions. We have been using satellite imagery to measure heat exposure and built environmental factors (e.g., green canopy, housing type), and will start analyzing geo-tagged twitter data to understand emotions and outdoor activities across a city. The student will work with social media data under the close supervision of a postdoctoral researcher, supporting language modeling and spatial analyses while also conducting an independent study.

Desired qualifications: Undergraduate with completed course work in geographic information system or programming experience in R or Python (any of these would be sufficient). Majors in health, environmental, social, geography, or data sciences are preferred. 

Project # 4: Individual and community adaptation of wildfire smoke 

We are seeking an undergraduate student data analyst to support research on individual behavioral responses and community adaptation to wildfire smoke exposure. Unlike other sources of air pollution, wildfire smoke events are episodic and frequently lead to extreme exposures that can induce large behavioral changes, which may play an underappreciated role in moderating the health effects of wildfire smoke. The student would link existing estimates of wildfire smoke with internet search data about air quality to understand individual responses to wildfire smoke. The student would also help to develop a dataset on recent indoor school air quality upgrades to understand how community-level adaptation is occurring. The student would perform data cleaning and processing, statistical analyses, and data visualization and summary reporting. 

Desired qualifications: Undergraduate with experience coding in the R programming language and interest in public health research. Previous coursework in statistics or data science is a plus but not required. 

Project # 5: Influence of weather on infectious disease transmission '

We are seeking an undergraduate student data analyst to support research on how weather influences infectious disease transmission. Weather, including temperature, precipitation, and relative humidity, drives seasonal and spatial variation in infectious disease transmission. In this project, the student will harmonize publicly available data from disease surveillance systems and link it with satellite-based weather data to estimate the effects of weather variation on transmission. Potential diseases could include malaria, influenza, and leishmaniasis. The student would perform data cleaning and processing, statistical analyses, and data visualization and summary reporting. 

Desired qualifications: Undergraduate with experience coding in the R programming language and interest in public health research. Previous coursework in statistics or data science is a plus but not required. 

Project # 6: Assessing and Reducing Climate-Related Environmental Risks in Washington Prisons

We seeking an undergraduate student to assist with a research project assessing the health effects of climate change in correctional facilities in Washington State and developing strategies to reduce risks for incarcerated people and staff. This work sits at the intersection of environmental health, environmental justice, public health, and criminal justice.

The project uses a mixed-methods approach that combines analysis of climate and environmental data, information about facility design and infrastructure, and vulnerability information about incarcerated people and staff of prisons. Our research team is also conducting site visits to correctional facilities to collect environmental monitoring data, document building and ventilation systems, and learn from incarcerated people and staff about their experiences during extreme conditions.

The student will primarily support organization and analysis of environmental monitoring data and qualitative data from focus groups of incarcerated people and staff. The student will summarize patterns across facilities and inform ongoing site visits. 

Through this work, the student will gain experience in environmental health research, mixed-methods analysis, and community-engaged approaches to research, including how interventions can be co-developed with people who directly experience environmental risks.

There may also be opportunities to participate in fieldwork during ongoing site visits to prisons in Washington.

Desired qualifications:

• Undergraduate student with interest in environmental health, engineering, epidemiology or related fields
• Strong organizational skills and attention to detail
• Interest in learning research methods including environmental monitoring data analysis and qualitative research

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