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Snapshot

Terms and Dates:

  • Summer 2023
One Time Opportunity

Advisor:

Beth Fox

Cornell Affiliations:

Atkinson Center

Off-campus partner:

Environmental Defense Fund

Overview

Opportunity Description

(Important: please see the Requirements tab of this posting to ensure that you submit all necessary application materials.)

EDF offers internships and fellowships for students and recent graduates in a variety of programs and departments throughout the organization. The ultimate goal of our internship and fellowship program is to provide high-quality experiences (including relevant projects and opportunities for networking) that form the foundation for any individual who is serious about pursuing an environmental career.

Job Title: Atkinson Intern, Air Quality Analyst
Program/Department: The Office of Chief Scientist


Program Overview
The Office of Chief Scientist is the nexus of science at EDF, ensuring that the natural and social science that is the backbone for all EDF policy positions is based on the best available information. To be most effective in this role the Office of Chief Scientist provides programmatic support for all scientists at EDF and fosters relationships with scientists outside the organization. The OCS team works on projects across all of EDF's programs, translating natural and social science basic and applied research into actionable ideas for colleagues who are designing programs and projects.
Within OCS, the intern will report to the Senior Air Quality Scientist leading the work. EDF, in collaboration with Carnegie Mellon University’s CREATE lab and the University of Utah developed a website/mobile application that will help users visualize and understand the links between sources of air pollution, weather, and air pollution hotspots. The pilot stage of this Air Tracker tool debuted in early 2022 but the list of potential new features and capabilities is long and the work will be on-going. One promising route of expansion is the ability to apply the tool globally. This will provide support to EDF efforts in a number of regions where air pollution is a priority.

Overall Function
The intern will work with EDF Scientists and Project Leads with the following objective:

  1. Using previously collected measured weather data, corresponding modeled weather data, and calculated model performance statistics, the intern will analyze and define the range of current model performance statistics in existing locations. The intern will also investigate and determine availability of other weather data sources online and help the EDF team determine new global locations for expansion of the tool. Depending on the skill set and particular interests of the candidate, the particular objectives may focus on data collection and analysis, the development of variability statistics, approaches to coding, and/or communication of these concepts to the users of this tool.
  2. Through investigation of the Air Tracker air pollution data, and working with project managers who have connections to local community teams, the intern can also investigate use cases of the Air Tracker for the purpose of helping communities make the best use of the tool, and helping EDF communicate the value of the tool to media.