Carlsbad Caverns National Park announces commercial use authorization program for guided caving. Commercial use authorizations are a permitting tool used by the National Park Service to allow private business to be conducted within a national park for a calendar year.

Carlsbad Caverns National Park will accept applications for 2026 Guided Caving CUAs beginning July 1, 2025.

Details and applications can be found on: https://www.nps.gov/cave/getinvolved/commercial-use-authorizations.htm

You may reach out to the park CUA Coordinator at cave_cua@nps.gov with any questions. 

2 PhD positions in computational geosciences: Numerical Modelling of Karstic Systems

Stochastic Hydrogeology Group, University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland

Job Description

You are looking for an exciting PhD project in which you will tackle groundwater modelling issues having a high scientific and societal relevance. You have interest and/or experience in geosciences and quantitative methods. You are motivated and enthusiastic about contributing to the advancement of numerical tools allowing to model the behaviour of groundwater in karstic aquifers as well as the formation of these systems (speleogenesis) using reactive transport approaches. Karstic systems are widespread and provide freshwater resources to about 15% of the world population. But among the different types of aquifers, these systems are the most complex, highly vulnerable to contamination, and climate change (droughts and floods). We are a multidisciplinary research team (https://erc-karst.eu/) funded by the European Research Council involving physicists, mathematicians, computer scientists and hydrogeologists from Spain, France, Canada, Slovenia and Switzerland. Our aim is to establish novel tools to model groundwater flow and solute transport in karst systems at multiple scales based on strong physical principles using a combination of field, laboratory, and numerical experiments. Within this project, we are looking for two young colleagues who will rapidly become integral parts of the team and who will be focused on the numerical modeling aspects. 

Qualifications

• Master degree in geosciences, physics, applied mathematics, computational sciences, engineering sciences, hydrogeology, civil engineering, data sciences, or a related field. 

Competences

• Workplace: Stochastic Hydrogeology Laboratory, Centre for Hydrogeology and Geothermics, University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland
• PhD supervisors: Philippe Renard and Julien Straubhaar
• Contract length: 1 year, renewable, maximum 4 years 
• Staring date: 1st of October 2025 or upon agreement
• University of Neuchâtel is an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to fostering, cultivating and preserving a culture of diversity, equity and inclusion. 

How to apply?

Deadline: 30 June 2025 (will remain open until filled) - Applications should be sent as one single pdf document by email to Philippe Renard at philippe.renard@unine.ch.

The application must include: 1) motivation letter, 2) curriculum vitae, 3) course grades and transcript, 4) contact information of two to three reference persons, 5) if possible, link to or copies of MSc thesis and/or publications.  

Master of Science for Teachers: Introduction to Cave Science

From June 2 - 5th students traveled to Carlsbad for the field component of the Introduction to Cave Science, a class designed for the Master of Science for Teachers (MST) program at New Mexico Tech. The class was taught by NCKRI's Academic Director, Dr. Daniel Jones.

Students visited multiple cave sites and developed learning activities for the K-12 classroom based on their cave experiences. As the class explored caves they also explored how caves are exceptional platforms for education and science communication by learning fundamental principles of geology, biology, chemistry and physics through investigating cave and karst features.

Cave Night at NCKRI Head Quarters

To help kick off Cave Week, on June 3,2025, NCKRI's Education and Outreach Program Manager, Devra Willingham, along with Inspired by Science and six New Mexico Tech Master students from the Master of Science for Teachers program (MST) engaged more than 100 Carlsbad community members in cave themed activities for Cave Night at NCKRI Headquarters. Families learned about fluorescence of minerals, dissolution formed caves and much more!

Community Events

On June 5, 2025, Raquel Lugo and Dr. Daniel Jones, engaged with Inspired by Science Summer camp students and families during their STEM night.

Devra Willingham joined Carlsbad's science community at the Riverwalk Recreation Center during the STEM Passport to Adventure event on June 21, 2025.