The Ecosystem Modelling group at the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen is offering a Postdoctoral position in the Collaborative Research Centre (CRC 990) Ecological and socioeconomic functions of tropical lowland rainforest transformation systems (Sumatra, Indonesia).
LANDSCAPE-LEVEL ASSESSMENT OF ECOLOGICAL AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC FUNCTIONS OF RAINFOREST TRANSFORMATION SYSTEMS IN SUMATRA (INDONESIA) The position will be limited to 2 years with possibility of extension and should be filled as soon as possible. Salary: Pay grade 100 % TVL 13 of German state-regulated public service salary scale. YOUR TASKS The project will focus on the ecological and socio-economic effects of land-use transformation in lowland Sumatra, Indonesia. The guiding question of the project is: what kind of landscape mosaic do we need so as to balance biodiversity, ecosystem functioning, and economic benefits? The main goal of the project is to develop and use models integrating ecological and socio-economic components to simulate the spatiotemporal dynamics of land uses and individual households. More precisely, the models should consider lowland forest, jungle rubber (resembling secondary forest), rubber plantations, and oil palm plantations. Within this project the postdoctoral researcher will be in charge of developing the ecological part of the project and of the integration of ecological and economic model components. These latter economic components are currently being developed by a PhD student. The project plays a central role in integrating the interdisciplinary research of the CRC 990. YOUR PROFILE - PhD degree and experience in ecological modelling, that is to say in the development, programming, and analysis of simulation models - good command of statistics and mathematics - experience in research into socio-economics, tropical ecology, or biodiversity and ecosystem functioning are a plus - willingness to take on a leading role in the collaboration among the interdisciplinary researchers of the CRC - proficient in English The project will be based in Göttingen, Germany, but short stays in Indonesia are expected. The University of Göttingen is an equal opportunities employer and places particular emphasis on fostering career opportunities for women. Qualified women are therefore strongly encouraged to apply as they are underrepresented in this field. Disabled persons with equivalent aptitude will be favoured. Please send your application electronically as a single pdf containing the usual documents by April 9, 2012 to kwiegan1*uni-goettingen.de (Prof. Dr. Kerstin Wiegand, Ecosystem Modelling Group, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Büsgenweg 4, 37077 Göttingen). If you have any questions, please contact Dr. Kerstin Wiegand (email: kwiegan1*uni-goettingen.de) or Katrin Meyer (email: kmeyer5*uni-goettingen.de). We request that you send your application documents as single pdf file. We will dispose the documents after a holding period of five months. Information about the Ecosystem Modelling group can be found at http://www.uni-goettingen.de/EcoMod.html For Information about the Collaborative Research Centre (CRC 990) see: http://www.uni-goettingen.de/en/310995.html
