Postdoctoral Research Associate Position: Future Scenarios of Landscape Change in New England Review of applications begins on March 30th, 2015
The Harvard Forest invites applications for a post-doctoral research position to contribute to a multi-institutional study of future land-use scenarios and their consequences on ecosystem functions and services in New England. The successful candidate will be a member of Jonathan Thompson’s Landscape Ecology Lab at the Harvest Forest and will work in close collaboration with Kathy Fallon Lambert, David Foster and members of the Scenarios Services and Society Research Coordination Network. We are seeking a natural or social scientist with experience conducting regional- scale socio-ecological research. The candidate should be interested in using a scenarios approach to better understand how land uses—such as conservation, forestry, land conversion and agriculture—may change as a result of climate change and, in turn, what impacts the altered land-use regime would have on regional ecosystems. Work Location: The post-doc will be based at Harvard Forest in Petersham, Massachusetts Required Qualifications: Ph.D. (awarded by start date) in ecology, geography, hydrology, land change science, social science or related field. Evidence of strong scholarship, including peer-reviewed publications. Proven ability to plan and conduct independent research projects from beginning to end. Interest in translating and communication research for land use decisions. Preferred Experience: Conducting complex spatial analyses (e.g. landscape and land change simulations, GIS, remote sensing, and spatial statistics); experience with statistical modeling of large datasets (FIA, Census, NWOS etc); skilled at scripting within the R and/or Python programming languages; or experience with qualitative and content analysis methods. Candidates without experience in large landscape analysis should clearly demonstrate how their skillset would complement the future scenarios research. For example, an applicant with relevant experience in decision science, ecological economics, or natural resource sociology should be explicit about how they envision their skills contributing to the project. Appointment: We will begin reviewing applications on March 30, 2015. There is some flexibility around the start date, but Spring 2015 would be ideal. All formal written offers will be made by Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences Human Resources. Initial appointment of one year is renewable up to three years based on performance. Harvard Forest, an internationally recognized center for basic and applied research in ecology, conservation and ecosystem studies, with 40 full-time staff is one of 26 Long Term Ecological Research sites across the country sponsored by the National Science Foundation. The Forest facilities include a research and administrative complex, 3500 acres of land, and residential buildings. The Forest is located in Petersham, a small rural town in north central Massachusetts about 70 miles west of Cambridge. Salary: Commensurate with experience and includes health insurance benefits through Harvard University To apply: Send CV, PDFs of relevant publications, and the names and contact info for three references to Jonathan Thompson: jtho...@fas.harvard.edu
