** One Postdoctoral Associate and Two Ph.D. Students ** We are searching for outstanding applicants for one postdoctoral associate and two Ph.D. student positions to participate in an NSF-funded interdisciplinary and international project on telecoupled human and natural systems, in which humans and natural components interact over distances (telecoupling.org). The project will focus on the trade of agricultural products between Brazil and China, and its impacts on the environment, land use, and food security across local to international scales. This is an exciting new research frontier and we are looking for student and postdoc applicants with a strong interest in the integration of human and natural systems.
The postdoctoral associate should have competence in quantitative modeling and interest in contributing to developing an agent-based model integrating human and natural systems. One Ph.D. student (biophysical student) will focus on biophysical components while the other Ph.D. student (socioeconomic student) will focus on human components. For the latter, knowledge of Portuguese would be a plus, although it is not required. We would like applicants with experience in how to connect human and natural systemswith evidence of some dual training preferred. The postdoc and Ph.D. students will collaborate and participate in data collection, data analysis and interpretation, manuscript writing for peer-reviewed publications, and other professional activities. They will interact with leading researchers and stakeholders in several countries. The successful applicants will be based at the Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability (www.csis.msu.edu) at Michigan State University (www.msu.edu). Starting date is flexible sometime between the fall of 2015 and the summer of 2016. The socioeconomic student will be part of the doctoral program in the Department of Geography (http://geo.msu.edu/), while the biophysical student will be part of the doctoral program in the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife (www.fw.msu.edu). Applicants are encouraged to submit their application materials as soon as possible, and applications are welcomed until the positions are filled. Applicants for the postdoctoral associate position must submit: (1) letter of intent, including a description of prior experience in research on coupling human and natural systems, (2) statement of professional goals, (3) CV or resume, (4) list of 3-4 references (names and contact information), and (5) up to three representative publications, if any. Applicants for the Ph.D. student positions must submit (1)-(5), and also include (6) transcripts, (7) GRE scores, and (8) TOEFL scores (for non-native English speakers only.) (Unofficial copies of GRE, TOEFL and transcripts are OK initially). Applications for the postdoc and biophysical student position should be emailed to Dr. Jianguo (Jack) Liu (li...@msu.edu) and Dr. Andrés Viña (v...@msu.edu), and applications for the socioeconomic student position should be emailed to Dr. Emilio Moran (mora...@msu.edu). Questions about these opportunities can also be emailed to Dr. Liu. ** Dr. Liu will be at the ESA meeting and would be happy to talk to potential applicants. Those interested individuals can set up a time to meet or talk with him after his talk on telecoupling in a symposium on Wednesday (August 12) at 4:10 PM (Room 309, Baltimore Convention Center, http://eco.confex.com/eco/2015/webprogram/Paper50786.html) or during another session on Friday (August 14) at 8:20 am (319, Baltimore Convention Center, http://eco.confex.com/eco/2015/webprogram/Paper52814.html) Jianguo (Jack) Liu Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability Michigan State University East Lansing, MI 48823-5243, USA http://csis.msu.edu/people/jianguo-liu
