Dear all,
Please see below, and pass along to interested folks, an ad for 2 funded PhD positions on our NIH funded EEID project: "Spatio-temporally explicit estimation of R0 for pathogens with environmentally-mediated transmission". Sincerely Sadie PhD Graduate Research Assistants (2) in Medical Geography, University of Florida, August 2016 Dr. Jason Blackburn is seeking (2) PhD students starting August 2016 (Fall semester) funded as Graduate Research Assistants (GRAs) to be housed in the Spatial Epidemiology & Ecology Research Laboratory (www.seerlab.org), a GIS/spatial modeling lab jointly housed in the Department of Geography and the Emerging Pathogens Institute at the University of Florida. These positions will be funded as part of the NIH-funded Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Disease (EEID) project "Spatio-temporally explicit estimation of R0 for pathogens with environmentally-mediated transmission". Students will be enrolled full-time in the Geography Department at UF (http://geog.ufl.edu). This project is focused on linking GPS telemetry collar-derived movement data on elk, bison, zebras and springbok to describe host interactions and resource selection with data on the distribution of anthrax carcasses to model pathogen transmission likelihood in each Southwestern Montana and Etosha National Park, Namibia. These doctoral students will be part of a team of faculty and postdocs developing a novel discrete-time, spatial and stochastic model that seeks to couple the intra- and inter-annual disease dynamics. Because these models provide a theory- grounded platform to explore the effects of various disease control methods, we are seeking students with interests in spatio-temporal modeling, time series analysis with remotely sensed data products, probability, statistics, or mathematical modeling of epidemiological processes and animal movement ecology (using GPS telemetry data). The ideal candidate should be proficient with GIS and have extensive programming abilities or interest in developing them. This is a one-year position with possibility to renew, based on funding availability and successful performance. Graduate RA duties duties will focus on data management and analysis of spatio-temporal animal movement data and time-specific environmental covariates, development of resource selection function models (using GLM and point count models), developing and implementing agent based or individual based models linking animal movements to disease risk. Students at UF will work closely with the Ryan Lab (http://sadieryan.weebly.com), Department of Geography, and the Ponciano Lab (http://people.clas.ufl.edu/josemi/), Department of Biology, and Dr. Robert Holt, Biology, UF. This is also a collaborative project with Dr. Wayne Getz and students from the Getz Lab at UC Berkeley (http://nature.berkeley.edu/getzlab/ - managing the Etosha data) with opportunity to work regularly via online meeting platforms with other students at Berkeley. There are ample opportunities for co-authorship and participation peer-review publications. The deadline to apply to the Department of Geography at UF is 31 January 2016 for this funding opportunity. Students interested in this work should contact Dr. Jason Blackburn (jkblackb...@ufl.edu) with a statement of interest, CV, and writing examples. The University of Florida is an equal opportunity institution dedicated to building a broadly diverse and inclusive faculty and staff. Searches are conducted in accordance with Florida's Sunshine Law. If an accommodation due to disability is needed to apply for this position, please call (352) 392- 2477 or the Florida Relay System at (800) 955-8771 (TDD).
