Graduate Research Assistantships (Ph.D. and M.S.) in Forestry at Northern Arizona University
Three graduate assistantships, two for the M.S. and one for the Ph.D., are available in the School of Forestry, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ. The research is focused on fire ecology, forest management, climate change, and ecosystem services on Native American lands in Arizona and New Mexico. The tribes participating in the project are the Navajo Nation and the Mescalero Apache Tribe. Principal investigators are Dr. Peter Fulé, Dr. Yeon-Su Kim, and Dr. Andrew Sánchez-Meador. The research effort is divided into two phases. (1) Fire ecology and forest modeling: this component involves assembling data on forest characteristics and fire regime from existing and new sources, then modeling future forest change using a climate-sensitive simulation model. (2) Ecosystem services: developing model projections of future provision of ecosystem services, valuation of services, and comparison of alternative management strategies to sustain or increase future services. Each phase corresponds to one M.S. graduate assistantship. A Ph.D. assistantship is available primarily in the fire ecology and climate change aspects of the project, but with coordination responsibilities for the overall research effort. Each graduate assistantship includes tuition waiver and student health insurance. For the fire ecology component of the research, contact Dr. Fulé at pete.f...@nau.edu. For the ecosystem services component of the research, contact Dr. Kim at yeon-su....@nau.edu. Candidates should send: A one-page letter (email is satisfactory) describing qualifications and experience An up-to-date curriculum vitae or resume Copies (unofficial) of undergraduate college transcripts Names, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses of three professional references Candidates should have educational background or strong interests in forestry, economics, statistics and other related disciplines. Candidates with demonstrated experience in some of the following areas will be preferred: Native American forests, Good written and oral communication skills and public outreach, Interdisciplinary collaboration, For the forest ecology track: coursework in ecology, biology, natural resource management. For the ecosystem services track: coursework in resilience science, micro-economics, econometrics and statistics. The preferred start date for the Ph.D. and the M.S. in fire ecology is July 1, 2015 (application materials due by March 15, 2015). The preferred date for the M.S. in ecosystem services is January 1, 2016. Native American students are encouraged to contact us for further information. Forestry is a very diverse field. There are graduate study opportunities in this project related both to natural and social sciences. Approximately half of our graduate students enter without having a previous degree in Forestry. If there are potential students who don´t have a background in forestry but find the project interesting, please contact us. Information about the graduate program is available at http://nau.edu/CEFNS/Forestry/Degrees/. Northern Arizona University is a leading U.S. institution serving Native students and the School of Forestry was ranked among the top for education of Native American professionals.
