Post-doctoral position in Data-intensive Continental Limnology –

*********  Posted May 16, 2018  ***************

The Data-Intensive Landscape Limnology laboratory is currently recruiting a postdoctoral researcher with an interest in any number of continental-scale research questions on lake chemistry, nutrients, and productivity at continental scales.

The post-doctoral researcher will be part of the Macrosystems Biology National Science Foundation funded interdisciplinary project– A macrosystems ecology framework for continental-scale prediction and understanding of lakes.  The overarching goal of this research is to understand and predict nutrient patterns for all continental US lakes to inform estimates of lake contributions to continental and global cycles of nitrogen, phosphorus, and carbon. Ecosystems, such as lakes, are complex, heterogeneous, and strongly influenced by their ecological context—environmental or anthropogenic factors that operate at multiple scales. This complexity makes extrapolating site-level estimates of ecological services, state, and function challenging. Our project will study a wide range of research questions related to this goal, develop new continental-scale data products for freshwater macrosystems ecology, and contribute novel, data-intensive analytical methods from computer science and statistics.

The interdisciplinary research team includes ecologists, statisticians, computer scientists, and data scientists from Michigan State University, the University of Wisconsin, the University of Missouri, and The Pennsylvania State University. This position will be located at Michigan State University.

Responsibilities will include but are not limited to: conducting (lead and support) landscape limnology research to answer questions about the continental-scale drivers of lake nutrients, productivity and other factors including all aspects of the research endeavor both as lead author and as co-author (e.g., question formation; data visualization, analysis, and interpretation; literature review; manuscript writing and publishing); supervise students or on-call staff to aid in this effort; author metadata to accompany state-wide datasets; assist in LAGOS-US database development and management; and assist in QAQC procedures of LAGOS-US.

Qualifications:

Competitive candidates should be highly motivated and possess (by position start date) a PhD in Ecology, Limnology, Landscape Ecology or related discipline with strong quantitative emphasis. The ability to work both independently and collaboratively in a team environment is essential. In addition, desired qualifications include demonstrated analytical, problem-solving. and research skills including oral and written communication and interpersonal skills, the ability to write scientific papers; and knowledge of open science and data-intensive science tools (e.g., GitHub, GIS, R).

Application process:

To apply, please go here. You will be asked to provide a 1-2 page cover letter describing your research interests, current CV, and names and contact information for three references. Please email Drs Patricia Soranno (soranno@msu.edu) or Dr. Kendra Cheruvelil (ksc@msu.edu) at DLLimno@gmail.com or at their individual emails for further information.

Salary:

Competitive salary, plus excellent benefits

Review of applications will begin July 15, 2018 and continue until position is filled