Postdoctoral Research Associate in Lake and Catchment Modeling at Virginia Tech

A new position for a postdoctoral research associate is available in the Carey Lab at Virginia Tech. As part of a vibrant research team working in freshwater ecology, this position will collaborate with an interdisciplinary group of scientists to model catchment-scale limnological dynamics at Global Lakes Ecological Observatory Network (GLEON) sites. This position is part of a U.S. National Science Foundation project funded to examine how human decision-making alters water quality in lakes by combining modeling and data-intensive analytical approaches from ecology, social science, and computer science.

We are seeking a creative and quantitative Ph.D. with research and modeling experience in freshwater ecology. The successful applicant will collaborate with graduate students, post docs, and faculty to address fundamental questions surrounding the effects of changing land use and climate on water quality dynamics in lake catchments. Research activities will include using hydrodynamic-water quality simulation models to explore the effects of land use, policy, and climate scenarios in GLEON lakes and assisting with the development of teaching modules to build quantitative literacy skills in undergraduate freshwater ecology courses. The successful applicant will have access to new distributed computing resources that have become recently available from GLEON-PRAGMA (Pacific Rim Applications and Grid Middleware Assembly) collaborations and data from thousands of lakes in the LAke multi-scaled GeOSpatial & temporal database (LAGOS).

The position will start in the spring semester of 2017. The specific start date is flexible and could begin as soon as January 2017; review of applications will begin on October 1, 2016. The position is for one year, with the potential for an additional one-year renewal. Candidates should submit: 1) a cover letter explaining their research experience and future interests; 2) a CV; and 3) names and contact information for three references to https://listings.jobs.vt.edu/postings/69194

Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions! -Cayelan (at) vt.edu