Vacancies January 28 2025

University Kassel Department of Soil Sciences opens a position in Plant-soil-Modelling

The position is for 3 years and modelling will be done in the content of climate adaptation in ecological farming. More information can be found here

PhD graduate student position in a Canadian N2O flux network study

A fully funded 4-year graduate student position (PhD level) is available in a collaborative project between the Mueller Irrigation Research Group at Lethbridge Polytechnic (Lethbridge, AB) and the Department of Civil, Geological, and Environmental Engineering at the University of Saskatchewan (Saskatoon, SK).

The project is part of CANN2ONET and the PhD student will be involved in a field experiment at the Lethbridge Polytechnic Research Farm, in which N2O emissions are measured year-round over four large plots with the flux-gradient approach. The management treatments include irrigation and fertilizer types over a four-year rotation of cereals, canola, and pulses. The PhD project will focus on process-level understanding of N2O emission pathways in irrigated systems before, during, and after the growing season and contextualizing this understanding in the environmental and climatic conditions of southern Alberta.

The starting date is May 2025. Please email enquiries and applications, which should consist of a cover letter, email addresses of 2-3 references, and a CV, to Dr. Warren Helgason, warren.helgason@usask.ca  and Dr. Willemijn Appels, willemijn.appels

PhD Student Position at Texas Tech: Quantifying climate and land use effects on water and carbon cycles

A PhD graduate student assistantship is available in the Department of Plant and Soil Science at Texas Tech University starting Fall 2025. We are looking for an independent and highly-motivated graduate student to join a Research Council of Norway-funded collaborative project studying how climate change (e.g., drought frequency, rainfall patterns, freeze-thaw cycles) and land use (e.g., woodland, grassland, or row-crop cultivation) generate feedbacks through plants, microbes, and soil organic carbon (SOC) to affect soil hydraulic properties. A major goal in this project is determining the influence of each of these factors and providing mechanistic evidence to identify the contribution of SOC to soil hydraulic properties. The successful candidate will contribute to the development of multiple international soil datasets (e.g., USA, UK, and Norway), gain experience working with and analyzing several existing large soil databases (e.g. NEON, SWIG, EU-HYDI), and conduct field work, laboratory work, and modeling. The candidate will also gain experience with new digital soil morphometrics and proximal-sensing tools such as multistripe laser triangulation scanning, micro-XRF, and VisNIR hyperspectral imaging for the fine-scale, quantitative-characterization of soil morphology.

Ideal candidates will have a bachelors and masters degree in soil science, geology, hydrology, environmental science, ecology, or closely-related discipline, experience describing and classifying soils, and a strong interest in pedology, soil physics, hydrology, and field, lab, and modeling work. Because this project utilizes data analyses, statistical modeling, and numerical methods, demonstrated aptitude and interest in quantitative analysis and programming skills in languages such as R, Python, or MATLAB are considered essential. Experience with soil judging is a plus. Exceptional candidates without a masters degree will also be considered.

If you are interested in applying for this graduate student position please email a resume/CV, unofficial transcripts from your bachelors and masters institutions (if applicable), and a brief summary of your research interests and long-term goals to Dr. Daniel Hirmas (dhirmas@ttu.edu) with the phrase NRC Graduate Position in the subject line. For international students, please provide either TOEFL (iBT or iBT Special at Home version), IELTS, or IELTS Indicator exam scores. Review of applications will be being on February 15, 2025.