Vacancies 25th Feb. 2019

PhD in modeling and nuclear resonance imaging study at INRA, France
Perfluoroalkyl substances transport and retention in soils: a combined modeling and nuclear resonance imaging study
Context. Perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) refer to a family of chemicals that have been used in a wide number of industrial, agricultural and household applications since the end of the forties. However, most of these substances are toxic, persistent in the environment and bioaccumulative. They have been detected in most environmental compartments, including soils, surface waters, alluvial aquifers and groundwater.
Soils act as a filter by delaying the arrival of PFAS plumes to aquifers. However, on the long term, PFASs retained in the soil act as sources of PFASs to these aquifers. To date, the adsorption and release mechanisms of PFASs on soil constituents are not completely elucidated, and models able to predict the transport of PFASs in the soil – and consequently PFAS arrival in aquifers – are not available.
Job description. This PhD proposal aims at improving the understanding and description of PFAS-soil interactions, and at incorporating this knowledge into PFAS transport models.
It will build on a pioneering approach developed by the project leaders that uses fluorine nuclear magnetic resonance (19F NMR) to record simultaneously and non-destructively quantitative time-lapse information on the presence of PFAS in different compartments of the soil.(1)
This approach will be adapted to monitor PFAS transport experiments in soil columns. It will help discriminating various PFAS transport models based on different retention mechanisms and provide a unique way to improve our understanding of PFAS fate in soils.
More details, here: link

PhD on soil-plant-interaction at Uni Manchester, UK
This ambitious project will lead to a major shift in how soil phosphorus (P), is managed in UK grasslands. We lack critical knowledge of how grassland plants may use native forms of soil P, such as simple and complex organic forms, in addition to inorganic forms of P provided through mineralisation processes and by fertiliser additions. Our multidisciplinary proposal will focus on understanding interactions between soil chemistry (such as minerals, salinity and pH), soil type, and symbiotic fungi to generate models to improve P use management. Grasslands (including those used for forage crop production) are a vital component of the UK agricultural landscape because they cover large areas of the land surface and are key to sustaining the UK livestock industry. Moreover, they are vital reservoirs of biodiversity and provide numerous other ecosystem services. The project brings together complementary expertise in crop science, soil chemistry, biogeochemical cycling, mycorrhizal ecology, advanced analytical chemistry, and advanced computational soil-plant interaction. The student will use experimental mesocosm systems to provide empirical data to develop and validate models of P use under contrasting environmental conditions. The objectives of this research are to 1) enhance the state-of-the-art understanding of the mechanisms by which grassland plants obtain P from both organic and inorganic forms in soil and the reciprocal exchange of nutrients between symbiotic fungi and plants, and 2) develop a coupled model that can capture the physical, chemical, biological processes in soil-crop-mycorrhizal fungal system to establish the dynamics of P and carbon flows and estimate the size of P pools in the system.
Link:  https://www.findaphd.com/phds/project/towards-more-sustainable-use-of-phosphorus-in-uk-grasslands-considering-soil-plant-interactions/?p101879
“The funding is available for UK/EU applicants only.” and the position will be filled as soon as the proper candidate has been secured.

Research Assistant at the Research Centre Juelich, Germany
We are looking for candidates to work on innovative and simulation-based products for a weather and climate resilient agriculture in Germany, using the coupled TSMP model system at convection-permitting resolution:
Link: http://www.fz-juelich.de/SharedDocs/Stellenangebote/_common/dna/2019-058-DE-IBG-3.html

Assistant Professor in Forest and Disturbed Soils Uni of Georgia, USA
The Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources at the University of Georgia is seeking applicants for a faculty position in Forest and Distrubed Soils.  This is a 9-month (0.75 EFT), tenure track appointment with 50% EFT research and 25% EFT teaching responsibilities at the Assistant Professor level. The selected candidate will be expected to develop a broad research program related to soil management. Research emphases could include forest soils, urban soils, the restoration of disturbed soils such as mined lands, or the soil microbiological implications of land management decisions. The selected applicant will be expected to collaborate with faculty in forestry, urban forestry, and water resources and help grow a recently created area of emphasis in community forestry and arboriculture within the Warnell School as well as continue strong programs in water and forest soil management. The selected candidate will mentor graduate students, serve on School and University committees and actively participate in professional scientific societies. The selected candidate will normally teach three courses each academic year. Required teaching will include a semester-long course “Urban Soil Use and Management” that focuses on tree and water management in the built environment and co-teaching a three-week Maymester course “Community Forestry and Arboriculture Field Practicum.” Other teaching responsibilities will depend on the selected candidate’s interests and areas of expertise.
Link: https://www.ugajobsearch.com/postings/67966

Irstea - DRHRS Pôle Recrutement, mobilité et développement des compétences 1 rue Pierre-Gilles de Gennes CS 10030 F-92761 ANTONY Cedex
The position is located in the ITAP Joint Research Unit within the COMiC team (Optical Sensors for Complex Media). This team develops optical measurement systems associated with data processing methods to characterize objects or environments that are at the heart of agricultural and environmental processes. The research conducted by this multidisciplinary team is based mainly on UV, visible and near-infrared spectrometry, and digital and hyperspectral imaging technologies. The team is equipped with a state-of-the-art optical laboratory (several UV-Visible and near infrared spectrophotometers, several hyperspectral cameras, various sources including supercontinum lasers, ...), essential support for its research. The environments to which the team is addressed are optically and chemically complex (vegetation, agricultural products, soil, waste, outdoor scenes, etc.).
The COMiC team has developed know-how in the use and development of chemometric techniques for analyzing spectral data, for data exploration (PCR, MCR) for calibration (PLS, variable selection), or for discrimination (PLS-DA). It is very active in the chemometrics community at the national and international levels. To deal with more and more complex problems, it has recently been involved in multi-block analysis techniques, allowing the signals of several sensors to be processed in the same model. This know-how has recently resulted in the setting up of a project aimed at the development of chemometrics at the national level: ChemHouse. This project aims to bring together the national chemometric community around a common laboratory, hosting the forge of a MOOC (Chemoocs) and free software (ChemFlow) and to conduct original research in chemometrics dedicated to digital agriculture, in partnership with #DigitAg.
Link: https://www.irstea.fr/sites/default/files/DRHRS/CRCN 2019-7 ITAP_0.pdf

Field Ecologist I - Instrumentation (Hannah Eichenberger-Gay) at NEON, USA
Battelle manages and operates the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) project, which is solely funded by the National Science Foundation. A 30+ year project dedicated to understanding how changes in climate, land use and invasive species impact ecology, the observatory's scientists and engineers are collecting a comprehensive range of ecological data on a continental scale across 20 eco-climatic domains representing US ecosystems.  Our teams use cutting-edge technology, including an airborne observation platform that captures images of regional landscapes and vegetation; mobile, relocatable, and fixed data collection sites with automated ground sensors to monitor soil and atmosphere; and trained field crews who observe and sample populations of diverse organisms and collect soil and water data.  Once structures are completed, a leading edge cyberinfrastructure will calibrate, store and publish this information.  The Observatory includes more than 500+ personnel and is the first of its kind designed to detect and enable forecasting of ecological change at continental scales.
Link http://www.neonscience.org/

 
PhD opportunity in environmental economics at Geneva School of Economics and Management at University of Geneva, Switzerland
We are currently seeking an outstanding and highly-motivated Ph.D.student to start a thesis on environmental economics on September 1, 2019. The research to be undertaken will broadly aim at modeling crop yield after large, future volcanic impact using global climate model output. The PhD position is part of the large Swiss National Science Foundation “Sinergia” project CALDERA – Effects of large volcanic eruptions on climate and societies (2.8 M US$, over 48 months), and the successful candidate will collaborate with paleoclimatologists, statisticians, and climate scientists at ETH Zurich, Sorbonne University, and the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS).
The PhD candidate will be based at GSEM, in the team of Prof. Salvatore di Falco, and interact closely with co-supervisors Dr. Deepak Ray (University of Minnesota) and the PI of the CALDERA project, Prof.
Markus Stoffel (University of Geneva)
The ideal candidate would have a MSc degree in (environmental) economics, environmental science or a related field, and past experience with crop yield or climate change impacts assessments. S/he would be characterized by intellectual curiosity and self-motivation as well as strong quantitative experience and a demonstrated ability to conduct independent research.
If interested, please attach a resume or CV to a message that briefly outlines your background and research interests to Prof. Salvatore di Falco (salvatore.difalco@unige.ch <mailto:salvatore.difalco@unige.ch>),
with a carbon copy to (markus.stoffel@unige.ch <mailto:markus.stoffel@unige.ch>). Please make sure that you also submit your application by February 28, 2019 via the online platform:
<https://www.unige.ch/gsem/en/programs/phd/economics/>

Postdoctoral Fellowship in Terrestrial Biosphere Processes and Attribution at CSIRO, Canberra, Australia
We are seeking a postdoctoral researcher to  establish the Australian Greenhouse Budget for the most recent decade, including anthropogenic and natural fluxes of the three main GHGs (CO2, CH4, N2O). The postdoc will be involved in and lead components of the international REgional Carbon Cycle Assessment and Processes (RECCAP2) of the Global Carbon Project, leading to additional high-level global scale syntheses and analyses:
https://jobs.csiro.au/job/Canberra%2C-ACT-CSIRO-Postdoctoral-Fellowship-in-Earth-System-Science/508785500/
The deadline for applications is 10:59pm AEDT, 11 March 2019

Hydrologist, Berkeley Lab
Berkeley Laboratory has a position open for a Hydrologist, as described below and by this advertisement: http://jobs.sciencecareers.org/job/493124/hydrologist/
 Position Description:The Earth and Environmental Sciences (EESA) of Berkeley Lab is advancing and integrating diverse expertise to accelerate scientific discoveries and their translation into scalable solutions that simultaneously sustain the Earth’s environment and the growing need for energy and water resources.  
We seek an outstanding Earth Scientist with a record of innovative research in hydrology. Aligned with EESA’s ‘Future Water’ and possibly ‘Sustainable Earth’ strategic directions, we particularly encourage applicants who develop and utilize novel field methods and experiments with theory to advance understanding of multi-scale, multi-phase behavior of hydrological systems. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to: watershed response to extreme events and climate change; critical zone ecohydrology and hydrogeochemistry; aquifer storage and recovery; and bedrock flow and reactions.
Link: http://jobs.sciencecareers.org/job/493124/hydrologist/

PhD position on land surface – atmosphere interactions at the University of Texas at Arlington
The Department Civil Engineering at the University of Texas at Arlington is seeking a motivated graduate student at the PhD level on a project funded by the National Science Foundation. The overarching goal of the proposed research is to advance our understanding and modeling of mass and energy exchange at the land-atmosphere interface over a wide range of scales, and ultimately improve land surface models (LSMs) that are utilized in global climate prediction. The graduate student will be engaged in numerical modeling that dynamically couples mass and energy transfer processes in the soil near the land surface and the atmospheric boundary layer as well as experimental work at both the laboratory and field scale, depending on background/qualifications. Graduate student applicants should have a M.S. degree in Environmental, Civil, Chemical, or Petroleum Engineering or related field (e.g. atmospheric sciences) and have prior experience in numerical modeling.  The successful applicants will be joining a dynamic group headed by Dr. Kate Smits and co-advised by faculty from collaborative partners at the University of Stuttgart and University of Hannover. See our research group website at : https://www.uta.edu/faculty/smitsk  The planned start date is August 2019.  Successful students will receive full financial support including tuition coverage, benefits, and competitive stipend.  Interested applicants should send a CV and a brief statement that addresses your academic background and long term career goals to Kate Smits at  kathleen.smits@uta.edu

Senior Research Scientist, Earth Surface Processes and Natural Resources Management at Khorog, Tajikistan
UCA's Mountain Societies Research Institute (MSRI) is now recruiting an energetic, Senior Research Scientist with proven experience in team-based research and related development projects. We seek an individual with experience working in a transdisciplinary environment, focused on aspects of earth surface processes and related management of natural resources in mountain ecosystems. The successful candidate will have a PhD and strong research background in geoscience, hydrology, environmental sciences, critical zone processes, environmental/water resources engineering, or a related discipline
More info here:
 

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