Jobs:Job-00223
Apply before: 19 December 2020
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Posting:
Position: PhD studentship
Apply before: 19 December 2020
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We are looking for a PhD student starting in the fall semester 2021 to join the project “Critical Interface Network (CINet) in Intensively Managed Landscapes” in the NSF-supported Critical Zone Collaborative Network (CZCN). The student will be part of a multidisciplinary team of faculty, postdocs, graduate students, and undergraduates examining the roles of critical interfaces (upland surfaces, root zones, and river corridors) in governing the dynamics of the critical zone in intensively managed agricultural landscapes of the midwestern United States. The project is centered at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), but involves collaborators from multiple universities and government agencies throughout the United States and elsewhere in the world. UIUC has world-renowned faculty in river and watershed science extending across a range of academic programs including Geography and Geographic Information Science (GGIS), Geology, Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Natural Resources and Environmental Science. Graduate students from these programs regularly interact with one another through coursework, seminars, colloquia, discussion groups, and research projects.
The PhD student will primarily be involved in the River Corridor Theme of CINet, which seeks to understand how river corridors filter or modulate the physical and chemical signatures of sediment and carbon derived from human-modified uplands, including the influence of differences in land use and valley characteristics on spatial and temporal patterns of material fluxes through these corridors. Field work will center on the upper Sangamon River basin in East Central Illinois, but will also include comparisons with river corridors throughout the Midwest. The research will generate fundamental insight into the influence of human agency on river dynamics in the Anthropocene as well as generating useful knowledge to inform river management. The CINet team, including the student, will also explore connections with researchers involved in other CZCN sites. The CZCN program includes researchers from more than a dozen universities across the country and has an active junior scientist council that provides a large and diverse community for graduate students to interact with.
The student will be co-supervised by Bruce Rhoads in GGIS (brhoads@illinois.edu) and Alison Anders (amanders@illinois.edu) in Geology. We seek applicants with strong field and modeling skills in fluvial geomorphology or a related area of river science. Interested individuals should apply to the PhD program in either the Department of Geography and Geographic Information Science (deadline Dec. 19, 2020) or the Department of Geology (deadline Jan. 15, 2021). GGIS is home to the PhD program in River, Watershed and Landscape Dynamics (https://ggis.illinois.edu/research/areas/river-watershed-and-landscape-dynamics), whereas Geology houses a PhD program in Earth Surface Processes and Sedimentary Geology (https://geology.illinois.edu/research/areas/earth-surface-processes-sedimentary-geology). Both programs are strongly committed to diversity and inclusion. Additional opportunities exist at the university-level to promote success for graduate students from traditionally underrepresented communities. Inquiries about the position in advance of the application deadlines are welcome. The position is fully funded for 4 years of support.
Professor Bruce Rhoads
Department of Geography and Geographic Information Science
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Urbana, IL 61822
brhoads@illinois.edu
