Jobs:Job-00875

Postdoctoral position in hydrologic agricultural economics coupled systems

University of Montana, Montana, United States
Start reviewing process: 1 February 2019

Posting:

Position:

Postdoctoral position

Start reviewing process:

1 February 2019

The Regional Hydrology Lab in the Geosciences Department and the Numerical Terradynamic Simulation Group (NTSG), both at the University of Montana, invite applications for a postdoctoral researcher. The candidate will work under the supervision of Dr. John Kimball and Dr. Marco Maneta to exploit remote sensing derived estimates of crop yields and water use to drive a hydro-economic modeling framework to investigate how farmers allocate land and water resources in response to drought, economic and policy constraints.

The successful candidate will be part of a NASA and USDA funded interdisciplinary team of researchers including remote sensing specialists, hydroclimatologists, and water policy specialists developing transformative decision support tools and integrated hydro-economic models of agricultural production. The models are driven by field observations, multi-sensor satellite remote sensing of crop yields and water use, outputs from regional climate models, and socioeconomic data for Montana agricultural systems. The candidate will be expected to develop their own research within the overall project framework and will interact with Principal Investigators, other research scientists, public and private industry stakeholders. The candidate will also participate as a productive member of a larger interdisciplinary research group pioneering new ecological remote sensing applications.

The duties for the position will include digital image processing and integration of multi-sensor and multi-scale satellite remote sensing and other geospatial data into a newly developed hydro-economic model of agricultural production; adding new features and components to the model; improving or developing model-data integration methods; simulating the impact of alternative climate, water and policy scenarios on agricultural resource allocation (water and land), water value; rural revenues, and water stocks; conducting independent research, writing scientific papers and publishing in peer-reviewed scientific journals; conducting public outreach and giving oral presentations on research findings.

Candidates should have a PhD in Engineering, hydrology or related discipline and strong computational and modeling expertise, especially using Python. We also expect experience with numerical methods, data assimilation techniques, and experience using and manipulating raster and vector datasets.

Priority application date is February 1st, however the position is open until filled.

Please submit the following application materials to Prof. Marco Maneta: marco.maneta@umontana.edu

Curriculum vitae– listing education and describing work experience
Statement of research interests – to the attention of Dr. Marco Maneta or Dr. John Kimball
Professional References – names and contact information for three (3) professional references.

Of interest for:

Terrestrial Working Group

Hydrology Focus Research Group