Postdoctoral Position in Ecological Statistics

University of Notre Dame/University of California, Berkeley

Job Description

A postdoctoral fellowship in statistical methods applied to paleoecological
problems is available based either at the University of Notre Dame or at
the University of California, Berkeley. The position is part of NSF-funded
PalEON, a PaleoEcological Observatory Network to Assess Terrestrial
Ecosystem Models, and is associated with Notre Dame's Environmental Change
Initiative (ND-ECI). PalEON is an initiative to statistically estimate
changes in forest composition in the northeastern U.S. over the past 2000
years using paleoecological data and to assimilate these estimates into
ecosystem models. The postdoctoral fellow will lead the development of
statistical models, based on spatial statistics, state space, and data
assimilation methods, for the initiative, interacting with statisticians,
paleoecologists, paleoclimatologists, and ecosystem modelers. The fellow
will work with Dr. Christopher Paciorek at UC Berkeley and Dr. Jason
McLachlan at Notre Dame, with extensive interaction with other PalEON team
members. Specific modeling challenges may include spatio-temporal modeling
of paleoecological data, state-space modeling informed by ecological
models, modeling uncertainty in radiocarbon dating, and spatial modeling of
vegetation based on colonial settlement-era historical records.

PalEON is an interdisciplinary research group of paleoecologists,
statisticians, and ecosystem modelers working together to study how climate
variations shape forest dynamics across a range of timescales. Specific
goals include developing a coherent inferential framework with rigorous
estimates of uncertainty for paleoecological data, applying these
techniques to reconstruct variations in forested ecosystems for the last
2000 years from the Great Lakes to New England, and then assimilating the
results into a suite of regional-scale ecosystem models. Postdoctoral
researchers will work closely with each other and other members of the
PalEON team towards these goals. Further details about PalEON may be found
at www.paleonproject.org.

To Apply

Strong applicants will possess a background in Bayesian statistical
modeling, especially spatial modeling, state space modeling, or data
assimilation, as well as experience with MCMC computation. Applicants must
be interested in working at the interface of statistics and ecology. The
position is available for a two-year period, subject to annual performance
review. We will consider applications on a rolling deadline, with
applications received by October 21, 2012 guaranteed consideration. Funding
is available for an immediate start. Please email your CV and a cover
letter with the names and contact information of three references to Jill
Deines (jillian.deines@gmail.com). Questions can be addressed to Chris
Paciorek (paciorek@stat.berkeley.edu) or Jason McLachlan (jmclachl@nd.edu).
The University of Notre Dame, an equal opportunity employer with a strong
institutional and academic commitment to diversity, endeavors to foster a
vibrant learning community animated by the Catholic intellectual tradition.