Recruit

The MacDonald disease ecology lab at UC Santa Barbara is recruiting a postdoctoral scholar to work on a NSF EEID funded project (DEB-2011147) investigating effects of land use change on vector-borne disease. The postdoc will be based at UC Santa Barbara’s Bren School of Environmental Science and Management and primarily work with Dr. Andrew MacDonald in the Bren School, with opportunities for interaction with faculty in disease ecology, earth systems science and data science across the campus. The postdoc will collaborate and
interact with other project PI’s based at Stanford University (Dr. Erin Mordecai – Dept. of Biology, Dr. Lisa Mandle – Natural Capital Project, and Dr. Eric Lambin – Earth System Science), and at Universidad Cayetano Heredia in Lima, Peru (Dr. Willy Lescano). The team has extensive experience in vector-borne disease ecology and epidemiology, as well as land systems science and land use and land cover change.
 
The overall objective of the project is to understand the successional dynamics of vector-borne diseases with changing land use, and their socio-ecological drivers, as well as to generalize beyond system-specific, descriptive case studies to mechanistic understanding and prediction of the consequences of land use decisions for infectious disease. The project is primarily focused on land use change in the Amazon basin and its impact on vector-borne disease, including dengue and other arboviruses, malaria and leishmaniasis.
 
The larger EEID team is using a combination of mechanistic modeling, remote sensing and earth observation coupled with statistical models, and field surveys and observations in Madre de Dios, Peru to answer questions about land use/cover change impacts on vector-borne disease risk and transmission. The MacDonald lab is primarily employing earth observation and remote sensing data, coupled with vector surveillance and human case reporting data, to model vector-borne disease risk (e.g., species distribution modeling, applying mechanistic models to data) and human disease transmission (e.g., panel data statistical models).
 
This is a full-time position with Dr. Andrew Macdonald as the lead PI.

The University is especially interested in candidates who can contribute to the diversity and excellence of the academic community through research, teaching and service as appropriate to the position.

The University of California is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.

As a condition of employment, you will be required to comply with the University of California SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) Vaccination Program Policy: https://policy.ucop.edu/doc/5000695/SARS-CoV-2_Covid-19. All Covered Individuals under the policy must provide proof of Full Vaccination or, if applicable, submit a request for Exception (based on Medical Exemption, Disability, and/or Religious Objection) or Deferral (based on pregnancy) no later than the applicable deadline. Please refer to Appendix F, Section II.C. of the policy for the deadlines applicable to new University of California employees. (Capitalized terms in this paragraph are defined in the policy.) Federal, state, or local public health directives may impose additional requirements.