Postdoctoral Scholar with Wildfire Resilience Initiative in Dept of Geography
Position overview
Position title: Postdoctoral Scholar with Wildfire Resilience InitiativeApplication Window
Open date: March 4, 2024
Most recent review date: Friday, Mar 22, 2024 at 11:59pm (Pacific Time)
Applications received after this date will be reviewed by the search committee if the position has not yet been filled.
Final date: Sunday, Jun 30, 2024 at 11:59pm (Pacific Time)
Applications will continue to be accepted until this date, but those received after the review date will only be considered if the position has not yet been filled.
Position description
The Department of Geography, at the University of California, Santa Barbara seeks a qualified candidate for a post-doctoral research position with a primary focus on wildfire fuels, fire behavior and management within the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI). Qualified applicants must have an interest in wildfire related research, preferably with training in remote sensing, geographic information science, spatial statistical modeling, and fire ecology. The qualified candidate will work with a multidisciplinary team that is integrating remote sensing, GIS, laboratory studies of plant flammability properties, climate patterns, fire weather and the social, economic and demographic aspects of risk to improve community resilience in the presence of wildfire. The qualified candidate will concentrate on improved measures of wildfire fuels, and hazard in the WUI, but is also expected to contribute to integration of broader team efforts. The candidate will work closely with UCSB PIs Dr. Dar Roberts and Dr. Max Moritz, working with spaceborne, airborne and drone-based imagery, plant water balance metrics, and other relevant geospatial data layers, primarily focusing on Santa Barbara County. The candidate is expected to coordinate research activities, develop refereed publications, engage in local and state outreach activities, and present research results at professional conferences.
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.
Department: https://www.geog.ucsb.edu/
Qualifications
Applicants must have completed all requirements for a PhD Degree in Geography/Remote Sensing, GIScience, Biogeography, Plant Ecology, Wildfire Science or a related discipline except the dissertation at the time of application.
PhD awarded by the time of appointment.
- Strong expertise in handling, processing and visualizing large spatial vector and gridded datasets (e.g. remotely sensed and climate/ecohydrologic forecasts) Strong background in applied statistical modeling and machine learning
- Experience with processing and analyzing climate and/or plant water balance forecasts is strongly preferred.
- Ability to implement predictive models (including but not limited to machine learning algorithms) based on gridded datasets (e.g. remotely sensed or climate/ecohydrologic forecasts, time series, and/or panel datasets).
- Fluency in programming languages such as R, Python or IDL. Expertise in the use of standard image processing software such as ENVI, QGIS of Google Earth Engine
- Demonstrated ability to make reproducible code for cleaning, integrating, and modeling spatial/temporal data from multiple sources, spatial scales, and temporal frequencies.
- Interest and experience in applied sciences
- Proven record of independently leading research projects, conducting reproducible research, publishing journal articles and presenting at international and national conferences.
Application Requirements
Curriculum Vitae - Your most recently updated C.V.
Cover Letter
- 3 required (contact information only)
References will be contacted for final candidate(s) by email and/or phone, requesting one (or more) of the following: discussion over email or phone, letter of recommendation.
Help contact: alewis01@ucsb.edu
About UC Santa Barbara
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, age or protected veteran status. For the University of California’s Affirmative Action Policy please visit: https://policy.ucop.edu/doc/4010393/PPSM-20. For the University of California’s Anti-Discrimination Policy, please visit: https://policy.ucop.edu/doc/1001004/Anti-Discrimination.
As a condition of employment, you will be required to comply with the University of California Policy on Vaccination Programs, as may be amended or revised from time to time. Federal, state, or local public health directives may impose additional requirements.