Opportunities
We have a one-of-a-kind research scientist position open!
We are always looking for post-docs and graduate students.
Here are a few things you should know to apply:
Our vision is to…
Create state-of-the-art, impactful forecasts that advance society and our understanding of ecosystems and define Virginia Tech as an international destination in this field.
We are committed to…
Supporting and training early career researchers within a positive, collaborative, and interdisciplinary team environment
The Virginia Tech Center for Ecosystem Forecasting is recruiting a Research Scientist with a Ph.D. in Environmental Science, Quantitative Ecology, Ecological Statistics, Natural Resources, Environmental Engineering, or a related field. We are seeking to recruit an integral, long-term member of our team who will contribute to environmental modeling and forecasting research across multiple funded projects. Following the mission of the Virginia Tech Center for Ecosystem Forecasting, we seek a team member who is excited to both create and apply innovative environmental models and forecasts that provide actionable forecast insights to guide decision-making and management. We encourage applicants to visit our website (https://ecoforecast.centers.vt.edu) to learn more about the Center, its mission and values, current projects, and our highly collaborative, interdisciplinary research team.
Specific responsibilities for the on-site position include: 1) developing ecological forecasts (especially for lake and reservoir water quality) using a suite of models and datasets; 2) leading and co-authoring peer-reviewed publications, presentations, and data products; 3) providing guidance and mentorship to team members and supporting ongoing Center programs (including the Macrosystems EDDIE educational program); and 4) serving in a leadership role in the Center, which includes setting priorities, engaging partners, preparing reports, and collaborating with CEF co-directors and staff to apply for external funding.
The review of applications will begin on Monday, 22 December, with anticipated Zoom interviews being scheduled in early January. Funding for this position is available for multiple years, pending satisfactory performance during an initial probationary period and subsequent annual performance reviews. We are unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of an employment visa for this position at this time.
Required Qualifications:
-Ph.D. in Environmental Science, Quantitative Ecology, Ecological Statistics, Natural Resources, Environmental/Civil Engineering, or a related field
-Significant experience in publishing peer-reviewed journal articles, demonstrated by publication record
-Significant quantitative research experience in ecosystem modeling, environmental forecasting, and/or computational ecology, demonstrated by publications and/or software development
-Significant experience working in the R and/or Python programming language, demonstrated by GitHub (or other code repository) portfolio
-Significant experience in environmental data analysis, demonstrated by publications and presentations
-Experience with collaborative coding, demonstrated by GitHub (or other code repository) activity
-Ability to work in interdisciplinary collaborative teams, demonstrated by previous team research experiences
Preferred Qualifications:
-Postdoctoral research experience
-Experience with water quality models, demonstrated by developing, calibrating, and applying water quality models, especially for lakes and reservoirs
-Experience publishing data and code products, demonstrated by authorship of published data and code
-Experience in data and forecast visualization, demonstrated by development and dissemination of data and forecast visualizations
-Experience in mentoring and/or supervising
-Experience working across computational platforms (e.g., command line, Docker, cloud computing and storage, RStudio, etc.)