Polar Jobs can now be found on the APECS Website

Thanks to all of you that follow this blog on polar related jobs - we have now created a feature on the APECS website to display jobs and it allows people to post open positions.

Please check it out at www.apecs.is/jobs
We will not be posting to this blog any further.

Graduate Assistantship, Microbial Ecology, Antarctica

A graduate research assistantship is available for a highly qualified student at Montana State University. The successful applicant will be involved in an NSF-funded project that examines microbial communities and dissolved organic matter in the Transantarctic Mountains and McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica.   The student will be based at MSU, but will collaborate with students and PI’s at the University of Colorado-Boulder (McKnight) and The Ohio State University (Chin). Field work will be conducted in Antarctica.

Ph.D. students are preferred, but M.S. students may apply. The assistantship includes a stipend, tuition, health insurance and expenses for research. Interested applicants should contact Dr. Christine Foreman (cforeman@montana.edu) and send a letter of interest (prior accomplishments, research experience and interests, future career goals), a CV, transcripts, and GRE scores. Details about the graduate program at Montana State University can be found through the Department of Land Resources and Environmental Sciences (http://landresources.montana.edu), and the graduate school (http://www.montana.edu/wwwdg/).  Start date is summer/fall 2009.

 

Founded in 1893 in the scenic Gallatin Valley just north of Yellowstone National Park, Montana State University has a total enrollment of 12,000 students, including ~ 1,200 graduate students. MSU is recognized as one of 94 U.S. research universities representing the top tier of the Carnegie Foundation rankings. Research funding currently exceeds $100 million annually and has been growing steadily. For more information see the MSU website at http://www.montana.edu. Named an All-American City, Bozeman is an attractive, culturally alive city located in the northern Rocky Mountain region. The 70,000 residents of Bozeman and nearby communities enjoy excellent schools, diversified medical facilities, a vibrant cultural and arts scene, and one of the most superb year-round recreational areas in the nation, including two world-class ski areas, blue ribbon trout fishing streams and the Gallatin National Forest.

 

Bozeman, Montana and McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica

 

 

PhD student position at AWI Potsdam, Germany

Determining energy and water fluxes in the Lena River Delta, Siberia, with micrometeorological methods and downscaling from satellite remote sensing data

The Alfred Wegener Institute of Polar and Marine Research (AWI) is a member of the EOS Helmholtz Research Network „Integrated Earth Observing System“ (http://helmholtz-eos.dlr.de/start_en.htm) offering an educational Ph.D. program. The purpose of the EOS research topic "Processes of the Land Surface" is to help optimize and improve earth observation technologies.

Within the EOS-II framework we are looking for a Ph.D. student to establish spatial and temporal linkages between water and energy fluxes at the landscape scale using micrometeorological and earth observation (satellite) data in the Lena River Delta (Arctic Siberia, RU).

The tasks of the Ph.D. include:
-exploring the spatial dynamic of water and heat fluxes using micrometeorologic methods (eddy covariance);
-evaluation of EO-parameters (surface temperature, PAR, Albedo) (mainly ENIVSAT-A(ATSR), ENIVSAT-MERIS, MODIS, LANDSAT) for the studied field sites.

The overall research questions are to identify
- water and energy fluxes at the landscape scale for heterogeneous polygonal tundra landscape
- methods that can be used to scale from satellite to ground for heterogeneous polygonal tundra landscape.

Requirements:
Master/Diplom in physics, meteorology, geosciences or similar discipline; Arctic field work experience; excellent team work capabilities in a multidisciplinary team; fluency in English (written and spoken)

Beneficial:
Eddy covariance experience, programming skills, raster data analysis, EO-data processing; Russian language

The PhD project will be carried out in AWI’s periglacial section, located in Potsdam, Germany, within the SPARC Helmholtz University young investigator group, and in cooperation with the University of Hamburg (Department of Soil Sciences), Germany, and the EOS-II PhD student of the German Space Agency (DLR).

The position will be funded for 3 years. The salary will be paid following the German TVoD.

AWI is an equal opportunity employer and especially encourages female scientists to apply. AWI supports balanced work-life career development via a variety of alternatives. Severely disabled applicants with essentially identical technical and personal suitability will be preferentially selected, please see our notification on our homepage under job offers/ jobs.

Applications are accepted until position is filled. For further information please contact: Dr. Birgit Heim (birgit.heim@awi.de). 

Qualified applicants should send applications with the reference 83/P (including CV, a brief letter of motivation, and two references) to: Alfred-Wegener-Institut fuer Polar- und Meeresforschung, Forschungsstelle Potsdam, PO Box 60 01 49, D-14401 Potsdam; www.awi.de

Potsdam, Germany

 

PhD on greenhouse gas production by aquatic microbes

MASTER or PhD project offer (PhD favoured)

Study of the microbial processes which regulate the production of CO2 and CH4 in ponds formed by the melting of permafrost and the factors sensitive to climate that control these processes.

 

Research context: Close to a quarter of northern hemisphere is covered by permafrost, a region where more than half of the organic carbon on Earth is stored. With the warming climate, the permafrost is melting which liberates this carbon that becomes available to microbial and photochemical transformations. The melting of permafrost creates the formation of lakes and ponds that are quite diverse and present high microbial productivity by comparison to oligotrophic lakes more typical of these regions. In these systems exposed to high solar irradiance during the polar summer, photochemical processes can accelerate the microbial utilisation of dissolved organic carbon or directly produce CO₂. Northern regions can thus participate to the global climate through a positive feedback mechanism. It is necessary to better understand the processes that regulate this new circulation of carbon in the polar regions, but also to know the actual state of these systems in order to follow the changes that they will be experiencing. Microbial communities in polar ecosystems and their function in carbon cycling are not very well known even though they are often dominating in these regions. Theses communities play an important role on the production of greenhouse gases and in the transformation and sequestration of carbon.

 

Study sites: Two sites will likely be sampled: 1- Nunavik close to the village of Whapmagoostui-Kuujjuarapik on the discontinuous permafrost region, 2- Nunavut National Park Sirmilik, close to the village of Pond Inlet in the continuous permafrost region.

 

This study is part of a ArcticNet project untitled Freshwater resources of the Eastern Canadian Arctic: quantity, quality and indicators of ecological change with the participation of Warwick F. Vincent (University Laval, structure and dynamics of polar aquatic ecosystems), Isabelle Laurion (INRS-ETE, tundra lake-wetland metabolism), Connie Lovejoy (University Laval, biodiversity and ecological function of aquatic microbes), Reinhard Pienitz (University Laval, paleomonitoring of aquatic ecosystems), Kathy Young (York University, snowfall and water balance of wetlands). The global objectives of the team are to identify northern aquatic indicators of change, document past and present changes in the eastern Arctic aquatic environment, identify present vulnerabilities in northern freshwater resources, develop impact models, identify links between environmental change and Inuit health/societal impacts and compare the regional climate predictions with palaeolimnological records of the variability among regional responses to climate that actually occurred in the past.

 

 

Aptitudes et prerequisites: Academic formation and practical research experience in biology, microbiology, ecology or oceanography. If elligible, the student will be invited to apply to scholarship programs (e.g., FQRNT, NSERC). If candidate is not bilingual, he(she) will need to learn French during the first year.

 

What we are offering: A specialised formation in polar limnology, an occasion to realise a research project in a modern institute and participate to a large network of researchers interested to the North, an unforgettable experience in magnificent places.

 

Starting date of project: May 2009.

 

Deadline to apply: Until position is filled.

 

Send your CV along with a letter explaining your motivations to Isabelle Laurion (isabelle.laurion@ete.inrs.ca)

 

 

Quebec, Canada

MSc Project: What Shapes the Vegetation in an Arctic Mining Area?

MSc Project Announcement

What Shapes the Vegetation in an Arctic Mining Area?

Svea, Svalbard, Norway

 

Application Deadline: Thursday, 2 April 2009

 

The University Centre in Svalbard (UNIS) seeks two highly motivated students with backgrounds in botany/ecology, evolution/molecular ecology, or similar subjects for two master projects within a vegetation monitoring project from gene level to landscape level in a mining area, in Svea, Svalbard. Experience in fieldwork and molecular analysis/GIS software would be an asset, but is not a requirement. Fieldwork in Svea, Svalbard is planned for July 2009

 

Applications, including a CV, transcripts of all university courses with grades, a copy of university degrees, a cover letter outlining qualifications and interest for this position, and the names and contact information for two references, should be submitted, no later than Thursday, 2 April 2009 to:

Assoc. Prof. Pernille Bronken Eidesen

UNIS - The University Centre in Svalbard P.O. Box 156

NO-9171 Longyearbyen

Norway

 

For further information, please contact:

Pernille Bronken Eidesen

Email: pernillee@unis.no

 

Further information can also be found at:

http://www.unis.no/35_STAFF/staff_webpages/biology/pernille_bronken_eidesen/personal_web/Master_projects_Svea.htm.

 

Svea, Svalbard, Norway

 

Research Professional in Hydrology

Position Available

Research Professional in Hydrology

Institute of Northern Engineering

University of Alaska Fairbanks

Fairbanks, Alaska

 

Application Deadline: Friday, 20 March 2009

 

To apply, please search for position number 0057042 at:

https://www.uakjobs.com

 

The Institute of Northern Engineering at the University of Alaska Fairbanks is seeking a Research Professional in Hydrology through September 2009 with the intent of two one-year extensions. Researchers with skills in hydro-meteorological data analysis, an interest in modeling environmental processes, and an ability to work outdoors in remote arctic conditions are encouraged to apply. Successful candidates are expected to have general mechanical aptitude with skills to diagnose and repair mechanical and electrical problems associated with field instrumentation.

 

To apply, please go to https://www.uakjobs.com, click on Staff Jobs and scroll down to Research Professional 4 at F-CEM INE Water Research Center, posting number 0057042. To ensure consideration, please apply prior to the review date of Friday, 20 March 2009.

 

For additional information, please contact:

Sveta Berezovskaya

Email sveta.berezovskaya@uaf.edu

 

Fairbanks, Alaska

 

Archaeological field crew positions for interested students.

Archaeological field crew positions for interested students.

Applications and information are available at:
http://students.washington.edu/shelbya/CAKR_Project.shtml

Applications are due March 31, 2009.  Please contact Shelby Anderson
(shelbya@u.washington.edu) for additional information.

Shelby Anderson and Ben Fitzhugh
University of Washington
Department of Anthropology
shelbya@u.washington.edu
**********************************************************
Human-Environmental Dynamics at Cape Krusenstern, Alaska.

The University of Washington (UW) is looking for students to join our field
crew this summer in Northwest Alaska as part of a joint UW - National Park
Service research project.  We will be conducting archaeological survey,
testing, and GPS mapping at Cape Krusenstern for approximately 6 weeks from
late June to early August.  Project participants will live at a remote field
camp for the duration of the project and will have the opportunity to work
with an interdisciplinary team that includes archaeologists, geologists and
community volunteers who will join us for part of our field season. The
project will provide travel, food, lodging and a stipend.  Applications and
more  information can be found at:
http://students.washington.edu/shelbya/CAKR_Project.shtml

Applications are due March 31, 2009.  Please contact Shelby Anderson
(shelbya@u.washington.edu) for additional information.

Shelby Anderson and Ben Fitzhugh
University of Washington
Department of Anthropology
shelbya@u.washington.edu