Ecological Monitoring Program Director - Great Basin Inst.

The Great Basin Institute is recruiting an Ecological Assessment, Inventory and Monitoring (AIM) Program Director for AIM and allied projects located in multiple western states. The overall objective of the AIM program is to provide professional development opportunities and quality land management assistance by producing consistent, landscape-scale monitoring data in support of the BLM national strategy for standardized resource monitoring. Sampling sites are predominantly located in sage grouse habitat, on public rangelands, and in riparian systems within designated priority areas. Field crews collect biotic, hydrologic, and soil qualitative indicators in conjunction with quantitative data to inform conservation planning and adaptive management decisions.

Please follow this link for a video that highlights the BLM’s national strategy for landscape-scale data capture across the western states using AIM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LciTBPG2-Ss

The GBI AIM Program comprises over 75 seasonal and program staff. In 2022, we plan to deploy 25 field crews across three western states. We seek a committed AIM Program Director to coordinate with AIM program staff to oversee and support communication, safety assurance, scheduling, field deployment and implementation, data procurement and management, reporting, and budgeting. The AIM Program Director will work closely with project managers and GBI administrative staff in accomplishing this work.

Specific duties include:
• Proactively maintain regular communication with agency partners to coordinate and promote adaptive management, development and budgeting, and compliance with agreement and contract terms;
• Act as liaison to Bureau of Land Management (BLM) staff and other program/project affiliates to plan and coordinate current and future projects;
• Oversee coordination of six project managers responsible for managing 26 field crews;
• Oversee data management and delivery, which includes executing quality-assurance measures, performing quality-control data checks periodically throughout the field season, and using GIS to provide spatial analysis for reports and other mapping products;
• Promote a culture and best practices for maintaining field safety;
• Travel to perform site visits, particularly during the field and shoulder seasons, to BLM districts/offices and field sites in designated western states;
• Collaborate with other GBI staff to ensure compliance with contract and agreement terms and conditions, including: budget management, financial reporting, payroll and invoice review and processing, and compliance with rules and regulations;
• Engage in proactive and responsive personnel management;
• Participate in GBI or partner-sponsored training opportunities, and/or facilitate GBI training/workshops for AIM Program employees; and
• Complete AIM program administrative support tasks including ensuring GBI and BLM policy compliance, maintaining personnel files, reviewing safety reports, and completing payroll bi-weekly.

Requirements:
• Academic degree and equivalent experience in the natural sciences or allied discipline;
• 5 years minimum in a leadership and supervisory position, with project management experience, including technical, personnel and budgetary management;
• Experience working with federal land management agencies, members of the public, and/or non-profit organizations;
• Understanding of principles related to a combination of the fields of botany, soil science, wildlife biology, geology, hydrology, and/or spatial analysis;
• Relevant or related field experience – knowledge of and/or experience in high desert and Great Basin ecology preferred;
• Strong background in plant community ecology and plant systematics preferred; those with familiarity with AIM implementation will be given preference (AIM experience alone will not be considered as a substitute for other qualifications);
• Ability to oversee and manage simultaneously running projects across multiple western states for collection of field data according to protocol guidelines and a detailed QA/QC process;
• Familiarity with best practices for performing field work in a backcountry setting, with proactively maintaining field safety, and with low impact principles for conducting field work;
• Ability to communicate effectively, both written and orally, with a diverse audience, including members of the public, agency resource staff and management, and GBI program and administrative staff;
• Experience writing and editing technical reports;
• Willingness and ability to work in a fast-paced, dynamic office environment, and to consistently enact high performance standards and a strong work and team ethic in support of the goals and objectives of the AIM program and the mission of GBI; and
• Possess a clean, valid, state-issued driver’s license and the ability to operate a 4WD vehicle on and off paved roads.

Assistant Professor of Biology - Botany

The Department of Biology at Angelo State University in San Angelo, TX seeks applicants for the tenure-track position of Assistant Professor of Biology with a specialization in Botany or a related field. Teaching, research, and service are the primary responsibilities. Candidates are required to possess the teaching skills and experience in botanical methods to engage in research with undergraduate and master’s level graduate students. Candidates with a strong interest or experience in college level teaching and research supervision will be preferred. The successful applicant is also expected to attend departmental events and perform other departmental duties as assigned. The position is a nine-month, on-campus appointment with the possibility of teaching summer classes.

Typical Duties/Job Duties
The successful applicant will be expected to develop and teach undergraduate and graduate level courses and labs with a special emphasis on plant biology (e.g., general botany, plant taxonomy, plant ecology, etc.) and other departmental service courses as assigned. The candidate should be willing to teach online courses as needed. The successful applicant is expected to develop an active research program and conduct research with undergraduate and graduate (master’s level) students. The applicant will also be expected to participate in departmental, college, and university level service and events, advise students, and oversee the direction of the ASU greenhouse and herbarium. Teaching load is equivalent to 12 contact hours/week.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities
The successful applicant should possess: Knowledge of botany and related fields sufficient to teach and assess academically rigorous undergraduate and graduate level courses and develop an undergraduate and master’s level research program, herbaria curation, and greenhouse management; Skill in teaching and research with a strong commitment to high professional standards, organization, interpersonal communication, and collaboration; Ability to develop innovative learning experiences, engage in community service, and participate in professional organizations.

Minimum Qualifications
Earned Ph.D. in Biology or related field from an accredited institution with emphasis on botany or related discipline. ABD applicants will be considered but the doctorate must be completed by the end of the first semester of employment.

Preferred Qualifications
Potential for excellence in teaching, research, and mentoring students. Demonstrated ability to procure external funding. Experience in or knowledge of greenhouse operations and curation of herbaria.

Physical Requirements
The successful applicant must be able to perform light work in an office setting and to frequently stand, walk, sit, lift and carry light objects (up to 20 pounds) and perform similar actions throughout the workday.

EEO Statement
Angelo State University is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to promoting and ensuring equal employment opportunity for all individuals without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, sexual orientation, disability, or veteran status. In compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Angelo State University is committed to providing reasonable accommodations to ensure equal access to employment opportunities for qualified individuals with disabilities. We are committed to ensuring that a qualified individual with a disability has the same rights and privileges in employment as non-disabled employees. If an accommodation is requested for the job application process, please contact our office at (325) 942-2168 or email us at hr@angelo.edu.

Phylogenomics/evolutionary genomics of gymnosperms

A Postdoctoral Research Fellow position is available in Sergios-Orestis
Kolokotronis' research group at the Department of Epidemiology &
Biostatistics in the School of Public Health and the Institute for Genomic
Health at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University in Brooklyn, NY. The
successful applicant will join a large, collaborative NSF-funded project
to disentangle the genome evolution of gymnosperms, the oldest surviving
lineage of seed plants. Three of the four extant gymnosperm lineages
contain species which Darwin termed "living fossils." These have been
present since the Devonian Era and have survived an incredible range of
climatic changes, mass extinction events, and adaptation challenges. The
genomes of almost all the gymnosperms are extremely large and complex
and have been somewhat refractive to genomic characterization as a
result. Through the use of nanopore sequencing, transcriptomics, and
epigenetics, we have been characterizing the genomes of these species,
asking questions on evolutionary radiations and genome resilience. In this
project, we interact with the genome assembly and annotation group, and
contribute to orthology assessment. We investigate gene family evolution
by adopting macroevolutionary phylogenetic methods, phylotranscriptomics,
as well as natural selection scans. Our wider interests draw from
population genetics, phylogenetics and community ecology, using
bioinformatics and computational biology to understand organismal
diversification and adaptation across landscapes and time scales. Our
group is located in the new Public Health Academic Building on the SUNY
Downstate campus in Central Brooklyn. We interact with a diverse group
of health research investigators in the Institute for Genomic Health,
and through our affiliations in the School of Public Health and the
Division of Infectious Diseases in the College of Medicine. Our lab is
outfitted with an Illumina NovaSeq 6000 instrument for high-throughput
sequencing, and we have been expanding our HPC capacity on site and
on the cloud. HPC access is also available at partner institutions
through the PI. More information can be found at http://kolokolab.org
and https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=u3i_xH4AAAAJ&hl=en.

Candidates should have a doctoral -or equivalent- degree in life
or computational sciences. A training background in bioinformatics,
computational biology, molecular evolution and comparative genomics
is required. A keen interest in plant biology and infectious disease
systems is desirable. The successful candidate must be capable of working
independently in an interdisciplinary, diverse, collaborative environment,
and have strong analytical, quantitative, and English writing skills,
evidenced by scholarly peer-reviewed publications. In addition to
formal collaborations with our partner institutions in this project
(CSHL, NYBG, NYU, AMNH, JHU, Purdue, NY Plant Genomics Consortium),
opportunities exist to branch out in research on genomic epidemiology of
infectious and chronic diseases (funded by NIH and NSF), grant proposal
writing, mentoring of students, and teaching. Salary is commensurate
with experience. Start date is ASAP. Applications should include in
this order: 1) a Statement of Research Interests, 2) a CV, 3) two (2)
manuscripts, and 4) the contact information of 3 referees in a single PDF
file emailed to sok@downstate.edu with this Subject line "Postdoc-NSF
Plants". Referees should be notified that they might be contacted.

SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University is an affirmative-action,
equal-opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race,
color, national origin, religion, creed, age, disability, sex, gender
identity or expression, sexual orientation, familial status, pregnancy,
predisposing genetic characteristics, military status, domestic violence
victim status, criminal conviction, and all other protected classes under
federal or state laws. Women, minorities, veterans, individuals with
disabilities and members of underrepresented groups are encouraged to
apply. If you are an individual with a disability and need a reasonable
accommodation for any part of the application process, or in order to
perform the essential functions of a position, please contact Human
Resources at 718-270-3025.