A PhD assistantship ($22,000/yr) is available immediately in the lab of Dr. John King in the Dept. of Forestry and Environmental Resources at North Carolina State University.
Project: Developing short-rotation cropping systems for bioenergy plantations. Conduct research on the development of short-rotation cropping systems for bioenergy plantations. The work will be conducted at two field labs in the piedmont and lower coastal plain physiogeographic regions of North Carolina. The research will consist of testing a variety of early successional, rapidly growing tree species such as sweetgum, yellow poplar, cottonwood, red maple and others for potential as bioenergy crops and determining the best silvicultural systems for short-rotation cropping. Emphasis will be placed on quantifying aboveground and belowground productivity and the environmental consequences of intensive, short rotation cropping for soil nutrients, carbon, and water. The successful candidate will have a background in plant physiology, forestry, ecology, or related field, be willing to perform fieldwork and help maintain the experiment, and have a solid work ethic. Interested persons should contact Dr. John S. King ([email protected]) with technical questions and may learn about our graduate program and application procedure at teh department website (http://cnr.ncsu.edu/fer/grads/index.php).
