PhD Graduate Research Assistantship – University of Florida Specialization: Environmental health in the Amazon region Start Date: January 1, 2014/Spring Term (or until position is filled) Application Deadline: October 15, 2013 (for spring) or January 1, 2014 (for fall) Dr. Denis Valle, Assistant Professor in the School of Forest Resources and Conservation at the University of Florida (UF), is now accepting applications for a PhD Graduate Research Assistantship position. Research in my group focuses on tackling important environmental health problems by creating and using advanced statistical methods. The assistantship includes full tuition coverage, Gator Grad Care health insurance, and a yearly salary of $20,000/FTE .50 (20 hours/week) for up to four years. The position will be located at the UF campus in Gainesville, FL. Expected start date is January 1, 2014 to coincide with Spring term, but applications will be accepted until the position has been filled. The goal of this position is to study environmental drivers (e.g., climate and land use change) of human health in the Amazon region. Despite its conservation importance, this region is still undergoing massive land use /land cover change, with large impacts on public health. This project will benefit from large-scale malaria datasets from my group, as well as ongoing projects focused on evaluating the public health /nutritional impact of dams in the region. Potential field trips might be required. Duties include writing and presenting result of research in scientific conferences, searching and applying for additional sources of funding, and assisting other students within the team on field activities or statistical analyses, among others. Student will also be required to serve as a teaching assistant for one course per year and will be expected to produce manuscripts for publication in top scientific journals. Applicants should have: • Prior experience in manipulating data in the statistical software R. • Prior experience with GIS • Strong background on environmental sciences and/or public health (with preference for experience in tropical developing countries) with experience in (or want to become proficient on) advanced statistical Bayesian models. Alternatively, this position could also be filled by someone with a strong background in statistics who wants to learn more about environmental science and public health. • GRE minimum scores of 153 Verbal; 155 Quantitative; Analytical/writing 4 (500/700 old scoring scale) • Undergraduate and MS degrees with GPA exceeding 3.5 • Prior computer programming experience is a plus The candidate must meet the formal admission requirements for the University of Florida and the School of Forest Resources and Conservation. (http://sfrc.ufl.edu/academics/how-to-apply/) Additional information on my research and myself can be found at http://sfrc.ufl.edu/people/faculty/valle/. If interested, please email the items listed below to [email protected] or formally apply to UF Admissions www.admissions.ufl.edu by October 15 and include the documents listed below: • One page cover letter to include a brief review of your research experience, interests and goals • CV with contact information • GRE scores • Transcripts (unofficial) from all previous colleges and universities • Three academic references -- Denis Valle Assistant Professor School of Forest Resources and Conservation University of Florida e: [email protected]
