Description: The University of Nebraska-Lincoln is hiring a graduate assistant for 2.5 years to conduct fire modeling research associated with dynamic, temporal changes in grassland fuels and fire behavior in response to precipitation variability, grazing, time-since-fire, and woody encroachment. These models will be used to improve our understanding of the factors contributing to the dynamic nature of grassland fuels and will facilitate efforts to improve characterizations of wildfire danger in grassland ecosystems (e.g. OK-FIRE; http://okfire.mesonet.org). Fire models will be based on an extensive field dataset that quantifies changes in grassland fuel characteristics over time in response to fire, grazing, and drought.
The successful candidate will be part of a collaborative research team conducting unique fire experiments throughout the Great Plains. Collaboration opportunities with other students are encouraged. Please explore Dirac Twidwells research site for an overview of existing projects (http://agronomy.unl.edu/twidwell). Qualifications The student will be part of an interdisciplinary team that includes ecologists, meteorologists, and soil physicists at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Oklahoma State University. The successful candidate will therefore be highly motivated, passionate about scientific inquiry across disciplines, possess excellent writing and communication skills, and have a strong desire to pursue publication of research in refereed scientific journals. Familiarity with fire behavior models, fuels sampling, fuels models and quantitative statistical or mathematical techniques is also desired. Students with a B.S. degree will be considered across various fields of study, but preference will be given to candidates with a strong interdisciplinary background in ecology or biology, math, and physics, and show a strong commitment to develop an ecological background throughout their graduate studies. Applicants interested in this position should send a letter of interest, GRE scores, and a resume or CV that includes contact information of three references (email is preferred). Start date Flexible, depending on the qualifications of the candidate; the expectation is to begin between May - August 2014. Salary $22,460 annually Contact: Dr. Dirac Twidwell Assistant Professor and Rangeland Ecologist University of Nebraska Lincoln [email protected]
