We are hiring a postdoc that will collaborate with researchers in the Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources, the U.S. Forest Service, and other partner institutions.

Duties & Responsibilities:
The postdoc will collaborate on a team-oriented interdisciplinary project focused on the role that forested lands play in providing clean and stable water supplies to communities across the southeastern United States by quantifying the economic value of water-related ecosystem services of forests. The Ideal candidate will work with a highly interdisciplinary team of researchers to integrate complex ecosystem production and water quality modeling simulation output with spatially interpolated economic valuation data to understand the linkage between forestland management and land use change with water quantity and quality. Duties for this position include, but are not limited to:
1) Assist in developing, administering and evaluating a targeted phone survey of water treatment plants in the study region to understand factors contributing to drinking water treatment costs;
2) Conducting literature reviews and meta-analyses of site-level assessments of drinking water treatment costs and economic damages from eutrophication;
3) Performing geospatial analysis in a Geographic Information System (GIS) to integrate ecosystem production and economic valuation functions;
4) Estimating aggregate ecosystem service values of maintaining forests across multiple land use change projections; and
5) Contributing to project products including maps, reports, web applications, scientific journal articles, and presentations to stakeholders and the scientific community.
Other Work/Responsibilities
The successful candidate may also have the opportunity to work on projects in collaboration with researchers affiliated with the Southern Forest Resource Assessment Consortium (SOFAC) the U.S. Forest Service, and other partner institutions.
Work Schedule
M-F
Department Required Skills
This position requires a PhD in natural resource economics, environmental economics, forest resource economics or a closely related field. Terminal degree must be completed by first day of employment.
Preferred Years Experience, Skills, Training, Education
Strong quantitative skills and knowledge of non-market valuation methods, water resource economics, and forest resource economics. Strong empirical and geospatial analysis background, with knowledge of water quantity and quality issues in the southeastern United States. Strong analytical and programming capabilities and the ability to build, manage, and analyze large datasets that integrate hydrologic, spatial, and economic information using statistical software (e.g., SAS, Python, Matlab, R, Stata). Skilled in geospatial analysis, data, and associated tools (e.g., ArcGIS, QGIS, etc.).
Required License or Certification
This position requires a PhD in natural resource economics, environmental economics, forest resource economics or a closely related field.