Research Fellow in Tropical American Forest Dynamics
Salary: Grade 7 (£39,355 – £46,735 p.a. depending on experience)
This role will be based on the university campus, with scope for it to be undertaken in a hybrid manner. We are also open to discussing flexible working arrangements.
Are you an ambitious researcher looking for your next challenge? Do you have strong quantitative skills and interests in forests, trees or climate change? Do you want to join a global, dynamic research team and further your career in a leading UK University?
You will work on a UK Natural Environment Research Council funded project: “AMSINK – The End of the Amazon Carbon Sink?”. Within the project you will have responsibility for undertaking statistical analyses of tropical forest dynamics (turnover, productivity, and change metrics) across time and space and for producing high-quality written outputs.
The Ecology and Global Change research cluster at Leeds conducts world-leading research in tropical ecology and change. The research will be undertaken collaboratively with a team of ecologists from across the tropics, including partners in the RAINFOR network, the PPBio network and other national and regional networks of tropical American forest researchers. AMSINK emphasizes support for long-term ecological monitoring and research with colleagues in South America, the U.K. and worldwide, all supported by the ForestPlots.net data management team based at Leeds. Our overall research goal is to assess the response of South American tropical forests to changing climate conditions. We are looking for a motivated researcher who can help discover how, where and why the dynamics of American tropical forests have changed.
You will have a PhD in Ecology, Environmental Science, Statistics or a related discipline, including advanced experience with applying statistics to ecological problems. You will have a publication track record, excellent analytical and communication skills and have a record of successfully working with a research team. Applicants must have strong statistical modelling skills using R. You will have experience of a range of relevant statistical techniques, potentially including mixed effects models, Bayesian and maximum likelihood approaches, spatial statistics and random forests or other machine-learning approaches and be quick to learn new techniques. Enjoyment of analysis of large and spatially explicit ecological data sets, and an interest in large-scale comparisons involving observational or experimental datasets over space, time and environmental gradients, are essential. Field experience of tropical forest ecology is desirable but not essential. The ability to communicate well in the main Latin American languages will be an advantage. The successful candidate will be expected to contribute in other ways, including helping early career researchers in South America with their project-related analyses.
The project is coordinated by Professor Oliver Phillips, who is responsible for the overall implementation and for overseeing the analysis of the forest census data. Other partners in the project include Professors Tim Baker, David Galbraith, Manuel Gloor and Simon Lewis (Leeds), Dr Flavia Costa (INPA, Brazil), Dr Beatriz Marimon (UNEMAT, Brazil), and Dr Martin Sullivan (Manchester Metropolitan University). This job is funded by the Natural Environment Research Council through the University of Leeds, and you will work closely with a large and dynamic team of researchers in Leeds and beyond.
Please note that this post may be suitable for sponsorship under the Skilled Worker visa route but first-time applicants might need to qualify for salary concessions. For more information please visit: www.gov.uk/skilled-worker-visa.
For research and academic posts, we will consider eligibility under the Global Talent visa. For more information please visit: https://www.gov.uk/global-talent
What we offer in return
• 26 days holiday plus approx.16 Bank Holidays/days that the University is closed by custom (including Christmas) – That’s 42 days a year
• Generous pension scheme plus life assurance– the University contributes 14.5% of salary
• Health and Wellbeing: Discounted staff membership options at The Edge, our state-of-the-art Campus gym, with a pool, sauna, climbing wall, cycle circuit, and sports halls.
• Personal Development: Access to courses run by our Organisational Development & Professional Learning team.
• Access to on-site childcare, shopping discounts and travel schemes are also available.
And much more!
If you are looking for a role that will allow you to apply your advanced statistical skills to questions of forest dynamics and change, apply today.
To explore the post further or for any queries you may have, please contact:
Professor Oliver Phillips
Email: o.phillips@leeds.ac.uk