Postdoctoral Fellow in Forest Growth & Yield

Competition 1885

This position offers a benefits package found at Postdoctoral Fellows Benefits.

Location - Work primarily takes place at North Campus, Edmonton.

Working at the University of Alberta

The University of Alberta acknowledges that we are located on Treaty 6 territory, and respects the histories, languages and cultures of First Nations, Métis, Inuit and all First Peoples of Canada, whose presence continues to enrich our vibrant community.

The University of Alberta is a community of knowledge seekers, change makers and world shapers who lead with purpose each and every day. We are home to over 14,000 faculty and staff, more than 40,000 students and a growing community of 300,000 alumni worldwide.

Your work will have a meaningful influence on a fascinating cross-section of people — from our students and community members, to our renowned researchers and innovators, making discoveries and generating solutions that make the world healthier, safer, stronger and more just. Learn more.

Working for the Department of Renewable Resources

The Renewable Resources Department is the home of forestry and forest science scholarship of Canada’s western boreal and Rocky Mountain forests. Faculty, students, and research associates in the Department benefit from collaborative relationships with provincial and federal government agencies and Alberta’s forest industry. We are the campus leader in addressing complex and intersecting environmental and management issues centered in forested ecosystems. 

Position 

The Forest Growth & Yield Lab at the University of Alberta seeks a post-doctoral research scientist to work on integrating tree improvement into growth and yield models. This 3-year position is part of BFF-AFIRMS, a cooperative project that will develop an innovative genotyping platform and decision support system for breeding decisions and genetic management for lodgepole pine and white spruce. The G&Y scientist will be supervised by Dr. Robert Froese and be an essential part of the larger team, working to integrate genomic and breeding data into models and in turn to integrate models into a decision support system.

Duties 

• Forest model assessment, comparison, and critical evaluation in the context of tree improvement
• Conceptualization and development of strategies for incorporating genomics estimated breeding values into growth and yield modeling
• Evaluation of alternative model architectures and approaches for incorporating tree improvement into GYPSY (Growth and Yield Prediction System) and MGM (Mixedwood Growth Model)
• Growth and worth prediction, and integration of G&Y models into a multi-objective simulation and optimization systems
• Leading the authorship of technical and peer-reviewed and publications

Qualifications

• PhD in forestry, forest science, tree improvement, or a closely related field earned within the previous 5 years
• Prior scholarship in one or both of forest growth and yield modeling and tree improvement
• Proficiency in data science in a natural resources environment using one or more of R, SAS, Python, SQL
• Strong problem-solving and applied statistics skills
• Working knowledge of geospatial technologies including GIS and GPS
• Experience with publication in the peer-reviewed literature