Postdoctoral Research Associate (Ecosystem and Economic Modeling)

Postdoctoral Research Associate (Ecosystem and Economic Modeling)
Portland, ME

The Gulf of Maine Research Institute (GMRI) pioneers collaborative solutions to global ocean challenges. Our scientists explore dynamic ocean systems from marine life to environmental conditions to coastal economies. We infuse our discoveries into the policy arena and design solutions with fishermen and seafood businesses to protect fishery resources, harvest them responsibly, and market them as premium quality food. We share our discoveries with the public and nurture a culture of leadership in communities that depend on the sea. Our education programs cultivate science literacy and build a foundation of collaborative problem-solving among our next generation of leaders, scientists, citizens, and stewards. Each year, we serve over 25,000 stakeholders from Cape Cod to Nova Scotia.

GMRI is seeking applicants for a postdoctoral research associate to work under the supervision of Dr. Kathy Mills at GMRI and with collaborators at GMRI, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, University of Rhode Island, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, Commercial Fisheries Research Foundation, and NOAA's Northeast Fisheries Science Center. This transdisciplinary research team will undertake a fast-paced project to design information systems and deliberative processes that address questions faced by Northeast U.S. fishing community stakeholders as they plan for their community's future in the context of climate-driven ocean changes and changes in ocean uses. The modeling postdoc will participate in workshops with fishing community stakeholders to identify issues, questions and information needs. The postdoc will lead the development and implementation of ecosystem and economic models of how climate impacts, adaptation, and mitigation affect fishing communities to address stakeholders' questions. The postdoc will also contribute to the design of an information system that will enable model outputs to be used by stakeholders for evaluating trade-offs, determining how outcomes align with their objectives, and supporting deliberations on solutions to complex forward-looking decisions.

The start date is October 1, 2021 or earlier. The expectation is for this to be a 1-year position (contingent upon funding), with the potential for extension based on future funding. The position will be located at GMRI (www.gmri.org) in Portland, ME. The position will remain open until August 1, 2021 but applications will be reviewed upon submission.

Responsibilities/Tasks:

• Develop and/or modify existing models of climate impacts on fish populations and fisheries (e.g., species distribution, bioeconomic, economic optimization, individual-based models) to provide outputs that address stakeholders' questions related to climate impacts on fisheries, fishery and community adaptation strategies, and the interaction of fisheries with other ocean uses (e.g., offshore wind development).
• Participate in stakeholder meetings, conceptual modeling activities, and scenario planning exercises, and use priorities and input from these activities to shape quantitative modeling plans and approaches.
• Document workflows and manage code in GitHub platform.
• Incorporate workflows and model outputs into the design of an information system to provide results in forms that are accessible to and usable by stakeholders.
• Contribute to proposals to support later stages of this research.
• Synthesize and share results in scientific papers and industry and scientific conferences.
• Travel to regional stakeholder meetings, project team workshops, and industry and scientific conferences.

Other General Responsibilities:

• Participate in project team meetings and workshops.
• Participate in lab and GMRI staff meetings and activities.
• Contribute to team-wide data and workflow management efforts.
• Collaborate with mentor(s) to develop and track progress towards an individual professional development plan.
• Opportunities to co-mentor undergraduate interns or participate in other education programs.

Requirements

• Ph.D. in a relevant discipline, such as fisheries science, fisheries ecology, resource economics, applied mathematics, statistics, or another field that demonstrates a strong quantitative background.
• Experience analyzing and modeling marine ecosystems, fishery population dynamics, and/or fishery economics with statistical, economic, and/or simulation models.
• Experience working with spatial data and spatial model outputs.
• Demonstrated experience and fluency in relevant programming languages, particularly R.
• Strong written and oral communication skills, as evidenced through publications in the peer reviewed scientific literature and presentation of results to a variety of audiences.
• Demonstrated ability to work independently and as part of a collaborative team.
• Eligible to work in the United States.

Other Preferred Qualifications:

• Familiarity with relevant data sets, including climate model outputs, spatial ocean data, fish surveys, and fishery-dependent data.
• Experience working in high performance cloud computing environments.
• Use of GitHub platform to manage and collaborate on code.
• Experience in and understanding of marine fisheries and fishing communities.
• Engagement with fishery and fishing community stakeholders.
• Presentations and discussions with stakeholder audiences.
• Experience developing tools and interfaces for providing user access to data and model outputs.
• Proficiency in another language used by regional fishery stakeholders (e.g. Portuguese, French, Spanish, Vietnamese).

Diversity and Inclusion:

Gulf of Maine Research Institute has a long-standing policy and commitment to providing equal access and equal employment opportunities in all terms, conditions, processes, and benefits of employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, or veteran status. GMRI's employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, or veteran status.

Applicants and employees are encouraged to voluntarily self-identify their race/ethnicity, gender, disability status and veteran status to assist GMRI in fulfilling various data reporting requirements of the federal government. This self-identification is completely voluntary, will be kept confidential and separate from your application data, and used only to meet federal reporting requirements. Providing or declining to provide this information will not result in adverse action of any kind.

Salary and Benefits:

Gulf of Maine Research Institute offers a competitive benefits package.

Salary Range: $48,700 - $77,900

To Apply:

To apply for this position: submit cover letter, resume, and contact information for three references. Applications will be reviewed upon receipt. We will not accept resumes sent to any email address. Incomplete or late applications will not be considered.