Postdoctoral Associate/North American Bat Monitoring Program

The College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University embraces diversity and seeks candidates who will contribute to a climate that supports students, faculty, and staff of all identities and backgrounds. We strongly encourage individuals from underrepresented and/or marginalized identities to apply.

The College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) is a pioneer of purpose-driven science and home to Cornell University's second largest population of students, faculty and staff. We work across disciplines to tackle the challenges of our time through world-renowned research, education and outreach. The questions we probe and the answers we seek focus on three overlapping concerns: natural and human systems; food, energy and environmental resources; and social, physical and economic well-being. CALS is fundamentally invested in improving the lives of people, their environments and their communities both in New York state and around the world.

Position Function

The Fuller Spatial Ecology and Decision Science Lab https://blogs.cornell.edu/fullerlab/ at the New York Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit at Cornell University is seeking candidates for a postdoctoral associate to provide data management for a bat population monitoring project using mobile acoustic survey data. The project is in support of the North American Bat Monitoring Program (NABat), collaborating with partners from the U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The project will collect and analyze mobile acoustic survey data from monitoring partners in the northeastern United States. The candidate will serve as the data manager, working with partners to determine where assistance is needed, troubleshoot, understand data management needs, data processing needs, and work to gather resources from partners. The candidate will apply knowledge of data management, computer programming, quality assurance and control, GIS, and data management guidelines to support the collation of regional bat population monitoring and survey data. The primary objective of this role is to ease data management burdens on partners and aid in the aggregation of data on bats occurring in the region so they may be accessed to address management needs.

The candidate will work with state, federal, and non-governmental organizations in the northeast (NY, VT, NH, ME, MA, CT, RI, PA and NJ, DE, D, VA, WV) to provide technical assistance to partners engaged in monitoring and managing bat populations and will support preparing, managing and uploading data from acoustic surveys to the NABat database.

The candidate will be supervised by Dr. Angela Fuller, U.S. Geological Survey, NY Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, at Cornell University (Ithaca, New York). The postdoctoral associate - data manager will work closely with the NABat program, USGS Fort Collins Science Center (Dr. Brian Reichert and Bethany Straw), the National white-nose syndrome coordinators with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Drs. Jeremy Coleman and Jonathan Reichard), and NABat contributing data partners. In addition, the postdoctoral associate will work closely with another postdoctoral scientist who will be analyzing mobile acoustic data to estimate abundance and trends. The individual will be housed in the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY. The position will require frequent travel, including to the Fort Collins Science Center, Colorado as well as states in the eastern US.

Specific duties include: Support regional partners in obtaining mobile acoustic records, along with other data streams as practical. Provide technical assistance to partners in uploading data to the NABat Database via the NABat Partner Portal. Assist states with data entry and help to manage data partnerships. Coordinate with other data managers in the NABat Program to ensure efficiency and quality across data streams. Assist in reviewing data and preparing acoustic data for use in models to estimate abundance and trends of bats. Provide data visualization products and user-friendly report, including submitting research results in peer reviewed publications.

Initial appointment is 1 year with the possibility of renewals up to 5 years.

This is a full time (40 hr/week), on campus position.

Anticipated Division of Time

Data Management 40%

Research Support 35%

Data Analysis and Reporting 25%

Requirements

• PhD in data science, database management, computer science, ecology, wildlife biology, conservation biology, natural resources, statistics, or related subjects.
• Strong mathematical and programming skills and use of R and GIS.
• Experience with acoustic data, preferably related to population monitoring.
• Experience creating and manipulating large databases.
• Excellent writing and personal communication skills, including with external partners.
• Excellent interpersonal skills and ability to develop and maintain strong, positive working relationships.

Recommended qualifications: Competitive candidates will also have one or more of the following qualifications: Previous experience with bat population ecology, bat acoustic monitoring methods, automated species classification of bat acoustic recordings, population modeling, spatial analysis, machine learning, big data skills, R Shiny App. Preferred qualifications also include familiarity with NABat and experience uploading and accessing data via the NABat Partner Portal.

Supervision Exercised

This position will not supervise others.

To apply:

Please apply via Academic Jobs Online (https://academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/26362)

Pay Range:

Pay Ranges:

The hiring rate of pay for the successful candidate will be determined considering the following criteria:

• Prior relevant work or industry experience.

• Education level to the extent education is relevant to the position.

• Academic Discipline (faculty pay ranges reflects 9-month annual salary)

• Unique applicable skills.

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Cornell University embraces diversity and seeks candidates who will contribute to a climate that supports students, faculty, and staff to all identities and backgrounds. We encourage individuals from underrepresented and/or marginalized identities to apply.