Applications closed
Posted by Lian Pin Koh on 27 May 2011
Please note that applications for the post-doctoral and Ph.D. positions are now closed. Short-listed candidates will be notified.
Nevertheless, I am willing to discuss possibilities with candidates who have secured their own funding, or have developed exceptional research ideas or proposals that are likely to be funded.
Post-doctoral Research Fellow and Ph.D. student
Posted by Lian Pin Koh on 27 April 2011
The SNF-Professorship of Applied Ecology and Conservation is a newly established professorship led by Prof. Lian Pin Koh (from June 2011). This professorship is funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF), and will be based at the ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology).
We seek i) an outstanding post-doctoral research fellow and ii) a Ph.D. student to join our team. Candidates must have a strong background in tropical ecology, environmental economics, conservation biology, sustainability science, or related disciplines.
Research within the professorship focuses on addressing emerging environmental and socioeconomic challenges facing tropical developing nations, including intensifying land-use conflicts, carbon emissions from land-use change and forestry, and threats to natural ecosystems and wildlife.
The post-doctoral research fellow and Ph.D. student are expected to work closely with the principal investigator and other members of the team to develop novel approaches for evaluating the implications and tradeoffs of alternative land-use and development scenarios in relation to food and biofuel production, carbon storage and sequestration, conservation of forests, biodiversity and ecosystem services, and rural development. (See www.lianpinkoh.com for more information.)
The successful candidates should possess the following qualifications:
- Recent Ph.D. (post-doctoral position) or M.Sc. (Ph.D. position) in tropical ecology, environmental economics, conservation biology, sustainability science, or related disciplines
- Exceptional publication record
- Experience with R, Matlab and/or other languages such as VBA, C, C++, Java, or Python
- Experience with GIS
- Ability to work outside established field of expertise
- Ability to work independently
- Ability to develop and implement creative and unconventional solutions to problems
The candidates are expected to start in the Summer/Fall of 2011, but later starting dates can be discussed. The initial appointment for the post-doctoral position is for one year, with the possibility of renewal up to three additional years based upon performance and research needs. The Ph.D. position is a three-year appointment.
The salary scale for both positions is in accordance with ETH Zurich and SNF regulations. The annual wage for the post-doctoral position is offered at approximately 83,700 Swiss francs in the first year and increasing up to 96,600 Swiss francs in the fourth year. The annual wage for the Ph.D. position is offered at approximately 40,800 Swiss francs in the first year and increasing up to 46,800 Swiss francs in the third year.
Interested candidates should send i) a statement of research interests and career goals (two-page maximum), ii) a curriculum vitae (including publication list), and iii) contact information for at least two academic referees by email to lian.koh@env.ethz.ch.
Review of applications will begin immediately and continue until suitable candidates are identified. Only shortlisted candidates will be notified. Please send any enquiries to the same e-mail address.
About Zurich and the ETH
Source: Wikipedia.
Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland, with
a population of nearly 2 million inhabitants. According to several surveys,
Zurich has been named the city with the best quality of life in the
world.
The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (German: Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich) or ETH Zurich is an engineering, science and technology university in Zurich.
ETH is ranked among the top universities in the world. It is said to be Europe's equivalent to the American M.I.T. due to its emphasis on leading research and academic excellence. Twenty-one Nobel Prizes have been awarded to students or professors of the Institute in the past, the most famous of them being Albert Einstein in 1921, and the most recent being Richard F. Heck in 2010.