Postdoctoral Fellowship Available
"Modelling of Beluga Movements and Habitat Selection in Eastern Hudson
Bay"
Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada
Application Deadline: Thursday, 31 May 2007
For further information, please contact:
Mike Hammill
E-mail: hammillm [at] dfo-mpo.gc.ca
or contact:
Veronique Lesage
E-mail: lesagev [at] dfo-mpo.gc.ca
or contact:
Bill Doidge
E-mail: b_doidge [at] makivik.org
The Department of Fisheries and Oceans in Mont-Joli, Quebec, in
collaboration with the Nunavik Research Centre of Kuujjuaq, Quebec, is
accepting applications for a postdoctoral fellow to take a major role in
the project, "Modelling of Beluga Movements and Habitat Selection in
Eastern Hudson Bay."
The successful candidate will be responsible for the overall management
of the IPY project, including the planning, organization, and execution
of the field program, presentations to northern communities and groups
about the project, and maintaining communication with hunters on project
results. The postdoctoral fellow will conduct spatial analyses using
satellite telemetry data obtained from tagged beluga in eastern Hudson
Bay. The Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada
(COSEWIC) has classified the beluga in the eastern Hudson Bay as
endangered. Satellite transmitters have been deployed on 30 animals
since the mid-1990s and funding has been secured to deploy additional
transmitters in 2007 and 2008. Some analyses on general movements and
diving characteristics are currently in progress. The fellow will expand
upon this initial work to look at habitat selection by beluga and will
develop state space models to analyze potential foraging activity.
Additional duties may include working with hunters to collect biological
samples to examine diet composition, reproductive status, and condition.
Applicants should possess (or should soon possess) an internationally
recognized PhD from an accredited institution. The candidate should be
self-motivated, yet able to work within a team framework, and be able to
successfully communicate with the general public. S/he should have
ecological training and a proven ability in statistical and/or
mathematical analysis and geographic information systems that can be
used for spatial modeling. Abilities in ecosystem modeling approaches
and programming in R, Matlab, C++ languages or other common interpreted
or compiled programming languages are also desirable.
Based at the Department of Fisheries and Ocean's Institute
Maurice-Lamontagne, in Mont-Joli, Quebec, Canada, the position will
begin in June 2007 and continue until March 2010. The day-to-day working
language of the institute is French, however the ability to write and
communicate in English is essential.
Applications, consisting of a letter of interest and CV, must be
submitted by Thursday, 31 May 2007, to:
Mike Hammill
E-mail: hammillm [at] dfo-mpo.gc.ca
or:
Veronique Lesage
E-mail: lesagev [at] dfo-mpo.gc.ca
or:
Bill Doidge
E-mail: b_doidge [at] makivik.org