Post Doctoral Opportunities for IPY
Glaciodyn and EarthSLOT Projects
University of Alaska Fairbanks
Application Deadline: Saturday, 1 April 2006
For more information, please contact:
Dr. Matt Nolan
E-mail: Matt.Nolan [at] uaf.edu
More information available online at:
http://www.uaf.edu/water/faculty/nolan/glaciodynpostdoc.htm
http://www.uaf.edu/water/faculty/nolan/earthslotpostdoc.htm
Dear Colleague:
The University of Alaska has announced funding availability for ten post
doctoral positions related to the International Polar Year. Funding for
such positions is competitive, based on how well the proposed scope of
work relates to the IPY mission and the quality of recommendations from
experts in the field. The deadline is April 1 2006 and the full
announcement can be found here: http://www.alaska.edu/swacad/postdoc/.
I have two funded projects which are each components of fully endorsed
IPY proposals and I am now soliciting post doctoral collaborators to
join our teams and offering to help make your proposals to the
University of Alaska more competitive. That is, though I am on the
faculty at UAF, I am not part of the search or selection committee nor
do I have any special influence on it -- I simply believe that the
projects I am leading would lend themselves to making very competitive
proposals and am offering to facilitate that for our mutual benefit.
Thus, this announcement is an attempt to find qualified candidates with
similar interests as mine.
1) GLACIODYN PROJECT An excellent opportunity exists for one or more
postdocs to participate in the IPY Glaciodyn project. The project seeks
to understand the dynamic response of arctic glaciers to changes in mass
balance, including calving, with particular emphasis on modeling
feedback leading to accelerated mass loss which can be used to predict a
more accurate impact on sea level rise. Most of the glaciers involved
with this study already have long histories of research with active
projects now ongoing, so work could begin immediately. You would be
joining an international team of glaciologists that have been working
together for over a decade under the umbrella of the International
Arctic Science Committees Working Group on Arctic Glaciers, which meets
annually to share ideas, techniques, and findings. You can learn more
about post doctoral opportunities related to my study area, McCall
Glacier, here:
http://www.uaf.edu/water/faculty/nolan/glaciodynpostdoc.htm
2) EarthSLOT EDUCATION AND OUTREACH COORDINATOR For the IPY to be a true
success, we must make the outside world not only aware of it, but be a
part of it. To accomplish this, I believe that we must understand what
it is we are competing with (Hollywood movies, computer gaming, etc) and
make use of tools that have a fighting chance at winning this
competition. My belief is that we should begin making use of tools that
give the public the power to be armchair scientists, vicariously
experiencing our triumphs and failures in as real a manner as possible,
given our time and budget. For the past several years, I have been
developing EarthSLOT, Earth Science Logistics and Outreach
Terrainabases, which allow users to fly themselves around the world in
high resolution 3D over the internet, to check out what's going on in
Arctic science. I have been making use of technology from Skyline
Software, Google Earth, and others to improve our science, improve our
logistics, and improve access to our results. I believe that these
virtual globes are going to create a new paradigm for earth science,
earth science education, and earth science data access, and in fact are
already doing so. You can find a more complete description of my vision
for post doctoral involvement here:
http://www.uaf.edu/water/faculty/nolan/earthslotpostdoc.htm
If you have an interest in either of these projects, please contact me
as soon as possible and we can begin discussing the next steps.
Matt Nolan
Associate Research Professor
University of Alaska Fairbanks
E-mail: Matt.Nolan [at] uaf.edu