Two Postdoctoral Research positions (up to 3 years) in aquatic resources restoration and Earth and environmental science at Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, PA
Two Postdoctoral Research positions are available, each for up to a three-year term (pending performance) starting January 1, 2024, in the Department of Earth and Environment at Franklin and Marshall College, a liberal arts undergraduate institution in Lancaster PA. We seek two highly motivated postdoctoral scholars in one or more of these disciplines: geomorphology, surface water hydrology, freshwater ecosystem restoration/ecohydrology, carbon and other nutrient cycling, and geochemistry or biogeochemistry. Each postdoctoral scholar will teach two undergraduate course credits per year that support and expand our curricular offerings in these areas and will mentor undergraduate research assistants. Courses can be one class with a lab or two classes with no lab, including seminars in the candidates’ areas of research expertise. Teaching experience is preferred but not required.
The fully-funded research will focus on one of the largest urban floodplain-wetland restoration projects to date in the mid-Atlantic region of the eastern US, the Little Conestoga Creek Blue-Green Corridor project, with one postdoctoral position focusing on water quality and the other on floodplain/wetland biogeochemistry. The postdoctoral researchers will establish and maintain multiple types of monitoring along 2.7 km of the Little Conestoga Creek stream corridor adjacent to the F&M campus. The research will include fieldwork to install and maintain instrumentation to monitor water temperature, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, specific conductance, nitrate-N, and other parameters.
Funding is available immediately for a comprehensive monitoring program with new instrumentation including three fully equipped EXO2 water quality sondes, a Sontek Flowtracker 2 with integrated GPS, greenhouse gas flux monitors, and a stable isotope CRD spectrometer. Our department is well-equipped with ICP-OES, XRF, XRD, SEM-EDS, two gamma spectrometers, two liquid scintillation counters, and an elemental combustion analyzer. The project will involve fieldwork to map the stream corridor using UAV photogrammetry (including a new thermal UAV with RTK GPS) and on-the-ground RTK-GPS surveying with Emlid GPS units.
Applicants should apply here to submit a CV, cover letter, and description of research and teaching interests that include how the applicant approaches inclusive excellence in teaching and mentoring.
Reach out to the following F&M faculty if you have questions:
Dorothy Merritts - dorothy.merritts@fandm.edu
Christopher Williams - chris.williams@fandm.edu
Robert Walter - robert.walter@fandm.edu
Bob Walter will be at the Geological Society of America Annual Meeting in Pittsburgh October 15-18 and can meet candidates in person. Dorothy Merritts and Bob Walter will be available to meet candidates at the AGU meeting in San Francisco in December.