Postdoc position at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution for Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry.

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) is currently searching for a Postdoctoral Investigator to join the Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry  Department. This is a regular, full-time, exempt position, and is eligble for full benefits. The initial appointment will be for one year with the possibility of a one-year extension.

We seek a Postdoctoral Investigator to conduct research with an interdisciplinary team as part of a new NASA Exobiology grant exploring photochemical processes involved in the oxidation and precipitation of manganese (Mn) minerals. The overall objectives of the project are to: (1) constrain the reaction space within aqueous incubations that support photochemical Mn(II) oxidation and Mn oxide formation; (2) identify the role of drying and cyclical humidity changes on photochemical-derived Mn oxide formation at the rock/mineral-water interface; and (3) investigate structural, morphological and isotopic signatures harbored within photochemically produced Mn oxides.

The Institution has a top-rated postdoctoral program (www.whoi.edu/postdoctoral/) that supports a dynamic postdoctoral community with formal mentoring and career guidance programs. While the primary focus of the work will be in research, the Postdoctoral Investigator will have the opportunity to participate in educational and outreach activities associated with the project.

Online application forms should be submitted with a cover letter, complete curriculum vitae, and three letters of recommendation.  Applications will be reviewed upon submission.

Essential Functions

The Postdoctoral Investigator will be the project lead, working in close collaboration with, and trained by, three principal investigators at WHOI. The Postdoctoral Investigator will lead laboratory incubations of aqueous and mineral/rock suspensions under a matrix of conditions and subsequent characterization of Mn oxide products using a suite of techniques, including X-ray diffraction and absorption spectroscopy, electron microscopy, and oxygen isotope ratio mass spectrometry.

Education & Experience

  • A PhD in Chemistry, Earth Sciences, or a related field is required.
  • Any experience in photochemistry, mineral chemistry and characterization, and/or reactive oxygen/nitrogen species concentration and isotopic composition would be especially valuable.

Postdoc and Graduate Student Opportunity

These postdoc and graduate student opportunities might be of interest. The postdoc position has a very flexible start date, and the candidate does not need to check all these boxes. It’s our “wish” list. 😊

Regards,

Morteza Karimzadeh, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Geography
Affiliate Assistant Professor, Computer Science, Information Science
University of Colorado Boulder
Traditional Territories of the Arapaho, Cheyenne and Ute Nations

Transdisciplinary Postdoctoral Research Associate Position in Spatial Data Science and Geoscience

University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO

Starting date (very flexible): 1/7/2021

Application review begins December 7, 2020 on a rolling basis until the position is filled.

We invite applications for a postdoctoral research associate position at the Department of Geography, University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder), with a flexible starting date of 1/7/2021 and possibility for remote work, although the ability to work on the CU Boulder campus in the long term is desirable. The initial offer is for 12 months, with potential for renewal contingent upon favorable progress.

The postdoctoral scholar will primarily work on a recently funded NSF EarthCube project (Data Capabilities: Enabling Analysis of Heterogeneous, Multi-source Cryospheric Data, Award# 2026962) under the supervision of principal investigator, Dr. Morteza Karimzadeh. The project is focused on creating software systems and cyber-infrastructure for harmonizing heterogeneous big data products (including satellite imagery and in situ observations) in a cloud environment for various downstream tasks. The technologies developed are expected to be extendable to a variety of applications, but for this project, the focus will be on classification and mapping of sea ice.

Sea ice is an important component of the climate system and a key indicator of climate change. Sea ice is spatiotemporally dynamic, exhibiting a variety of evolving ice types that need classification for scientific analysis or operational planning. The mapping of sea ice at high spatial and temporal resolutions remains a scientific challenge. With the increasing availability of high-resolution remote sensing products such as SAR and lidar, there is a renewed desire for tackling this challenge. However, bridging data science and geoscience is key in successfully harnessing these large heterogeneous data for sea ice mapping.

The postdoctoral position will be homed in the Geography Department at CU Boulder and will actively collaborate with the co-PIs, scientists and students in the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) and CU Denver’s Department of Computer Science.

The postdoc duties will include:

Design and implement software and computational modules in collaboration with the team’s sea ice scientists, remote sensing experts, and spatial data scientists.
Draft and lead scholarly publications and reports.
Assist the PI with leading research activities within the group and project management.
Assist the PI with user evaluations and stakeholder engagement at NSIDC, NOAA, NCAR, the U.S. National Ice Center (NIC) and the Canadian Ice Service (CIS).
Assist in supervising graduate and undergraduate students in the team.
Assist in drafting successful research grant proposals.
Interface with other research groups at and beyond the NSF EarthCube community and the University of Colorado.
Work with research assistants to prepare training and outreach material, including easy-to-use Jupyter notebooks for product adoption.
Given the transdisciplinary nature of this postdoctoral position, we expect that the candidate has foundation in either one or both spatial data science and/or geosciences, with the position strengthening the postdoc’s expertise in both disciplines.

The qualified candidate will possess a majority of the following, with interest in developing the rest:

A Ph.D. in geography, geoscience, computer science, information science, statistics, or a cognate field is mandatory.
Research background and expertise in applied machine learning and particularly, deep learning.
Background and experience working with, spatial data, geographic information systems and earth observations.
Familiarity with passive and active microwave imagery, airborne and spaceborne lidar altimetry is desirable (examples include SAR imagery from Sentinel-1, lidar altimetry data from Operation IceBridge, ICESat and ICESat-2, and radar altimetry data from CryoSat-2).
Programming skills in Python, Scikit-learn and deep learning libraries (TensorFlow, or Keras or PyTorch). Working ability with R and its spatial packages is a plus.
Interest or background in visual analytics for interactive machine learning is desirable.
Experience working with cloud storage and compute instances is desirable.
Experience in working with the output of climate models is desirable.
Front-end development and visualization skills using D3.js, leaflet.js and the React framework is desirable.
Excellent oral and written communication skills.

Both beginning and senior postdoctoral candidates are encouraged to apply. To apply, please upload your CV, a research statement (no more than one page) and the contact information of references to the application portal:

https://jobs.colorado.edu/jobs/JobDetail/Postdoctoral-Associate/27487

Please direct your questions to Dr. Morteza Karimzadeh (karimzadeh@colorado.edu). Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis starting December 7, 2020 until the position is filled.

MS/PhD positions

Funded MSc/PhD positions are available in Dr. Morteza Karimzadeh’s research group at the Department of Geography, University of Colorado Boulder, starting Fall 2021. The application deadline is December 1, 2020. The positions are supported through TA and RA appointments.

The successful candidates will join a vibrant and growing team of graduate students and postdoctoral researchers. Our current spatial data science projects intersect with geovisual analytics, GeoAI and spatial statistics in a variety of domains including sea ice mapping and cryospheric data fusion, quantitative analysis of human mobility, geo-text analysis of various organizational and archival textual sources, and modeling spatial connectivity and dependence.

Details about the program can be found here. Please also note that we have a graduate application fee waiver for under-represented minority applicants and applicants with financial need.

For inquiries, please feel free to contact karimzadeh@colorado.edu with your CV, explaining how your research expertise or interests may align with the team, and what potential areas you’d be interested in working on in the future.