On behalf of the Government of Canada, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada develops policies and programs and undertakes research to achieve security of the food system, health of the environment and innovation for growth. Within this broad mandate, an important objective is to assess and to manage the risk to water quality from agricultural pollutants.
Postdoctoral Research Position in Microbial Water Quality
Within a large multi-disciplinary research team working on water quality in agricultural watersheds, the successful applicant will conduct research to: i) use mechanistic watershed modeling tools to predict the fate and transport of microorganisms in heavily monitored watersheds under changing climate and land use situations; ii) use advanced data mining statistical and geoinformatics tools to uncover relationships amongst microbial water quality endpoints (eg., indicator bacteria and pathogens) and environmental factors linked to diffuse pollution in watershed settings. The successful candidate will work in close collaboration with science team leaders, geoinformatics and field technicians, and graduate students currently working on watershed scale monitoring and modeling activities.
The candidate should have a strong scientific record in ecological modeling (microbial water quality specialization preferred), and/or watershed scale modeling of water pollutants in agricultural settings.
Please email a CV, a statement describing your motivation to apply, and names of three potential referees as a single PDF file to Dr. David R. Lapen (AAFC) at David.Lapen@agr.gc.ca.
Starting date for the position is February 1, 2010 or as soon as possible thereafter. The successful candidate will be supported by the NSERC Visiting Fellowships in Government Laboratories program [www.nserc.ca]. Fellowships are awarded annually for up to 3 years.
Deadline for applications is 20 December 2009 or until the position is filled.