The mission of VIMS (Virginia Institute of Marine Science) is to seek and broadly communicate knowledge in marine and coastal science to the Commonwealth of Virginia, the nation, and the world through research, education, and advisory service.

VIMS’ strategic sections are committed to the development of resilient systems through a focus on three grand challenges, ensuring science for stewardship of:

1. Ecosystem Health: connecting physical, chemical, biological, and socioeconomic systems to address environmental and community vulnerabilities
2. Natural Resources: providing translational science for sustainable management of coastal socio-ecological systems, especially fisheries and aquaculture
3. Coastal and Ocean Processes: connecting global trends and local drivers to understand and address environmental change

Position Summary

The purpose of this position is to conduct research on how coastal landscapes respond to sea level rise, with emphasis on how saltwater intrusion impacts coastal forests, farmland, and salt marshes. The primary responsibility of the position is to use remote sensing and long-term ecological and geomorphological monitoring data to quantify landscape evolution in the mid-Atlantic sea-level rise hotspot, as part of the NSF (National Science Foundation) Coastal Critical Zone Network. However, the successful applicant will also develop independent research topics consistent with the goals of the applicant, the VIMS Coastal Ecogeomorphology Lab, and its broad group of collaborators and stakeholders. The position is in Dr. Matt Kirwan’s lab at VIMS.

Required Qualifications

• Ph.D. in an environmental related field (e.g., geoscience, biology, environmental science, forestry), or in a computational related field (e.g., physics, engineering) coupled with experience in environmental applications is required at the time of appointment.
• General knowledge of how ecosystems respond to global change.
• Experience in Remote Sensing/GIS.
• Proven research background with strong writing ability evidenced by submitted and published journal articles.
• Experience in coastal wetlands, forests, or an analogous ecosystem.

Preferred Qualifications

Experience in one or more of the following areas preferred:

• Spatial analysis,
• Cloud-based big data analysis,
• Field and lab methods associated with coastal environments,
• Numerical modeling,
• Wetland migration into uplands,
• Long-term ecological data,
• Ecohydrology, and
• Coupled human-natural systems including agriculture.

Learn more about this opportunity and how to apply.