Call for Postdoctoral Fellows

* Application deadline is 15 November 2024 *

The Institute of Global Change Biology (IGCB) at the University of Michigan is seeking another round of exceptional applicants for the IGCB Michigan Postdoctoral Fellows Program. Successful applicants will have the opportunity and support to advance research in any aspect of global change biology.  They will also be able to participate in programs that include career mentoring, professional development, and academic networking opportunities. Applicants with interest across all areas of global change biology are invited to apply. We encourage applicants to contact at least two potential postdoc mentors at Michigan– we highly encourage co-mentoring. Preference will be given to applicants who bridge disciplines; co-mentoring across schools/departments is strongly encouraged. Co-funding (e.g. through grants to potential co-mentors or postdoc fellowships to candidates) is also encouraged but not expected. Potential mentors and their areas of interest are available through our list of possible faculty mentors (see both the Steering Committee and Affiliated Faculty sections), although University of Michigan faculty mentors who are not yet affiliated with the IGCB will also be considered.
 

The application deadline is November 15 2024. Research in global change biology happens in many departments and units on campus, so Fellows could be jointly based in one of a number of departments and the IGCB. Successful applicants would be able to start their appointment as soon as feasible after a decision has been reached, but preferably not later than June 30, 2025 (although we can be flexible as needed). Most postdocs are expected to be for two years, although University protocols require a one-year initial appointment and subsequent evaluation. Postdocs of more than two years may be feasible when co-funding is available.

Applications must include: (1) A cover letter (1 page); (2) a CV; (3) a research statement including plans for proposed research and anticipated mentors at the University of Michigan (3 pages maximum),  including a short paragraph describing how the applicant’s research would fit in with and contribute to the IGCB Research Themes, (4) brief statement describing interest in, experience with, and commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusivity (1 page); (5) names and contact information for three references; please ask all three to upload their letters here. Combine all parts of the application into a single PDF and upload the file in the application form here. Contact the IGCB Program Manager (Dr Sarah Raubenheimer; [email protected]) with any questions.

U-M EEO/AA Statement

The University of Michigan is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer.

We invite applications from all fields of global change biology. * In addition to proposing a new project in collaboration with a faculty advisor, applicants also have the option to work on existing projects that already have partial funding from other grants. These pre-determined projects are available for IGCB-funded postdocs to join. Applicants can collaborate with the relevant faculty to incorporate these projects into their IGCB proposal. For more information, see the project descriptions at the end of this call. *
* Existing projects for possible partnership:

1. From trees to stands: Assessing forest ecosystems integrated multifunctionality at scales relevant to decision making
Faculty lead PI: Inés Ibáñez - SEAS
Co-PI: Aimee Classen - UMBS
 
The main objective of this project is to develop integrated models of forest multifunctionality at the stand-level that incorporate processes, products, drivers and, most importantly, codependencies across the atmospheric, vegetation, and soil components of a forest with the goal of identifying connections, feedbacks, and thresholds that advance integrated science and that inform sustainable management and conservation. The integrated analysis we propose will increase accuracy and precision of estimates of forest function by accounting for the interdependencies of water usage, biomass production, and decomposition, i.e., the integrated multifunctionality of systems. Contact Profs Ibáñez ([email protected]) and Classen ([email protected] ) if you are interested in writing your IGCB application to work on this project.

2. Combining ecological first principles and AI to better upscale and predict global carbon, nutrient and water cycles on a changing planet
Faculty lead PI:  Peter Reich – IGCB/SEAS
Co-PI: M Ombadi – CLASP, Inés Ibáñez – SEAS
Partner – A Banerjee (U. Illinois, Computer Sciences)
 
The proposed work will upscale CO2 and water vapor flux data, global observational ecological data, and global change experiment data to the globe to advance understanding of the interacting effects of multiple drivers and better quantify global patterns of carbon and water biosphere-atmosphere exchange. Those outputs will also serve as benchmarking for predictive process-based land surface modeling that incorporates improvements in ecosystem physiology, global change responses, plant- soil feedbacks, and global vegetation trait parameterization. Contact P Reich ([email protected]) if you are interested in writing your IGCB application to work on this project.

3. Quantitative Coupled Human-Ecological Dynamics under Climate Change 
Faculty lead PI:  Peter Reich – IGCB/SEAS
Co-PI: A Agrawal– SEAS
Partner – K Grace (U. Minnesota, Geography)

We seek to understand coupled and complex system dynamics across scales to examine (i) consequences of climate change mitigation and/or adaptation strategies from holistic and coupled human and ecological dimensions or (ii) the dynamics and mechanisms of social change in the face of climate change. The specific systems, geographic domains, and questions are open-ended, however we expect the postdoc to engage with the IPUMS center at the U. Minnesota, a world-leading census and survey data center. The human dimensions under study could include critical human outcomes such as household economic well-being, health, or social justice and equity, and the ecological dimensions could include ecosystem sustainability, health, function, or services. We will use multidimensional data sets to explore human/environment interactions in a context of climate change; the researcher will use spatial quantitative tools to link these data over time and space to land use, climate, political change and more. Contact P Reich ([email protected]) if you are interested in writing your IGCB application to work on this project.

4. Quantifying Effects of Diverse Wetland Features on Climate Change in North America
Faculty lead PI: Jessica Fayne - EES
Co-PI: Jenan Kharbush - EES
Co-PI: Alexandra Szcuka - CEE

Understanding how GHG in wetlands varies over diverse land use classes and climate zones is critical for identifying how potential manipulation or restoration of wetland components aiming to reduce climate change impacts may affect other competing ecosystem services provided by wetlands. While the scales of previous studies cannot provide the ability to make recommendations for the management, maintenance, or monitoring of wetlands to support CS, these studies provide useful frameworks for how we can study GHG fluxes at a high spatial resolution (100m), for a broad, continental scale. The main objective of this project is to use remote sensing to develop and improve scaling relationships between wetland characteristics and greenhouse gas fluxes, at sub-kilometer scales in North America. The goal of this work is to increase the accuracy and precision of GHG estimates, which will enable actionable interventions to be developed to improve carbon storage with supporting wetlands. The candidate should have strong remote sensing and/or modeling skills, which would enable them to assess the impacts of land cover variability. The researcher will help design and lead the research component of a pilot scale project to assess the impacts of vegetation type and vegetation health in wetlands on carbon flux estimates. The start date for this position is expected to be between January-March 2025. Contact Profs Fayne ([email protected]) and Kharbush ([email protected]) if you are interested in writing your IGCB application to work on this project.

5. Health effects of extreme climate events 
Faculty lead PI: Jennifer Head - SPH
Co-PI: Carina Gronlund - SPH
Co-PI: Mohammed Ombadi - CLaSP

Climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of adverse environmental conditions including heat waves, precipitation volatility, wildfires, and drought. These environmental hazards have been associated with many adverse health conditions, including increased pathogen transmission, increased risk of food- and water-related illness, decreased mental health and wellbeing, and mortality. The effects of climate on health are typically delayed and nonlinear, leading to discrepancies in the estimated exposure-response relationship across studies conducted in different locations and using different statistical approaches. Furthermore, the climate hazards themselves and the effects of climate hazards are not expected to be experienced evenly across axes of social vulnerability. Practices such as historical redlining and institutionalized racism have concentrated lower income, higher racial minority populations within areas with greater exposures to environmental pollutants. Populations with greater resources may have greater adaptive capacity to adjust to climate hazards. We seem to characterize Investigating modifiable social vulnerability factors that mediate the climate-health relationships can suggest actionable solutions to protect human health in the face of climate change. We aim to leverage a massive, national database of Medicaid and Medicare inpatient and outpatient records to 1) establish exposure-response relationships between climate exposures and health outcomes and 2) identify variation in exposure-response relationship across axes of social vulnerability in order to identify modifiable factors that might mitigate the exposure-response relationship. The ideal applicant is well versed in time series models for climate epidemiology, including distributed lag non-linear models, has prior experience summarizing environmental exposures across space and time, and has skills in GIS and R. Contact Prof Head ([email protected]) if you are interested in writing your IGCB application to work on this project.

Training Opportunities

These training opportunities are open to IGCB postdoc and graduate students, as well as other global change researchers who would like to make use of them. 

Postdoc Plus Community

The IGCB postdoc group has weekly sessions with the wider IGCB community, where postdocs (and sometimes grad students) can present their work, get feedback on research and/or manuscripts, or even just get advice on something they are working on. 

Lunch-and-learn

The IGCB hosts regular lunch-and-learn sessions where we invite a speaker to discuss various topics with us over lunch. 

Stats and coding help

The IGCB's Thiago Gonçalves-Souza organises a range of stats and programming related courses/sessions that all are welcome to join.