The Department of Natural Resource Ecology and Management Department (NREM) in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Iowa State University is seeking a full-time postdoctoral scholar to work on a 2-year project focused on equipping conservation professionals and farmers with tools to facilitate edge-of-field (EOF) conservation practices to meet nutrient reduction goals in the Upper Mississippi River Basin. The project will examine the factors and successes of ongoing, innovative approaches to scaling up EOF implementation and translate lessons learned into practice implementation plans to be used in other projects and regions of the Upper Mississippi River Basin.
The successful candidate will provide leadership and assistance with the following project components:
Compile, evaluate and summarize methods, tools, and resources being used to implement conservation practices in the Upper Mississippi River Basin
Develop, conduct and analyze semi-structured interviews and/or focus groups with key stakeholders involved in innovative conservation delivery methods about intervention strategies and engagement approaches
Integrate and synthesize collected information into process models and user-friendly toolkits to be shared with conservation practitioners to enhance implementation of EOF practices in the Upper Mississippi River Basin
Explore and amend geospatial data and GIS-based decision support tools (DSTs) to support conservation implementation in the Upper Mississippi River Basin
Participate in additional project activities as needed
Specific duties include data development, management, analysis, and synthesis. The postdoc will have the opportunity to collaborate with diverse project partners, and may mentor undergraduate students. The postdoc will be encouraged to produce scholarly materials and Extension and outreach materials directed at stakeholders.
Required Minimum Qualifications:
§ Ph.D. must be completed prior to start date.
§ Ph.D. in sociology, geography, natural resource management or planning, environmental science or studies, sustainable agriculture, or a related field.
Preferred Qualifications:
§ Preference will be given to candidates with demonstrated experience and background in conservation practice technical assistance and implementation and agricultural systems in the Upper Mississippi Basin
§ Preference will be given to candidates with demonstrated proficiency in qualitative data collection and analysis
§ Preference will be given to candidates with demonstrated experience in working on interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research and with diverse project teams
§ Preference will be given to candidates with demonstrated communication skills in the form of Extension and outreach, research presentations and peer-reviewed journal articles
§ Preference will be given to candidates with an interest in or experience with geospatial data and GIS-based decision support tools (DSTs)
Project Partners:
Co-investigators in this project include Iowa State University, Agricultural Drainage Management Coalition, Illinois Sustainable Agriculture Partnership, and Soil and Water Conservation Society. The NREM Department is housed in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, which is dedicated to the Land Grant missions of teaching, research, and extension. The Department is broad in scope, with undergraduate majors in Animal Ecology and Forestry, and graduate majors in Fisheries Biology, Forestry, Wildlife Ecology, and several Interdepartmental Graduate Programs.
Websites:
Department of Natural Resource Ecology & Management (https://www.nrem.iastate.edu/)
Agricultural Drainage Management Coalition (https://admcoalition.com/)
Illinois Sustainable Agriculture Partnership (https://ilsustainableag.org/)
Soil and Water Conservation Society (https://www.swcs.org/)
Additional Information:
Dr. Thomas Isenhart
Professor
NREM
Iowa State University
515-294-8056
Dr. Emily Zimmerman
Assistant Professor
NREM
Iowa State University
515-294-2853