A Post-Doctoral Fellow position will open starting January 2008 for at least 2 years in the Environmental Health team of the Research Branch of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. The successful candidate will join a multidisciplinary team made of modellers in agriculture, remote sensing specialists and micrometeorologists. The project is funded by the Canadian Space Agency. The objective consists in deriving above-ground crop biomass from hyperspectral reflectance and radar. The candidate will be involved in the ground-truthing acquisition and analyses, dataset preparation for model verification and in the crop biomass modeling, as follows:
- Preparation of biological, micrometeorological and weather datasets for crop growth simulators, namely DNDC and STICS
- Calibration and validation of crop growth simulators for corn, soybean, and spring wheat under eastern Canada conditions
- Determination of the predictive potential of crop growth simulators through sensitivity analyses of specific descriptors and inputs
- Coupling of crop growth simulators with data acquired from remote sensing with the objective of expressing both temporal and spatial variability observed at the field level
- Contribution to the preparation of annual reports and scientific articles
Required expertise and qualities:
- Ph.D. related to modelling in agricultural or biological sciences
- Good knowledge of techniques used for simulating the development and growth of agricultural crop
- Excellent abilities in handling large data files and in the interpretation of outputs from crop growth simulators
- Basic knowledge in climatology and micrometeorology.
The candidate will be actively involved in communicating the research results (workshops, conference and scientific papers). He/she should be fluent in English (oral and written) and have a valid driver’s licence. Knowledge of French is an asset.
For more information on the funding program please follow the link:
http://www.nserc.gc.ca/sf_e.asp?nav=3Dsfnav&lbi=3D3d
To be eligible the candidate must have obtained its PhD within 5 yrs of the PDF duration (i.e., in this case it means 3 yrs)
The candidates should fill as soon as possible Form 200 to apply for a Visiting Fellowships in Canadian Government Laboratories (VF) (http://www.nserc.gc.ca/forms/pdf/F200_e.pdf) and refer to the instruction to do so (http://www.nserc.gc.ca/forms/instructions/200/e.asp)
CDN$ 43724/yr - Expenses paid to move to Ottawa, Canada
The first year the position will be located at the Central Experimental Farm, in Ottawa (Ontario, Canada), and the second year it might be relocated to the research centre of St-Jean-sur-Richelieu (Quebec, Canada).
Please submit your resume, cover letter and the names and coordinates of three referees either by mail or email to:
Dr. Elizabeth Pattey
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
2010-960 Carling Avenue
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0C6 Canada
patteye@agr.gc.ca