Postdoc position in physical oceanography of polar regions – McGill University, Montreal

Title

Impact of ocean mesoscale heat transport on sea ice retreat

Description

Fundamental questions remain on how polar oceans will respond to climate change and how rapidly changes will occur. One burning question relates to the role played by the ocean in shaping the sea ice cover and on the subsequent impact on sea ice melting. As satellite sensors become more able to capture small scale features, there is growing evidence that ocean and sea ice interact at fine scale, suggesting for instance that ocean mesoscale and submesoscale eddies significantly influence sea ice spatial and temporal patterns. Furthermore, most climate models overestimate sea ice extent, suggesting that key processes responsible for transporting heat toward the sea ice region are missing in these models. Addressing the role of oceanic fine scale processes on sea ice pattern and evolution is key to improve our ability to project climate change. This is of particular relevance to the Arctic where dramatic melting of the sea ice cover has been observed over the past decades.

The postholder is expected to conduct original research on the interaction between ocean and sea ice at fine scale by performing numerical model simulations and analyzing model output, and to write academic manuscripts. Dedicated high performance computing resources are available at Compute Canada HPC center to run high-resolution simulations. The postholder will be part of a dynamic group working on the role of polar regions in the climate at McGill University and will be encouraged to develop national and international collaborations with colleagues working on similar topics.

Desirable skills and knowledge

– PhD degree in physical oceanography or related fields

– Experience in ocean-sea ice numerical model development (preferably with the MITgcm) and analysis

– Experience with calculation on High Performance Computing platforms

– Excellent oral and written communication in English

Location

The department of atmospheric and oceanic sciences is located at McGill University, an English-speaking university located in Montreal, one of North America’s most cosmopolitan cities. For more information about McGill University and the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, please see http://www.mcgill.ca/meteo.

Conditions

The salary will be CAD$55,000 per year plus benefits.

The position is initially for one year, with the potential for extension to 3 years.

The preferred start date is September 2020 but is flexible.

Funds are available to attend national and international conferences.

The postholder will be offered opportunities for professional development includingteaching and mentoring of undergraduate or graduate students.

Equity and diversity

McGill University is committed to equity and diversity within its community and values academic rigour and excellence. Hence, all qualified candidates are encouraged to apply.

If you are interested in this position, please send a cover letter explaining how your interests and experiences would make you a suitable candidate; and a CV including a list of publications and contact information from 3 references by February 9^th 2020  to Carolina Dufour (carolina.dufour@mcgill.ca). Evaluation will begin immediately and continue until the position is filled.

Summary

WHO MAY APPLY: This position is open to the public

King County values diverse perspectives, life experiences and differences.  The Water and Land Resources Division encourages people of all backgrounds to apply, including people of color, immigrants, refugees, women, LGBTQ, people with disabilities, and veterans.  We are committed to being equitable and fair in providing equal access to opportunities for all.

Forms and Materials Required:

• King County application form (applying online satisfies this)
• Resume,
• Cover letter, and
• Answers to two supplemental questions are required.

Position Purpose
King County Water and Land Resources Division maintains an ongoing, long-term marine monitoring program that tracks Puget Sound physical, chemical, and biological conditions over time and assesses impacts from human activities. More information about this program is available here: http://green2.kingcounty.gov/marine. The person in this position will be part of the small Marine Monitoring Program team within the WLRD Science Section.  This team coordinates closely with field and laboratory staff who are primarily responsible for data collection. The person in this position will lead efforts to provide technical support within and outside WLRD by evaluating a wide variety of physical and chemical marine water data to describe conditions and impacts, seasonal and annual variability and trends, and compliance with water quality regulations. The person in this position will conduct quality assurance and quality control review of continuous and discrete physical and chemical marine water data, trouble-shoot any identified data quality issues with field and laboratory staff, conduct statistical analyses of marine data, manage data contracts with other organizations, prepare data reports and sampling and analysis plans. The person in this position will make presentations to both technical and non-technical audiences. The person in this position will also be participating in regional marine monitoring programs, such as the PSEMP Marine Waters Workgroup, is expected to take a leadership role in providing technical expertise on marine water quality issues, such as nutrients and ocean acidification.Job Duties

• Conduct quality control/quality assurance review of physical and chemical marine water datasets collected as part of an ongoing, long-term monitoring program, including continuous sensor, CTD profile, and discrete samples.
• Trouble-shoot data quality issues with field and laboratory staff and assist in developing methods and protocols that maximize data quality and reliability.
• Design project strategies, schedules, and work plans – taking a lead role in working with field staff at the KCEL.
• Analyze, interpret, and present physical and chemical marine water data for spatial and temporal differences and trends, correlations between parameters and other factors, and comparisons to water quality criteria.
• Preparation of technical memoranda, sampling and analysis plans, and reports for physical and chemical marine water data.
• Enter physical and chemical marine water data into data management systems, and assist with identifying and guiding improvements to the data management systems.
• Assist with the coordination of marine waters field-sampling and analysis activities with the King County Environmental Laboratory and occasionally assist with field sampling activities.
• Serve as a technical lead in regional marine monitoring program work groups and provide expertise on Puget Sound marine water quality issues, such as nutrients, ocean acidification, and climate change.

Experience, Qualifications, Knowledge, Skills

• Bachelors’ degree in oceanography, marine science, or closely related discipline or equivalent education or experience.
• Knowledge of the principles of oceanography equivalent to that obtained in the earning of a bachelor’s degree in oceanography or the equivalent.
• Experience synthesizing technical information and writing reports and memos for technical audiences.
• Knowledge of sampling protocols pertaining to the use of continuous sensors in marine waters and the collection of discrete samples for laboratory analyses.
• Experience assessing marine pH data and knowledge of ocean acidification sampling protocols and data quality control.
• Knowledge of Puget Sound circulation and water quality.

Two years of experience:

• Assessing physical and chemical marine water data, including quality control of continuous and CTD sensors.
• Assessing data quality, including review of any available quality assurance/quality control samples and assignment of data qualifiers for continuous sensor and CTD profile data.
• Conducting statistical analyses with marine data and using graphical and statistical software beyond Excel such as R, Ocean Data View, Python, Matlab, SigmaPlot, Primer, etc.

Supplemental Information

Physical Requirements

• Ability to carry 20 pounds over uneven ground to sampling sites along the shoreline.
• Ability to collect field samples from a boat.

Desirable Qualifications

• Knowledge of state and federal water quality standards and criteria.
• Knowledge of National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit program.
• Knowledge of ArcGIS, and SQL.

Work Location: King Street Center, 201 South Jackson Street, Seattle, and various field locations along King County’s Puget Sound shoreline and on boats on Puget Sound.

Work Schedule: This position works a 40-hour week and is not overtime eligible.

Working Conditions
Work will generally be performed in an office environment with minimal exposure to safety and health hazards. Occasional field work is required on boats and along the shoreline.

Necessary Special Requirements

• A valid Washington State Driver’s License or the ability to travel throughout the County in a timely manner.
• An offer of employment will be contingent on the success of a pre-employment physical examination.

Union:
Positions in this classification are represented by Teamsters, Local 117

Supplemental Questions (will serve as writing example)
Please submit answers to the following two questions, limiting your answers to one (1) page total for both questions combined.

https://www.governmentjobs.com/careers/kingcounty/jobs/2669483/water-quality-planner-project-manager-ii-oceanographer

STEMSEAS, a ship-based, 6-10 day exploratory experiences for undergraduates to engaging   geoscience and oceanography activities. Currently, STEMSEAS transit is looking for instructors and mentors. To learn more about STEMSEAS visit: https://mlp.ldeo.columbia.edu/stemseas/

NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL) in Seattle WA is seeking a Research Oceanographer to serve as a principal investigator in the Global Ocean Ship-based Hydrographic Investigations Program (GO-SHIP).   The primary responsibilities of the incumbent will be managing the physical oceanographic portion of the NOAA/PMEL GO-SHIP program, ensuring high-quality CTD/O2 measurements on NOAA GO-SHIP cruises, serving as chief or co-chief scientist on some of those cruises, and publishing oceanographic analyses using GO-SHIP data in refereed scientific journals. The position will also afford opportunities for multi-disciplinary oceanographic research (e.g., involving transient tracers or biogeochemistry)  in GO-SHIP, the Argo program, or possibly other oceanographic observation programs.

https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/555503600

University of Plymouth is leading a major project to deliver a new Ocean Forecasting Centre in Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates). The project is based on modelling, observations, data analysis and predictions of the physical marine environment in the Northern Indian Ocean carried out by the Plymouth Ocean Forecasting Centre (POFC) in collaboration with the Met Office and other partners. Employment for this post is through University of Plymouth Enterprise Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of the University of Plymouth.

This is an exciting chance to be part of a progressive and cutting-edge University  in a beautiful location, where you can really make a difference.

Based in the Plymouth Ocean Forecasting Centre (POFC), you will be responsible for the development, set up, evaluation and delivery of high resolution ocean models, mainly those based on the NEMO (Nucleus for European Modelling of the Ocean) codebase.

You will contribute to the upgrade, recalibration and error correction, where necessary, of the NEMO ocean models already developed in Plymouth and installed in Abu Dhabi, and also contribute to the development of other software products. You will be responsible for warranty support of the software products already developed by POFC. The job will require knowledge of, and ability to modify FORTRAN and Python code. You will also need to have expertise in the use of numerical models of ocean circulation, or equivalent related expertise. Experience of computer programming on LINUX-based systems in a number of programming languages is essential as well as knowledge of parallel computing on an HPC cluster. Knowledge of NEMOVAR or a similar data assimilation software is desirable.

You may be assigned to the wider work of POFC as appropriate. This will in turn provide developmental opportunities for you and help broaden your experience. The role involves working visits to the Ocean Forecasting Centre in the United Arab Emirates.

Key Accountabilities include:

• Use the high resolution ocean models to forecast and hindcast the state of the ocean including temperature, salinity, currents, sea level height and other parameters.
• Conduct tests using numerical models to investigate the structure, properties and dynamics of the ocean.
• Develop and apply numerical models and techniques to assist in the solution of scientific problems.
• Research, interpret and analyse complex data using a variety of systems.
• Develop technical documentation for the software.
• Contribute to the training of UAE staff including the planning, delivery and evaluation of a programme of skills development.

The responsibilities of this post may be amended by the Project Lead within the general scope and level of the post.

Please demonstrate how you meet the essential criteria outlined in the knowledge, qualifications, training and experience elements of the job description in your supporting statement.

For an informal discussion to find out more about the role then please contact Prof Georgy Shapiro by email gshapiro@plymouth.ac.uk or by telephone on 01752 584721.

Interviews are likely to take place on 12 February 2020 and you will be notified if you have been shortlisted or not.

We offer a competitive salary package and a generous pension and holiday scheme. We also offer a range of other benefits, including ongoing development opportunities.

This is a full-time position contract working 37 hours per week on a fixed-term basis until 31 October 2021 due to funding with the potential for extension.

The University of Plymouth is committed to equality of opportunity, promoting a diverse and inclusive culture, demonstrated through our commitment to the gender equality Athena SWAN Charter and as a Stonewall diversity champion. All applications will be judged solely on merit, however, we particularly welcome applications from groups currently under-represented in the workforce, for example black and minority ethnic groups.

University of Plymouth holds a TEF (Teaching Excellence and Student Outcomes Framework) Silver by the Office for Students.

Learn more and apply

Summary

https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/555688500