Earth Science Postdoctoral Scholar

Lawrence Berkeley National Lab’s (LBNL) Climate & Ecosystems Division has an opening for an Earth Science Postdoc, advancing the quantification of bedrock and soil physical properties from local to watershed scale, and the understanding of their impact on the ecosystem functioning, including plant health and survival, ground water storage and export, and downstream water quantity and quality.

You will be associated with Berkeley Lab’s Watershed Function Scientific Focus Area (SFA) project (watershed.lb.gov). This project focuses on developing a predictive understanding of how mountainous watersheds retain and release water, nutrients, carbon, and metals. In particular, the SFA is developing understanding and approaches to measure and predict how droughts, early snowmelt, and other perturbations impact downstream water availability and biogeochemical cycling at episodic to decadal timescales. The project includes field and numerical experiments in a mountainous watershed in the Upper Colorado River Basin.  

In this exciting role, you will work on improving the characterization of bedrock and soil properties that critically impact plant functioning, subsurface weathering processes, water storage, and downstream water quantity and quality. You will collaborate within a team to integrate the quantification of subsurface properties with hydro-biogeochemical measurements and remote sensing products for advancing the understanding of the impact of subsurface structure on various hydro-biogeochemical processes, and/or for improving the spatiotemporal resolution and coverage of the developed data products.

What You Will Do:

• Geophysical and hydrological investigations of soil and bedrock physical and hydraulic properties and their impact on above- and below-ground hydro-biogeochemical processes.
• Integrate in-well, ground-based and airborne geophysical measurements with point-scale datasets to improve the quantification of soil and bedrock structure. 
• Work collaboratively with a vibrant, large, multi-disciplinary team to integrate diverse datasets for improving the predictive understanding of watershed functioning.
• Participate in the development of a watershed-to-basin scaling construct that can be used to guide data acquisition and Earth systems model parameterization.
• Author peer-reviewed conference or journal papers, contribute to project products, and contribute to grant proposals.

What is Required:

• Ph.D. in Geophysics, Hydrogeology, Physics, Environmental Sciences/Engineering, Data Science, Computer Science, or other related technical disciplines.
• Understanding of geophysical techniques, watershed hydrology, landscape evolution and ecosystem processes.
• Demonstrated experience with geophysical field data acquisition, processing and interpretation.
• Understanding and application of data processing techniques such as stochastic and/or deterministic inversion techniques, and statistical methods for data analysis.

Desired Qualifications:

• Experience and knowledge in subsurface hydrological processes.  
• Experience with remote sensing data analysis. 
• Demonstrated record of publications and conference presentations.
• Interest in collaborative research, open science, and developing data products that will be used by a broad community.

Required Application Materials:

• Motivation letter (1 page max), CV and publication list

This position will remain open until filled.

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Notes:

• This is a full-time, 2 years, postdoctoral appointment with the possibility of renewal based upon satisfactory job performance, continuing availability of funds and ongoing operational needs. You must have less than 3 years of paid postdoctoral experience. Salary for Postdoctoral positions depends on years of experience post-degree.
• This position is represented by a union for collective bargaining purposes.
• Salary will be predetermined based on postdoctoral step rates.
• This position may be subject to a background check. Any convictions will be evaluated to determine if they directly relate to the responsibilities and requirements of the position. Having a conviction history will not automatically disqualify an applicant from being considered for employment.
• Work will be primarily performed at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, 1 Cyclotron Road, Berkeley, CA.
• Berkeley Lab is located in an environment recognized for offering a high quality of life, having both abundant natural beauty and exciting urban surroundings.

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