Postdoctoral Fellow in Cross-Scale Fire Ecophysiology

A one-year postdoctoral position, with the possibility of extension for an additional year depending on performance evaluation and funding, is available to join an interdisciplinary research teaching effort focused on Cross-Scale Fire Ecophysiology.
The University of Idaho is hiring a full-time, post-doctoral researcher (based in Missoula, MT) to investigate linkages between wildland fire behavior and resulting ecological effects at micro- to macro- biological scales. The goal is to utilize these linkages for improvements to computational fluid dynamic fire models. The post-doctoral researcher will primarily investigate factors influencing thermal tolerance of plant tissue to heating associated with wildland fire. The position is a collaboration between the University of Idaho, USDA Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station, and Los Alamos National Laboratory to conduct research on thermal tolerance and dose-dependent responses of plants and aerosolized microbiota that can be incorporated into computational fluid dynamics models to predict fire effects across pedosphere, biosphere, and atmosphere boundaries.
The position requires expertise in plant ecophysiology and laboratory and field experiments used to measure plant stress and/or biological response to heating. Experience in wildland fire behavior and/or fire ecology is preferred. The incumbent will work closely with members of a multi-disciplinary team and will lead coordinating experiments and data management for the team. While knowledge of computational fluid dynamic fire models is not required, the incumbent is expected to work closely with modelers and gain an understanding of model requirements and limitations such that experimental output can be used for model innovations. The incumbent will publish results in peer-reviewed journals.
The successful candidate will report to a faculty supervisor in the Department of Natural Resources and Society at the University of Idaho, in Moscow, ID. The incumbent will be a University of Idaho employee, but will be stationed in Missoula, MT to conduct experiments at the Rocky Mountain Research Station's Fire Sciences Laboratory. Some travel to Moscow, ID and elsewhere will be required.