• Full-time at 37.5 hours per week (1.0 FTE)
• Fixed Term for three years.
Applications are invited from suitably qualified candidates for a three year fixed term post-doctoral fellowship to study the importance of non-additive competition in plant communities. The objective of this work is to develop and apply a novel framework for quantifying high-order competitive interactions in large empirical datasets in order to critically examine the role played by non-additive competition in mediating local to large-scale patterns of plant diversity.
The main focus of this project (funded by the Marsden Fund Council of the Royal Society of New Zealand) is to gain a greater understanding of how higher-order interactions impact, for example, coexistence dynamics and local patterns of diversity. You will be expected to develop novel analytical, computational, and statistical approaches for the study of higher-order interactions, and you will have the opportunity to influence and drive the specific modelling approach used. Your cover letter should therefore outline the skills and experience you have in this regard.
As the successful candidate, you will be based in the group of Assoc. Prof. Daniel Stouffer in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand. The group is explicitly multidisciplinary - including biologists, physicists, engineers, and more - and also has a distinctly international composition. More information about our research group can be found at
http://stoufferlab.org.
The research will also be conducted in close collaboration with Assoc. Prof. Margaret Mayfield (project co-PI) from the University of Queensland, Australia (
http://mayfieldplantecologylab.org), so you will have multiple opportunities to spend time in Dr. Mayfield's lab at the University of Queensland during the course of the project. Notably, this position is also aligned with a larger set of related endeavours being undertaken by members of the two research groups (at the postgraduate and post-doctoral levels), as well as ongoing empirical studies led by Dr. Mayfield and her team as part of a recently awarded Australian Research Council Discovery Grant (to Drs. Mayfield and Stouffer).
Download the full Position Description on our website.
The University of Canterbury is committed to promoting a world-class learning environment through research and teaching excellence, and has a vision statement of 'People Prepared to Make a Difference'. You will have the opportunity to work alongside members of a diverse academic community and enrich your own professional and personal development.
For information about the range of benefits in joining UC please visit us online at:
http://www.canterbury.ac.nz/joinusThe closing date for this position is Saturday, 8 April 2017.
Applications for this position should include a cover letter describing their research interests, background, and suitability for the position, curriculum vitae, and the names and contact details of three referees, combined into one document and submitted online.
Should you have queries in relation to this role, please forward these to Assoc. Prof. Daniel Stouffer at
[email protected]