event 25 feb. 2020

Scholarship // Graduate Research Assistants (Food-energy-water systems (FEWS))

The Advanced Science Research Center (ASRC) at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY) has openings for two graduate students to work on an NSF-funded collaborative research project, involving seven research institutes including academia and national laboratories. The goal of this project is to explore contemporary and future challenges to food-energy-water systems (FEWS) of the Northeastern and Midwestern United States, in light of climate change and its extremes.

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Two graduate student positions available:

POSITION 1: Model Integration and Optimization of Food, Energy, Water Nexus Systems Across the Northeastern and Midwestern United States

As multiple models should be linked in this project, their harmonization becomes an essential part of the project, especially given the sizable number and range of climate and sectoral scenarios and the large volumes of outputs to be generated.Alongside with data integration, an optimization scheme should be exercised to maximize positive outcomes, net present value over the planning horizon, while minimizing externalities that could yield improved outcomes across the FEWS domain. The optimization will be formulated as capacity expansion and/or inter-basin resource (water, energy, food) allocation models that seek to maximize net present value over the future planning horizon.

Eligible backgrounds

Candidates with experience in one or more of the following fields of training are sought:

-- Civil/Environmental Engineering

-- Earth System Science

-- Energy Systems

-- Applied Mathematics

-- Operational Research

Primary responsibilities:

  • Creating an analysis framework comprising advanced modeling and data integration capable of evaluating the impact of climate trends and extremes on the state and dynamics of natural and engineered infrastructure;
  • Organizing overall data handling and workflows (model execution in space and time, I/O management for forcing data, state variables and diagnostics, final data outputs);
  • Developing optimization algorithms, including electric power production systems and renewable energy;
  • Analyzing capacity expansion for water storage, food or energy production.

Qualifications and skills sought:

  • Understanding data quality, data profiling and extraction, transformation and load (ETL) tools;
  • Prior experience with optimization techniques and algorithms applied to environmental and/or energy systems;
  • Programing experience (MATLAB, Python, R or C++);
  • Good numerical, statistical and uncertainty analysis skills;
  • Excellent oral and written communication skills;
  • Demonstrable ability to learn new ideas;
  • Presentation skills for internal team meetings and scientific conferences.

Core competencies/qualifications:

Candidate should have completed a bachelor’s degree by the time of appointment in an appropriate field of study, from an accredited institution. Masters and PhD degree candidates are sought.

How to apply:

Please submit as separate documents your CV, a statement of research interests, and contact information for three references at https://www.rfcuny.org/careers/postings?pvnID=RC-2002-003523. For further information and questions, please contact Prof. Charles J. Vörösmarty (cvorosmarty@gc.cuny.edu) or Dr. Ehsan Najafi (enajafi@gc.cuny.edu).

POSITION 2: Regional Modeling of Nutrient Pollution Arising from Food, Energy And Water Systems under Climate Extremes

One aspect of this work will focus on the associated water quality issues. The selected candidate will work under the supervision of Dr. Richard Smith and colleagues at the United States Geological Survey (USGS) in Reston, VA to develop and analyze nutrient pollution arising from FEWS using the SPAtially Referenced Regression On Watershed model (SPARROW).

Primary responsibilities:

  • Developing and analyzing nutrient pollution arising from FEWS;
  • Handling seasonal nutrient flux over decadal periods, based on a dynamic formulation with transient storage components including historical nutrient source input legacies;
  • Extending Sparrow to the daily time step using re-parameterization techniques;
  • Estimating probability distributions of daily stream fluxes;
  • Testing SPARROW against existing calibration and validation data, specifically: observed discharge, temperature and quality at USGS gauges, USGS- National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA), and multi-agency data syntheses.

Qualifications and skills sought:

  • Prior experience with water quality modeling and/or SPARROW;
  • Experience with statistical modeling, particularly with SAS;
  • Programing experience (MATLAB, Python, R or C++);
  • Excellent oral and written communication skills;
  • Demonstrable ability to learn new ideas;
  • Good numerical skills;
  • Presentation skills for internal team meetings and scientific conferences.

Core competencies/qualifications:

Candidate should have completed a bachelor’s degree by the time of appointment in an appropriate field of study, from an accredited institution. Masters and PhD degree candidates are sought.

How to apply:

Please submit as separate documents your CV, a statement of research interests, and contact information for three references at https://www.rfcuny.org/careers/postings?pvnID=RC-2002-003522. For further information and questions, please contact Prof. Charles J. Vörösmarty (cvorosmarty@gc.cuny.edu) or Dr. Ehsan Najafi (enajafi@gc.cuny.edu).

Position type

Scholarship

Organization Type

University/Academia/Research/Think tank

Apply by

12 March 2020

Access

https://findajob.agu.org/job/8012003/graduate-research-assistants/

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