[ES_JOBS_NET] Recruiting Ph.D., M.S. students in flux research and rice agriculture, U Arkansas Bio & Ag Engineering

[Ben Runkle]

*Biological Engineering/Science PhD students wanted*



I am recruiting a PhD and/or MS student to join the Landscape Flux Group
within the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering at the
University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The research projects
will be based in rice agricultural systems in Arkansas, where we are
working with farmers to modify irrigation practices to reduce methane
production while saving water. The projects use flux budgeting methods to
understand the landscape’s ecological and hydrological functioning. This
research will connect between site dynamics and climate drivers with the
goal of creating simplified process representations used at the scale of
the global climate model. Resources are available for travel, equipment and
international collaboration. The projects are in collaboration with
scientists from the USDA-ARS office in Jonesboro, AR.



These positions can start immediately, in January 2016, or in summer or
fall of 2016. Students should have a background in one or more of the
following disciplines: environmental or biological engineering, wetland
ecology, biogeochemistry, biometeorology, watershed or surface-water
hydrology, agricultural sciences or engineering. Some ability to code in
Matlab or a related language is beneficial, as is experience in gas flux
measurements using either chamber-based or eddy covariance methods. These
positions will require (eventually) a valid US driver’s license.



My research group develops budgets of water, energy, and carbon in
different wetland ecosystems. This research uses micrometeorological
techniques to evaluate land-atmosphere fluxes of water vapor, carbon
dioxide, methane and heat. For example, the eddy covariance technique is
used to determine the turbulent flux within atmospheric boundary layers,
whereas hydrological methods are used to estimate the horizontal fluxes of
dissolved carbon in surface and subsurface waterways. Together these
methods quantify major environmental fluxes that serve as inputs for
process-based predictive modeling and landscape management. More
information on my group is available on my website (
http://wordpress.uark.edu/brrunkle/).



Additional information about graduate admission requirements, possible
supplemental fellowships, and material about the department may be found
here: http://bio-ag-engineering.uark.edu/Academic/Graduate_Program/index.php.
A non-engineering pathway for a Ph.D. is possible through the U of A’s
Environmental Dynamics program (
http://environmental-dynamics.uark.edu/index.php). Information about the
university and its land grant mission may be found here:
http://arkansas.edu/about/index.php. Furthermore, the university offers
competitive Doctoral Academy and Distinguished Doctoral Fellowships, which
are significant awards over and above the departmental stipend. Details on
these opportunities are available here:
http://grad.uark.edu/future/funding/index.php.



The University of Arkansas is in the middle of a significant period of
growth in both its student numbers and in raising its profile in research
and innovation. There are significant opportunities here for collaborations
on-campus in water, soil, nanotech, and other laboratories. Fayetteville
Arkansas is a beautiful and culturally vibrant college town amidst the
Ozark Mountain Range. There are plentiful outdoor recreational activities,
good restaurants, and proximity to the world-class art collection of the
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.



Please email me, Dr. Benjamin Runkle (brrunkle at uark.edu), with a CV, GRE
scores, TOEFL if relevant, unofficial transcript, the names of two
references, a sample of your scientific writing, and a description of your
research interests. I am committed to EO/AA principles and a diverse
workplace.


Benjamin R. K. Runkle

Assistant Professor, Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering

The University of Arkansas, Fayetteville AR 72701

ENGR 231

Phone: 479-575-2878

brrunkle at uark.edu

http://wordpress.uark.edu/brrunkle/

http://scholar.google.com/citations?user=SeZEXyoAAAAJ&hl=en
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.ucar.edu/pipermail/es_jobs_net/attachments/20160104/0a4475f3/attachment.html