Research Associate I - Remote Sensing Ecologist

at  Colorado State University

DESCRIPTION OF WORK UNIT

The Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory is a research and teaching unit at Colorado State University with a mission “to ensure the sustainability of the Earth’s ecosystems through the generation and application of new knowledge.” The department’s interdisciplinary, ecosystem research promotes collaborations among disciplines and across fields of expertise at CSU and throughout the world. As a soft-money research unit, this role is critical to ensure adequate funding to sustain its vital role in the research community both locally and across the globe.
Colorado State University, located in Fort Collins, Colorado, is situated on nearly 5,000 acres of land, including the main campus, a foothills campus, an agricultural campus, and a mountain campus. Colorado State also has 4,600 acres for research centers, Cooperative Extension offices, and Colorado State Forest Service stations. Fort Collins is an award-winning city located on the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains with the foothills and 14,000-foot peaks visible to residents. Easy access to hiking, skiing, rafting and other outdoor sports is a great advantage to CSU students, faculty and staff.

POSITION SUMMARY

The Research Associate I will join the Vogeler Research Lab in the Natural Resources Ecology Laboratory at CSU to work on applied ecological remote sensing research. Work will primarily focus on western U.S. forest/woodland systems, with the potential of contributing to other lab projects across additional national and international forest/woodland ecosystems. The primary project this position will contribute to involves developing a set of direct forest structure measurements (e.g., canopy height, cover, forest strata densities, single tree extractions) and modeled forest attributes (e.g., biomass, basal area, single tree dead/live classifications) of value to forest inventory assessments and management planning across the Black Hills, SD, leveraging a recent high density LiDAR collection and existing field database. The RA-I position will be part of a collaborative project team, where we are looking for a candidate with experience in forest LiDAR processing, compiling geospatial modeling reference data sets, conducting analyses within R and/or Python, geospatial analyses in GIS software, and developing communication materials to help deliver the spatial products and results to stakeholders as well as the scientific community.

REQUIRED JOB QUALIFICATIONS

• A Bachelor of Science degree in ecosystem science, forest sciences, natural resources, or related ecological field
• Experience processing LiDAR point clouds within forest systems using open-source software packages (FUSION or lidR)
• Application of statistical analyses, image processing, data visualizations, and machine learning to spatial datasets in R or Python including creation of new codes as well as modifying existing code packages
• Extensive use of ArcPro or QGIS for geospatial data manipulations and analyses
• Demonstrated experience creating communication materials to relay project methods/results through storymaps and reports.

PREFERRED JOB QUALIFICATIONS

• Participation in projects with the end goal of informing forest management planning, particularly within U.S. forest systems
• Experience with single tree extractions using lidar or photogrammetry data/approaches
• High level of proficiency in code development in R and/or Python for remote sensing processing, geospatial analyses, image classifications, and spatial validations
• Demonstrated coordination with lab members for creative problem solving and exchanging information on new research, techniques, and tools
• Experience working on multiple projects simultaneously and quickly adjusting priorities

Please refer the Job description for details