Postdoctoral Fellowship

University of Auckland

A 2-year postdoctoral fellowship is available immediately to join an international multidisciplinary collaboration for the development of a new statistical methodology for prediction of climate-change impacts on phytoplankton productivity in coastal marine ecosystems.

Climate change affects New Zealand's coastal marine ecosystems, impacting on an increasing number of people and human activities. Changing climate can cause shifts in both the abundance, community composition and productivity of phytoplankton, single-celled algae at the base of the marine food web. Management strategies for mitigation of and adaptation to climate-change require quantification of risk. The project seeks to refine and advance stochastic simulation-based technology for statistical combination of ecosystem models and observations and involves both statisticians and oceanographers (Renate Meyer, Auckland, Mike Dowd, Dalhousie, Philip Boyd, Otago).

The post would suit either a statistician who would like to move into ecological and environmental statistics or a biologist/oceanographer with a strong quantitative aptitude who wishes to learn cutting-edge statistical methodology.
Advantageous qualifications include:

knowledge of Bayesian statistics and MCMC or similar techniques,

good programming skills,

excellent written and oral communication skills,

a good publication record,

knowledge or interest in data assimilation and marine ecosystems.

The salary will be within the Lecturer scale (L1/L2 currently at NZ$66,334/NZ$68,486). To apply, send cover letter describing your research interests and interest in the position, with CV and names of three references. Application materials should be sent by email (preferred) to meyer@stat.auckland.ac.nz, or mail to

Dr. Renate Meyer
Department of Statistics
University of Auckland
Private Bag 92019
Auckland 1142, New Zealand

Applications will be considered as they arrive, starting in April 2008. For informal enquiries and discussion about this position please contact Associate Professor Renate Meyer, 64-9-373-7599 ext. 85755 or meyer@stat.auckland.ac.nz.