PhD student in research education subject area Forest Management

Department of Forest Resource Management, SLU
The Department of Forest Resource Management conducts teaching and research in the areas of Mathematical Statistics Applied to Forest Sciences, Forest Remote Sensing, Forest Inventory and Sampling, Forest Planning and Landscape Studies. The Department is also responsible for several environmental monitoring and assessment programs, including the Swedish National Forest Inventory, National Inventory of Landscapes in Sweden, Terrestrial Habitat Monitoring and the Butterfly and Bumblebee Inventory. The work done by the Department combines research and environmental analysis in cross-disciplinary projects, which gives unique opportunities to develop holistic approaches for a sustainable use of the natural resources. At the Department there are approximately 100 employees. For more information visit: www.slu.se/srh 

Description:
In the 4-year project the PhD student will primarily be working with the development of statistical theory for change estimation within hierarchical model-based (HMB) inferential framework using a combination of remotely sensed data such as LiDAR data collected by NASA’s GEDI and ICESat-2 missions; airborne LiDAR data; multispectral data collected by ESA’s Sentinel-2 and NASA’s Landsat missions, and other sensors. The project is financed by FORMAS (ref. FR-2019/0007) and will be carried out by a group of researchers at the Department of Forest Resource Management, SLU, and collaboration with United State Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service, the University of Maryland, and NASA. The main objectives of the project is threefold:


• To develop a HMB statistical framework for the change estimation of forest attributes such as biomass and volume, through fusion of different remotely sensed and field data sources.
• To demonstrate the performance of the HMB-methods through case studies utilizing a combination of different remotely sensed data.
• To evaluate under what conditions the HMB method for change estimation is to be preferred over other methods, through analytical and empirical comparisons.

Qualifications:
We are looking for candidates with a Master’s degree that is preferably within three years of the application date (parental leave disclosed from the accounted time period). The Master’s degree should be in remote sensing or related forest sciences, forest biometrics or a related discipline but with main focus on forest attributes assessment. Other required qualifications is experience of forestry analytics and good communication skills with fluency in English (written and oral). Other merits are experience of R programming language and GIS software. 

Place of work:      
Umeå

Form of employment:
Employment, 4 years

Starting date:
1 April 2020 or according to agreement

Application:
We welcome your application no later than 2020-03-01, use the button below.

A person has basic eligibility for third cycle education if he or she has taken a second cycle qualification or has completed course requirements of at least 240 higher education credits, including at least 60 higher education credits at second cycle education. Upper secondary school grades equivalent to English B/English 6 are a basic requirement.

Selection among applicants meeting the requirements is made with reference to written application including curriculum vitae, copies of degrees and transcripts of academic records, one copy of the dissertation for masters or undergraduate degree, a list of at least two references familiar with the applicant's qualifications, certified knowledge of the English language and an interview.

Please observe that applicant/s chosen to participate in an interview shall hand in certified true copies of certificates, diplomas and transcripts from previous studies at an internationally recognized higher education institution (university or university college) and transcripts in connection to the interview. If the applicant is a foreign citizen we require a certified copy of the page in your passport with your personal data and photography.

Read about the PhD education at SLU at www.slu.se/en/education/postgraduate-studies/

Academic union representatives:
https://internt.slu.se/en/my-employment/employee-associations/kontaktpersoner-vid-rekrytering/



The Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) develops the understanding and sustainable use and management of biological natural resources. The university ranks well internationally within its subject areas. SLU is a research-intensive university that also offers unique degree programmes in for example rural development and natural resource management, environmental economics, animal science and landscape architecture.

SLU has just over 3,000 employees, 5,000 students and a turnover of SEK 3 billion. The university has invested heavily in a modern, attractive environment on its campuses in Alnarp, Umeå and Uppsala.

www.slu.se

SLU is an equal opportunity employer.