Two-year postdoc: developing inventory strategies

Institutionen för skoglig resurshushållning
The Department of Forest Resource Management conducts education and research in the areas of forest planning, forest remote sensing, forest inventory and sampling, forest mathematical statistics and landscape studies. The department is also responsible for the implementation of the ongoing environmental monitoring programs the National Forest Inventory, National Inventory of the Landscape in Sweden, Terrestrial Habitat Monitoring and the Butterfly and Bumblebee Inventory. In total, we are about 100 employees. More information can be found at www.slu.se/srh.
Read more about our benefits and what it is like to work at SLU at https://www.slu.se/en/about-slu/work-at-slu/

Duties
We are looking for a post-doctoral researcher with a particular interest in forest inventories. The focus of the work is developing cost-efficient inventory strategies for young forests, from the regeneration phase to a first thinning. During the regeneration phase, seedlings and saplings are prone to various kinds of damage and it is important to identify areas where additional silvicultural measures are needed. New techniques for forest inventories are currently being developed, such as surveys assisted by drones. A first part of the work will be to assess possibilities offered by existing and new techniques for surveying regenerations and young stands. A second part of the work will be to develop inventory strategies that are cost-efficient in the sense that they minimize the sum of inventory costs and losses due to potentially inadequate decisions based on the data acquired. This involves modeling the development of young stands with systems such as the Heureka planning system. Thus, although the focus of the post-doctoral position is forest inventory, it will also include parts of remote sensing, growth modeling and forest planning.

The forest company Stora Enso finances the project. The project group will involve postdoc supervisors from SLU as well as experts in practical forest inventory, forest planning, and silviculture from Stora Enso.

Qualifications
Applicants must have a PhD in one of the areas silviculture, forest management, forest inventory, remote sensing, forest economy or forest planning, and a strong interest in applied forestry in the boreal region. As postdoctoral appointments are career-developing positions for junior researchers, we are primarily looking for candidates with a doctoral degree less than three years old, although applications from researchers with older degrees will also be considered. Good writing, reading and oral abilities in English are required. Personal qualities such as analytical- and problem solving capacity, and ability to work both independently and collaboratively, are important. Experience from work within the subject areas described under “duties” is a merit.

Place of work
Umeå

Form of employment
Temporary employment 24 months, with the possibility of extension.

Extent
100%

Starting date
According to agreement. 

Application
We welcome your application no later than 2023-05-25, use the button below.

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



Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet (SLU) har en nyckelroll i utvecklingen för hållbart liv, grundad i vetenskap och utbildning. Genom vårt fokus på samspelen mellan människa, djur och ekosystem och ett ansvarsfullt brukande av naturresurserna bidrar vi till en hållbar samhällsutveckling och goda livsvillkor på vår planet. Huvudorter är Alnarp, Umeå och Uppsala, men verksamhet bedrivs också på forskningsstationer, försöksparker och utbildningsorter i hela landet.

SLU har drygt 3000 medarbetare, 5000 studenter och forskarstuderande och en omsättning på över tre miljarder kronor. Universitetet satsar på attraktiva miljöer på sina campusområden. Vi arbetar för en jämställd och inkluderande arbetsmiljö där öppna samtal mellan människor med olika erfarenheter lägger grunden för vetenskaplighet, kreativitet och utveckling. Vi välkomnar därför personer med olika bakgrunder och perspektiv att söka den aktuella anställningen.