MS student for coupled natural and human systems project
The School of Marine Sciences at the University of Maine is seeking a to enroll a student as early as May or June 2010 in the dual masters degree in marine science and policy. The student will study and work on a strongly interdisciplinary research project funded by the Coupled Natural and Human Systems program within NSF. A competitive stipend, tuition, health and student fees will be provided for three years. The project combines the work of social, biological and computer scientists and will develop agent-based learning models meant to simulate the fine scale dynamics of social and natural systems in three fisheries in the Gulf of Maine.
We seek a student with training in the social sciences and knowledge of marine biology or ecology. The student must be research oriented and enthusiastic about working and learning in a multidisciplinary team. The student will participate in a set of research tasks that will include in-depth interviews and focus groups with fishermen and the translation of conceptual models into computational models. Training in computer science will be considered a plus.
Contact James Wilson, jwilson@maine.edu., for more information.
and see
http://www.umaine.edu/marine/programs/dual.php
Industrial Ecology and Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment
Graduate Research in Industrial Ecology and Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment of Complex Systems
Graduate Research Supervision is available at the School of Forest Resources/Forest Bioproducts Research Initiative of the University of Maine (USA) for any student of any academic background (e.g. engineering systems, industrial and systems engineering, computer science, mathematics, agriculture, chemical, civil, environmental engineering or computational economics, mathematical/computational biology, bioinformatics) with good academic standing. The applicant should be interested to pursue graduate studies at masters or PhD level in the area of life cycle sustainability modeling and assessment of complex systems (e.g. built environment, ecosystems, biorefinery, etc.).
A background in LCA, materials flow analysis (MFA) or industrial ecology is not required, but applicant should be willing to learn the concepts/principles to pursue the challenging research in sustainability science and engineering. Applicant should have or develop good analytical and database skills, knowledge of basic statistics and probability and be willing to learn new software packages (e.g.OPENLCA, CMLCA, STELLA, POWERSIM, Netlogo, Starlogo, MATLAB). It is also desirable that he/she has taken or will take a course in system dynamics, agent based modeling, genetic algorithm, evolutionary programming and other complexity science methods and tools.
This interdisciplinary research investigates the economic, social and environmental ramifications of building engineered complex systems in view of sustainability pursuit. We are interested to investigate and understand the coupling of human and natural systems to solve our pressing societal concerns.
This research involves close collaboration with industries, government agencies, and the other departments (e.g. chemical and biological engineering, civil and environmental engineering, economics, environmental science and biology) at the University of Maine.
Further information regarding research interests or topics and admission information can be accessed at http://ielcass.tripod.com/ilss/
If you are an international student, in addition to Graduate Record Examination (GRE) results, you should also have TOEFL (Test of English as Foreign Language) results for admission purposes.
To apply for this research position or for further information, contact Dr. Anthony Halog at anthony.halog@maine.edu.
PhD student for coupled natural and human systems project
The School of Marine Sciences at the University of Maine is seeking to enroll a Ph.D. student as early as May or June 2010 with a strong masters level or applied background in computer science, ecology or the social sciences and an interest in applying those skills to an integrated social-ecological study of three Gulf of Maine fisheries. Stipend, tuition, health and other fees will be funded for three years by a grant from the NSF Coupled Natural and Human Systems program. The student will be engaged in the design and implementation of a multi-agent learning classifier system and will work closely with economists, ecologists, anthropologists and computer scientists. The ideal candidate’s skill set would include knowledge and experience in the design and implementation of programs using object based programming languages, JAVA or C++, knowledge of evolutionary computational approaches and of statistics (using R), as well as experience designing and implementing Agent Based computational models using ABM platforms such as Repast.
Contact James Wilson, jwilson@maine.edu.
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