[Jobs] [PERN] Terra Populus job openings (fwd)

[Ron Lee]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 8 Sep 2011 05:22:52 -0400
From: Alex de Sherbinin <adesherbinin at CIESIN.COLUMBIA.EDU>
To: PERN at listserver.ciesin.columbia.edu
Subject: [PERN] Terra Populus job openings


Research Project Manager, Terra Populus

1 Aug 2011

The Minnesota Population Center at the University of Minnesota has an immediate opening for an experienced
research fellow or research associate to serve as project manager on its newly-funded National Science
Foundation DataNet project, Terra Populus: A Global Population/Environment Data Network. Find position
details, qualifications, and application instructions in the attached announcement.





Research Fellow/Research Associate, Terra Populus

University of Minnesota Twin Cities

Duties/Responsibilities: The Minnesota Population Center (MPC) at the University of Minnesota seeks an
experienced research fellow or research associate to serve as project manager on its newly-funded National
Science Foundation DataNet project, Terra Populus: A Global Population/Environment Data Network
(TerraPop). Working closely with the TerraPop Executive Committee, the project manager will share
responsibility for implementing three major components of the TerraPop infrastructure: software
development, archival development, and education and outreach. The manager will have oversight or direct
responsibility for most of the following: - Overseeing data collection: creating an inventory of global
datasets describing land use, remote sensing, climate, social and economic conditions, and political
boundaries; acquiring data, when appropriate, for inclusion in TerraPop; and preparing metadata for these
data collections. - Creating integrated and interoperable data: merging data from diverse data sources and
different geographic boundaries; creating consistent geographic measures; and developing processes to
automate these integration tasks. - Working with the software development team to produce a web-based data
access system: developing requirements for a data access system that allows users to define and download
datasets with environmental and population data; providing data to be used in the system; and reviewing
and testing the system at various level stages of development. - Managing project reporting and
documentation: completing quarterly and annual reports for NSF and maintaining project management
documents. - Coordinating outreach and training for new TerraPop data resources with other MPC staff. -
Collaborating as necessary with researchers on related MPC projects, particularly the Integrated Public
Use Microdata Series (IPUMS) and the National Historical Geographic Information System (NHGIS).
Researchers at the Minnesota Population Center conduct grant-supported research in population studies and
are expected to participate intellectually in the life of the center with faculty, other researchers, and
graduate student members. These activities could include: writing and submitting grant proposals;
preparing and presenting data to co-workers and co-investigators; presenting research findings at
workshops and conferences; and, authoring (or co-authoring) reports, conference papers and publications.

Required/Preferred Qualifications: Required: For Research Fellow, a master's degree or A.B.D. doctoral
candidate (completed preliminary exams). For Research Associate, a Ph.D. Degree must be in a social or
environmental science discipline (e.g. geography, sociology, economics, or history). Excellent written and
verbal communication skills. Excellent computer skills. Experience with Geographic Information System
(GIS) or imaging processing (ERDAS or IDL) software. Demonstrated knowledge of and experience with
population, land use, land cover or climate data. Preferred: Knowledge of and experience with
international population and environment (land use, land cover or climate) data. Successful project
management experience including demonstrated ability to organize tasks, management of multiple priorities,
and record of meeting deadlines. Supervisory experience. Experience collaborating with academics and
technical staff in a diverse, interdisciplinary environment. Demonstrated ability to learn new information
technology. Familiarity with at least one major statistical software package (SAS, Stata, R or SPSS), a
programming language and/or Unix.



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Alex de Sherbinin

Senior Research Associate

Deputy Manager, NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center

CIESIN – The Earth Institute at Columbia University

Lamont Campus, 61 Route 9W (PO Box 1000)

Palisades, NY 10964

Tel. +1-845-365-8936

Skype: alex.desherbinin

http://www.ciesin.columbia.edu



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