Job Opportunities

Open Rank Faculty Position in Stable Isotope (Bio)geochemistry or Ecology, University of California Merced

The University of California Merced invites applications for an open rank faculty position. Successful candidates should have a record of accomplishment including a productive and nationally/internationally visible research program in stable isotope (bio)geochemistry or ecology. Consideration of applications will start on January 1, 2017. For more information, see here.

Job Opportunities at Geological Survey of Finland (GTK): Research Professor/Chief Expert in Geomaterials and Applied Mineralogy and Chief Expert in Urban Geology

The GTK is a leading European competence centre on assessment and sustainable use of geological resources. They invite applications for two positions:

1. Research Professor/Chief Expert in Geomaterials and Applied Mineraology
2. Chief Expert in Urban Geology

For more information, please see here and here.

Canada Research Chair - Tier II, Coastal Zone Processes, Dalhousie University

This Tier II Canada Research Chair (CRC) is one of a cluster of CRCs to coincide with the establishment of the OFI. The appointment is tenure stream and will be made at the Assistant or Associate Professor level in teh Department of Earth Sciences. 

Assessment of applications will begin January 5, 2017. For more information, see here.

Tenure-Track Assistant Professor in Quantitative Watershed Hydrology, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Windsor

The University of Windsor's Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences (EES) invites applications for a tenure-track Assistant Professor position in the area of Quantitative Watershed Hydrology, commencing July 1, 2017. This position is subject to final budgetary approval.

The application deadline is November 15, 2016. For more information, see here.

Bulletin Board

Writing Across the Curriculum Program Workshop - Providing Effective Feedback on Writing Assignments

Date: Thursday, October 13

Time: 9:30am-12:00pm

This two and a half-hour workshop introduces feedback strategies that focus on using educator time effectively and encouraging students to both use feedback and take responsibility for the quality of their science writing. The workshop benefits both new and experienced educators by providing participants the opportunity to reflect on their current feedback strategies and to practice some strategies with peers.

To register for the workshop (or express interest in a future offering) please visit: http://scwrl.ubc.ca/wac/workshops

UBC Global Health Conference

The Global Health Conference at UBC is back! We invite you to join us on October 14th and 15th at the Life Sciences Centre to become inspired and explore the nuances of socioeconomic disparities in health care, learn about traditional medicine and types of health care systems, discuss issues related to reproductive rights, and other global health issues.

This year’s conference includes talks by four keynote speakers, a show debate, workshops, a panel, highlighted projects and an innovation jam. For further information about the conference, please visit our website and like our Facebook page.

There are a limited number of seats so get your tickets early! You can register for the conference by clicking here.

SCIE 300 "Communicating Science" - Interviewees Needed

On behalf of the SCIE 300 “Communicating Science” teaching team I ask you to help us recruit researchers for the science outreach/communication project in the course.  We need faculty, post-docs, and/or graduate students who are willing to be interviewed (on camera) about a recent (2015/2016) or soon-to-be-published paper they (co-)authored. The interviews are part of a class project that encourages students to think about the many ways science is communicated. Those who take part can gain helpful knowledge of how their exciting science can be communicated to audiences outside of those who read the journals.

We would like to especially invite graduate students and post-docs to give the interviews, as this may be a great way to feature their work directly and to gain (first?!) experience with outreach work. Please ask faculty to forward this invitation to their lab members and encourage them to participate.

SCIE 300 students are third- or fourth-year science undergraduates, mostly in the Combined Major in Science program. The interview would likely take place in the week of November 7th. It will be the responsibility of the students to schedule the interview. We do not expect that the set-up, interviews, and any follow-up will take more than about an hour of your or your student’s time. When appropriate and possible, permission to film in the lab/in the field and to have access to images related to the work may add to the experience. The students will create a blog post written in journalistic style, a short podcast, and a short video about your research.

Examples of last year's projects are available at: http://blogs.ubc.ca/communicatingscience2015w212/

The researchers will receive a copy of the video and podcast that they can use for their own purposes (website, blog, etc.).

Any researchers interested in participating in this class project should email Reinhard Jetter (E-Mail-To) with their contact information, a brief description of the research, and a PDF of their paper by October 13th. If the paper is still in press, it will not be discussed outside of class or made public in any way before the official publication date.

Thank you very much for helping us with this request.

Ed Kroc, Bruce Dunham, Sarah Burke and Reinhard Jetter
SCIE 300 Teaching Team 

2017 International Ocean Colour Science Meeting - Call for Breakout Workshops

The 2017 International Ocean Colour Science Meeting (IOCS-2017) will take place May 15-18, 2017 in Lisbon, Portugal, convened by the IOCCG in partnership with, and thanks to sponsorship from, EUMETSAT, ESA, NASA, and the European Commission.

We now invite proposals for parallel breakout workshops that will address current critical issues in ocean colour science and provide feedback to the space agencies.

The deadline for proposals is November 30, 2016. For more information, see here.

10-Day Renewable Energy Iceland Program, Summer 2017

The GREEN Program invites you to join us in Iceland for our 1-day Renewable Energy & Sustainability program to gain exclusive education, industry access, and authentic bucket-list experiences in one of the greenest countries on the planet.

For more information, see here.

Funding Opportunities

GAC Mineral Deposits Division: New Student Field Trip Program to Fund Economic Geology Based Field Trips

The Mineral Deposits Division of the Geological Association of Canada has initiated a new student field trip program to help fund economic geology based field trips. Funding of up to $1000 will be awarded annually to groups who submit strong application packages by the deadline of October 31st.

Please see the attached application form for more details. Applications may be submitted via email to: E-Mail-To

Seminars

Peter Wall Institute Free Public Talk: Unifying the Universe, by Dr. Andrei Barvinsky

Please join us for Unifying the Universe, a free public talk by International Visiting Research Scholar Dr. Andrei Barvinsky of the Lebedev Physics Institute in Moscow, Russia:

One reason why physics is so effective as a science is the “separation of energy scales” in Nature—phenomena occurring at different scales can be described using different methods and models. However, there are also remarkable unifying principles, relating vast galactic structures extending across billions of light years down to the Higgs boson, sixteen orders of magnitude smaller than a pinhead. The mechanism behind this unification, threading the whole history of our Universe from its quantum birth until now, is called “cosmological inflation”. This extremely rapid expansion of the very early Universe also gives us what is in effect a gigantic microscope, allowing a glimpse into the mysteries of its quantum creation and the beauty of the underlying mathematical constructions.

Date:                   Wednesday, October 12, 2016
Time:                   7:30 pm
Location:              St. John’s College, Fairmont Lounge, 2111 Lower Mall, Vancouver, BC

You do not need to register for this event.

IRES Seminar Series: Gunilla Öberg

Title: Let's talk about poo

Date: October 13, 2016

Time: 12:30pm-1:30pm

Location: AERL Theatre (room 120), 2202 Main Mall

Abstract:

Push the button and it’s gone! A white porcelain flush toilet has become a symbol of civilization. The introduction of central sewer systems in European and North American cities in the late 19^th century was indeed extremely successful from a local public health perspective but the long-term sustainability of the ‘out of sight out of mind’ approach is increasingly questioned. In this talk, I will provide an overview of the questions of concern and how these have changed over time from the end of the 19^th century until today. I will touch upon how these concerns have been framed and ‘solved’, and discuss how the technical framing of sewage management hides the fact that all solutions have unequal distribution of risks and benefits. To illustrate, I will use as a case the presently ongoing revision of BC’s OMRR (Organic matter recycling regulation), which regulates land-application of the semi-solid residual that remains after treatment (aka biosolids) and the stakes involved in the conflict that erupted in Nicola Valley in 2015, which led to that the revision process stranded (see for example Friends of Nicola Valley on Facebook).

For more information about the talk see here.