Postdoctoral Fellow in In-situ Data and Spatial Mapping for Soil Health Assessment

Ref. No. SU FV-1647-23

at the Department of Physical Geography . Closing date: 30 May 2023.

The Department of Physical Geography is one of the major departments within the Faculty of Science. The department has approximately 110 employees and educates approximately 1 000 students annually. Education is oriented towards geography, geosciences, biology-earth sciences, and environmental protection and environmental management. The main research areas are: Geomorphology and Glaciology; Water, Permafrost and Environmental Systems; Climate Science and Quaternary Geology; and Landscape, Evironment and Geomatics. We offer a stimulating and friendly environment in a very diverse and international department.

Project description
Healthy soils support ecosystem functioning, biogeochemical cycling and provide humanity with food, fuel and fiber. Globally, degrading soils are losing both fertility and carbon content, and thus also contribute to greenhouse gas emissions. The European Union (EU) is strongly committed to develop sustainable farming practices and improve soil fertility across Europe. The Department of Physical Geography, Stockholm University is a partner in the EU project AI4SoilHealth (https://ai4soilhealth.eu/ ) that started 1 January 2023. Within the project, Stockholm University is responsible for developing in-situ tools for observation and monitoring of soil health, including combining different data types and development of a tool for rapid assessment of soil health that other partners will implement in a mobile phone app. 

New and emerging instruments and methods for collecting in-situ data will be evaluated together with both legacy data from traditional method and ongoing European and national soil monitoring programs. State-of-the-art Remote Sensing data will be provided through other project partners.

Main responsibilities
Inventory, collect and evaluate data from emerging networks of sensors  (e.g. soil spectroscopy, soil enzyme activity, TreeTalker55, PhenoCam, Digit soil reader, and IoT sensors based observation). Coordinate and support collection of data acquired from other project partners, which will include data from measurements of soil spectral properties, soil environmental DNA (eDNA), soil macrofauna and model output on soil organic carbon turnover. Develop tools to improve quality and usability of these data and their use for assessing soil health. Fusing all of these in-situ datasets and test the significance of each of them for predicting key soil properties across Europe. Contribute towards the development of a mobile phone app for field data collection, analysis and presentation of in-situ data fused with EO indicators and ancillary data.

The position involves interactions with multidisciplinary groups consisting of soil scientists, biologists, geographers, ecologists, modelers and social scientists. We are looking for a postdoctoral researcher with experience of working with soil data from both in-situ and remote sensing soil observation, and application of Artificial Intelligence for predicting soil properties from the combined data.

Qualification requirements
Postdoctoral positions are appointed primarily for purposes of research. Applicants are expected to hold a Swedish doctoral degree or an equivalent degree from another country.

Assessment criteria
The degree must have been completed at latest before the employment decision is made, but no more than three years before the closing date. An older degree may be acceptable under special circumstances. Special reasons refer to sick leave, parental leave, elected positions in trade unions, service in the total defense, or other similar circumstances as well as clinical attachment or service/assignments relevant to the subject area.

In the appointment process, special attention will be given to research skills, knowledge in soil observations form in-situ and remote sensing data and modeling and analyses skills.

Required qualifications include:

• A doctoral degree in a relevant field, including computer science, data science, environmental science, geoscience or ecology
• Understanding of soil mapping and monitoring from Remote Sensing data, preferably using Machine Learning
• Ability to work in a multidisciplinary team
• Independence and critical thinking demonstrated by scientific publications
• Excellent communication skills in English.

Desired qualifications include:

• Practical knowledge in data mining
• Knowledge in Python and relational databases
• Hands-on experience with app development
• Previous experience with algorithm development
• Previous experience of data-model integration.

Terms of employment
The position involves full-time employment for a minimum of two years and a maximum of three years, with the possibility of extension under special circumstances. Start date 2023-07-01 or as per agreement.

Stockholm University strives to be a workplace free from discrimination and with equal opportunities for all.

Contact
Further information about the position can be obtained from Professor Gustaf Hugelius, telephone: +46 8 674 78 73, [email protected] , or Thomas Gumbricht, [email protected]

Union representatives
Ingrid Lander (Saco-S), telephone: +46 708 16 26 64, [email protected] , Alejandra Pizarro Carrasco (Fackförbundet ST/OFR), telephone: +46 8 16 34 89, [email protected] , and [email protected] (SEKO).

Application
Apply for the position at Stockholm University's recruitment system. It is the responsibility of the applicant to ensure that the application is complete in accordance with the instructions in the job advertisement, and that it is submitted before the deadline.

Please include the following information with your application

• Your contact details and personal data
• Your highest degree
• Your language skills
• Contact details for 2–3 references

and, in addition, please include the following documents

• Cover letter
• CV – degrees and other completed courses, work experience and a list of publications
• Research proposal (no more than 3 pages) describing:
  – why you are interested in the field/project described in the advertisement
  – why and how you wish to complete the project
  – what makes you suitable for the project in question
• Copy of PhD diploma
• Letters of recommendation (no more than 3 files)
• Publications in support of your application (no more than 3 files).

The instructions for applicants are available at: How to apply for a position .

You are welcome to apply!

Stockholm University contributes to the development of sustainable democratic society through knowledge, enlightenment and the pursuit of truth.

URL to this page
https://www.su.se/english/about-the-university/work-at-su/available-jobs?rmpage=job&rmjob=20859&rmlang=UK