Post Doctoral Research Associate - Conservation Scientist

UMass Amherst • Amherst, NY

3d • Onsite

About The Position

The University of Massachusetts Amherst seeks a postdoctoral researcher to help strengthen Massachusetts’ preparedness for chronic wasting disease (CWD), a fatal transmissible prion disease affecting deer, elk, and moose. The work combines human dimensions research and quantitative wildlife disease research, with a focus on understanding stakeholder knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors and preparing a coordinated state response if CWD is detected. The researcher will be part of the U.S. Geological Survey Massachusetts Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit and will collaborate with federal scientists, state agency biologists and outreach staff, and researchers at partner universities.

The position involves analyzing existing stakeholder surveys, helping design and facilitate a multi-agency tabletop exercise, and translating findings into response-plan revisions, decision tools, and communication materials. Depending on the researcher’s interests and skills, the role may also include quantitative modeling of wildlife disease arrival, spread, and management actions. The researcher is expected to lead and co-author peer-reviewed manuscripts, prepare research reports, and make code and data available for release. This is an in-person position based at UMass Amherst; fully remote arrangements are not available. Some travel within Massachusetts and the Northeast is expected.

Requirements

• PhD in human dimensions of natural resources, conservation social science, ecology, conservation, epidemiology, wildlife science, or a related field.
• Experience with quantitative analysis in R.
• Evidence of scientific writing, such as published or submitted peer-reviewed manuscripts or technical reports.
• Strong written and oral communication skills.
• Ability to work collaboratively with agency partners.

Nice To Haves

• Experience designing or analyzing surveys of human knowledge, attitudes, or behavior, including weighted survey analysis or ordinal regression.
• Experience facilitating workshops, structured decision-making processes, or tabletop exercises.
• Experience with wildlife disease, wildlife health, or wildlife management.
• Experience with quantitative modeling, such as Bayesian methods, decision analysis, or spatial and epidemiological modeling.
• Experience working with or within state or federal natural resource agencies.
• Experience with reproducible workflows and version control (Git).

Responsibilities

• Analyze three existing statewide CWD stakeholder surveys to quantify knowledge, attitudes, and regulation-relevant behaviors, and identify hunter subpopulations at greatest risk of importing CWD into Massachusetts.
• Help design and co-facilitate an in-person, multi-agency tabletop exercise simulating CWD detection scenarios and testing the state’s reactive response.
• Translate tabletop exercise results into a revised reactive-response section of the state CWD response plan and a positive-detection decision tree linking preventative, surveillance, and reactive actions.
• Co-design pre-positioned communication materials with state agency outreach and education staff, using survey data on communication channels and trust.
• Lead and co-author peer-reviewed manuscripts, write research reports, and prepare code and data for release.
• Depending on interest, time, and skills, update and extend decision models to identify effective management actions under alternative CWD arrival modes.
• Depending on interest, time, and skills, contribute to quantitative modeling of CWD spread and time-to-arrival in the Northeast.
• Depending on interest, time, and skills, develop and analyze a One Health survey for state agencies concerning communication, jurisdiction, and workflows.
• Depending on interest, time, and skills, develop materials and templates adaptable by other CWD-negative states in the region.
• Work collaboratively to promote teamwork, equality, and inclusiveness, support the College of Natural Sciences’ strategic priorities, and perform other duties as assigned.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: Ph.D. or professional degree