The Columbia Climate School, Center for Climate Systems Research (CCSR) is seeking a Postdoctoral Research Scientist (PDRS) to work in the area of global crop modeling and climate change assessment at its Morningside campus in New York City, co-located at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies.

The PDRS will be part of an international team within the Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP) helping to advance our understanding of historical and future crop breeding efforts in view of expected climate change impacts. The project is in collaboration with Corteva Agriscience and while the candidate will be located at Columbia University in New York City, they are expected to participate in research visits to the Corteva Headquarters in Indianapolis, IN.

The successful candidate will primarily be working with the global gridded crop model pDSSAT to calibrate and evaluate various historical, current, and hypothetical corn hybrid lines under different climate change scenarios. We will leverage Corteva’s Era trial dataset to parameterize crop cultivars, but also to infer future breeding requirements needed to offset expected adverse climate impacts. We will test the modeling framework in a reginal setup and then expand to other maize growing regions globally to develop a novel picture of potentially attainable maize productivity under climate change worldwide.

Insights from these modeling exercises will be of significant interest for a broad audience and we will pursue publication of the results in high-ranking peer reviewed journals. The work will be integrated into the AgMIP Global Gridded Crop Modeling Initiative (GGCMI), a highly collaborative and active research community with international visibility.  

We are seeking a skilled crop modeler with agronomic expertise and experience working with the DSSAT crop model, ideally at larger spatial scales. Good coding skills are a requirement (R or Python, Fortran, and shell script).

• A PhD in required in agronomy, earth-system sciences, geography, physics, computer science, or related field.
• Experience in crop modeling, large-scale crop impact analyses.
• Strong coding skills (R, Python, Fortran, shell script) and expertise in large data processing is required.

This position is appointed annually, contingent on performance and can be extended pending further funding. Dr. Jonas Jägermeyr will be the Columbia University supervisor.

The search will remain open for at least 30 days after the ad appears and will remain open until the position is filled.

Columbia University benefits are offered with this Officer of Research appointment.

We accept online applications only. 

Columbia University is an Equal Opportunity Employer / Disability / Veteran

Pay Transparency Disclosure

The salary of the finalist selected for this role will be set based on a variety of factors, including but not limited to departmental budgets, qualifications, experience, education, licenses, specialty, and training.  The above hiring range represents the University?s good faith and reasonable estimate of the range of possible compensation at the time of posting.

About Columbia University

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