Post-doctoral Associate

Description:

The candidate will operate under the supervision of Prof. John Burt, head of the NYUAD Marine Biology Lab, and will be affiliated with the recently established Arabian Center for Climate and Environmental Sciences (ACCESS). In this interdisciplinary research center, which focuses on regional environmental change and where Burt serves as co-PI, the candidate will collaborate closely with researchers across NYUAD units including ACCESS, the Marine Biology Laboratory, the Center for Genomics and Systems Biology (CGSB), the Water Research Center (WRC), and the CITIES Center, thus integrating into a diverse and dynamic team with research spanning genomics and molecular biology to ecosystem-level ecology.

Responsibilities include leading the UAE’s National Coral Reef Monitoring Program, which encompasses monitoring reef benthos and fish populations at 25 sites across the Emirates through standardized methods. The candidate will also coordinate the regional coral reef monitoring program with collaborators in neighbouring countries, ensuring methodological and data consistency. This will involved organizing and leading annual regional data-sharing and capacity building workshops to ensure consistency in survey methods, data and metadata standards, and analyses and archival. Through this leadership role, the candidate will oversee and direct the writing of the regional assessment for the 2025 Global Coral Reef Monitoring Program (GCRMN) status report, a venture under the International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI). The candidate is also expected to develop a research portfolio leading to first-author publications by leveraging historic and current monitoring data, or by introducing new research directions.

Required Qualifications And Experience
 

• Completed PhD in marine biology or a related field
• Certified SCUBA diver with a minimum of 50 dives
• Expertise in coral reef field surveys, specifically in both benthic and fish identification
• Proficiency in univariate and multivariate analyses of ecological data
• A record of first-author publications that include reef survey data
   

Desired Qualifications And Experience
 

• Rescue diver and/or dive instructor qualifications
• Drivers license in home country
• Small craft/boat operators license/certification
• Competency in benthic image analyses, particularly with CoralNet or ReefCloud
• Experience or familiarity with MERMAID (datamermaid.org)
• Experience in size estimation of fish for biomass calculation
• Previous work on reefs in the western Indian Ocean/Arabian region
• Training and lead capacity-building experience in reef monitoring
• Versatility in writing and presenting for diverse audiences
• Commitment to the principles of open science