Postdoctoral Scholar:

We are currently looking for a postdoctoral scholar research position in hydrology and water resources. The successful candidate will carry out hydrologic modeling of Sierra Nevada watersheds, with particular emphasis on the American River basin. The modeling work that will be undertaken is intended to lead to improved understanding of how climate, vegetation, soil, and geologic characteristics control and modulate critical zone processes across a wide range of temporal and spatial scales (e.g., from headwater to river basin). The successful applicant will be expected to assemble historical and real-time hydroclimatic observations, in-situ field measurements, and remote sensing data that will be used to constrain numerical hydrologic models (including USGS/PRMS) that are increasingly important in prediction and forecasting of hydrologic processes. The successful applicant will join an interdisciplinary group working at UC Water Security and Sustainability Research Initiative (http://ucwater.org/) and Southern Sierra Critical Zone Observatory (http://criticalzone.org/sierra/). The scholar will meet with stakeholders and water managers, prepare manuscripts and reports based on the research. This position will be located at the UC Merced and UCLA campuses – the primary location can be either Merced or Los Angeles, depending on the applicant’s preference.

Link to application:https://aprecruit.ucmerced.edu/apply/JPF00589 (last date:3/22/2018).

Masters and Doctoral Students:

We are currently seeking applications for following positions:

1) Food–Energy–Water Nexus. The PhD student will engage in developing integrated modeling tools and analysis using systems engineering approach to natural resource management. The prospective student will analyze the nexus between food-energy-water systems, comprised of connected wildland-storage-cropland subsystems in California, and explore how different climate-adaption pathways affect resilience, vulnerability, and sustainability of CA’s highly leveraged rivers.  We are looking for students with hydrology, water resources engineering, system engineering backgrounds for 5-year USDA funded project. Experience in scientific programming, remote sensing, and data analytics are greatly preferred.

2) Forest Hydrology and Watershed Management. The MS or PhD student will engage in developing data and modeling tools to better understand and predict the effects of restoration treatments on forest health, water supply, and carbon. The prospective student will also engage in building partnerships, among different stakeholder groups, for improving drought resiliency and reducing high intensity wildfire risk while enhancing both forest health and water-related benefits. We are looking for students with watershed hydrology, water resources engineering, agriculture engineering, and forestry backgrounds for 2-year (possibly longer) USDI funded project. Experience in hydrologic modeling, snow, remote sensing, and data analytics are greatly preferred.

3) Groundwater and Surface-Water Interactions. The MS or PhD student will combine tracer and other data on groundwater inflow and subsurface storage to inform a detailed and high-fidelity model (i.e. ParFlow) to better understand the dynamics of snow and subsurface storage at varying geo-climatic settings of the Sierra Nevada under current and future climate. The prospective student will also explore lower-fidelity “surrogate” or “proxy” modeling technique using PRMS to capture and upscale the findings of the high-fidelity modeling to basin-scale at which water resources are managed. We are looking for students with hydrology, water resources engineering, and numerical modeling backgrounds for 3-year UCOP funded project.

Undergraduate Research Assistants:

We are always interested in passionate, hardworking students either looking for summer job opportunities or like to volunteer on research and/or educational outreach efforts related to our research projects. At this time, we are particularly interested in students with interests and skills (e.g. hiking, skiing, snowshoeing, ATV, snowmobile) in mountain hydrology. Good communication and teamwork skills are always a plus. If you are interested, please email Dr. Safeeq (msafeeq@ucmerced.edu) or stop by his office (SE2 room 377) for more information.