Tenure-Track Assistant Professor in Estuarine and Coastal Sciences
The University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES)'s Chesapeake Biological Laboratory (CBL) is excited to announce an opportunity to join our highly interactive, multi-disciplinary and successful faculty as an Assistant Professor. UMCES is an accredited university within the 12-member University System of Maryland. CBL is one of four strategically located laboratories that allow UMCES to meet our unique mission of providing information on any aspect of the environment that affects the citizens of Maryland or informs people who make decisions on their behalf.
Located where the Patuxent River meets the Chesapeake Bay, CBL is the oldest, publicly supported marine laboratory on the East Coast of the United States. Founded in 1925, it has been a national leader in estuarine and coastal fisheries, ecology, environmental chemistry, and toxicology for more than 90 years. Our scientists conduct research in environments within the Chesapeake Bay and around the globe. From advising state and national agencies on sustainable fisheries management and breaking new ground in understanding elemental and chemical cycling between the atmosphere, sediments, and water to renowned work on nutrient dynamics and the food web, CBL scientists are developing new scientific approaches to solving the major environmental problems that face our world.
We seek a new colleague whose research interests expand and complement our existing strengths. Our emerging strategic foci include understanding and forecasting change in (1) urban estuaries, (2) seascapes, and (3) coastal resilience. Individuals applying novel, quantitative field-based approaches to questions of relevance to policy are encouraged to apply. Those who can contribute to our commitment to engagement of diverse audiences in higher education, advisory services and the community are especially encouraged.
UMCES-CBL scientists work from a foundation of disciplinary depth and enjoy interdisciplinary interactions among research groups (CBL Annual Report). Our work includes efforts oriented towards developing solutions to the challenges of coastal / estuarine science and management. We recognize that discovery and problem-solving are inspired by the productive dialogue between applied and basic research.
CBL has a tradition of interdisciplinary research and we particularly value researchers within interests that cross disciplinary boundaries. We would welcome a new colleague with strengths in any one of these or other areas and from both natural and social science backgrounds.
The deadline for application is December 15, 2019. Applicants must create an account and submit through this link.
Research Values
We recognize that discovery and problem-solving are inspired by the productive dialogue between applied and basic research. As a result, CBL faculty receive research funding from diverse sources including federal agencies such as NSF, DARPA and NOAA, national foundations including the Lenfest Foundation and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, as well as state and local agencies and regional foundations. Our commitment to supporting this dialogue is demonstrated by our Maritime Environmental Resource Center (MERC) , which is a collaboration with the Maryland Port Authority, and our Environmental Statistics Collaborative whose faculty teach and provide statistical advice to CBL researchers.
Community Values
We aspire to a culture at CBL that is dynamic, diverse and inclusive, with an innovative working environment where UMCES is a partner institution of choice on a regional, national, and international level in the environmental sciences research and education field. CBL strives to ensure the face of the workforce of marine and environmental science professionals reflects the communities most impacted by current environmental challenges and is engaged in new efforts to improve our diversity in this regard.
Fundamental to a thriving and productive workplace is a climate where diverse peoples, voices, and perspectives are included, respected, and encouraged. This is particularly true for an institution like UMCES that seeks innovative and transformative knowledge creation and application in the environmental sciences. As an environmentally-focused institution, we also have special responsibilities to engage with under-represented communities who are often particularly vulnerable to natural hazards, pollution, loss of cultural integrity, or compromising livelihoods that depend on natural resources or agriculture. Our mission of education and outreach is especially important for improving diversity in the environmental sciences, which have lagged behind other STEM fields in this regard. This lag in representation also creates a space to recognize the accountability we have as an institution to move forward, acknowledging our role in this and working towards equity and inclusion.
Career Development and Evaluation
CBL also recognizes that the start of an academic career can be challenging – navigating new roles and responsibilities, obtaining research funding, developing a research network. CBL supports a mentoring program for junior faculty and post-docs that includes regular meetings as a group with the Laboratory Director. Existing faculty regularly sponsor new colleagues in their research programs and initiatives. Currently, every CBL faculty member has at least one project on which they collaborate with at least one other faculty member. Faculty are also committed to working with new colleagues to help develop and nurture research collaborations and networks. We invest considerably in new faculty and it is in our best interest to retain faculty.
Faculty performance is assessed in four areas of scholarship: discovery, integration, application and education. Each area is considered at each annual review, but the relative weighting of these four areas is determined on an individual basis by agreement between the faculty member and the Laboratory Director.
Involvement in Education
CBL faculty are engaged primarily in graduate education through the University System of Maryland’s inter-campus program in Marine, Estuarine and Environmental Science. Participation in graduate education is valued and most faculty teach one course every other year. The faculty’s commitment to education is most evident in graduate mentoring and advising in which faculty often commit substantial time and resources. We are currently home to 35 students, with most faculty actively advising one or two students. All students at CBL are supported by either research grants or laboratory resources, although some are returning professionals supported in part by their current employers.
Most formal education at CBL and UMCES occurs over a synchronous, distributed video network, often using Zoom. Classes can be taught from any MEES partner institution and are available to students at all MEES partner institutions. The curriculum structure encourages a core grounding in one of our disciplinary areas, following by interdisciplinary courses and hands-on issue study groups.
Research Facilities
We offer outstanding research facilities including a new large aquatic research building (Truitt & Cronin Laboratories), about 1/3 of which is running seawater laboratories. The seawater laboratories are provided with high flows of ambient and filtered water from our research pier. The Truitt-Cronin laboratory complex includes 2 constant temperature laboratories that afford fine scale control (~1 oC) of temperature between 2- 30 oC, independent of the main seawater laboratories. We also have a large analytical building (Bernie Fowler Laboratory) that provides access to geochemical laboratories that house diverse instrumentation including two isotope-ratio mass spectrometers, an Orbitrap mass spectrometer, two ICP-mass spectrometers that provide both targeted and non-targeted analyses. Computing needs for analyzing large datasets and modeling are met by a flexible, modular mid-scale computer cluster. Our campus is on the water, and varied estuarine habitats are directly accessible. CBL is also home port to the R/V Rachel Carson, a purpose designed, 26m research vessel designed for estuarine and coastal research. CBL faculty currently collaborate during lab-sponsored research cruises on the Patuxent River aboard the R/V Carson and these cruises serve as a training testbed and platform for regular and exploratory measurements.
