BLOG POST

Research scientist opportunity

Body: 

The University of Washington Puget Sound Insti­tute is seek­ing a highly-motivated full-time research sci­en­tist to ana­lyze and syn­the­size, and help design a com­mu­ni­ca­tion plan for, the results of 30–35 research projects con­ducted over the last 4 years focused on recov­ery and pro­tec­tion of the nearshore and marine envi­ron­ments of Puget Sound. This is an 8-month project, and we are seek­ing a PhD-level indi­vid­ual with a back­ground in aquatic ecol­ogy, and con­nect­ing sci­ence to pol­icy; famil­iar­ity with the Puget Sound region is a plus.

The University of Washington Puget Sound Insti­tute is seek­ing a highly-motivated full-time research sci­en­tist to ana­lyze and syn­the­size, and help design a com­mu­ni­ca­tion plan for, the results of 30–35 research projects con­ducted over the last 4 years focused on recov­ery and pro­tec­tion of the nearshore and marine envi­ron­ments of Puget Sound. This is an 8-month project, and we are seek­ing a PhD-level indi­vid­ual with a back­ground in aquatic ecol­ogy, and con­nect­ing sci­ence to pol­icy; famil­iar­ity with the Puget Sound region is a plus. This is a real oppor­tu­nity to con­nect results from funded research to pol­icy, or imple­men­ta­tion activ­i­ties, in sup­port of ecosys­tem recovery.

This project seeks to con­nect the results from pre­vi­ously funded projects with audi­ences such as the Puget Sound Man­age­ment Con­fer­ence, state and local pol­i­cy­mak­ers, state agency staff, tribal gov­ern­ments, sci­en­tists, cit­i­zens, imple­menters, and oth­ers. It will ana­lyze the results of the Marine and Nearshore Grant Pro­gram projects (http://wdfw.wa.gov/grants/ps_marine_nearshore/), to iden­tify how they can sup­port recov­ery efforts and iden­tify the best ways to dis­sem­i­nate the results through­out the Puget Sound region.

The research sci­en­tist will col­lab­o­rate with PSI Lead Ecol­o­gist Tessa Fran­cis to ana­lyze and syn­the­size project results, and iden­tify oppor­tu­ni­ties to con­nect project results to each other and other ongo­ing recov­ery efforts in the region. This indi­vid­ual will also col­lab­o­rate with Dr. Fran­cis and the Ency­clo­pe­dia of Puget Sound Man­ag­ing Edi­tor to develop a com­mu­ni­ca­tions plan for the results, includ­ing iden­ti­fy­ing projects appro­pri­ate for magazine-type sto­ries for the Ency­clo­pe­dia, sum­mary reports for regional man­age­ment agen­cies or local enti­ties, updates to the Puget Sound Sci­ence Review, archiv­ing of data­bases or reports on the Ency­clo­pe­dia and other sources.

The objec­tives of this project are to:

  • Ana­lyze Grant Pro­gram projects’ role in Puget Sound recov­ery, iden­tify con­nec­tions among the projects and to other work in region, and iden­tify how the infor­ma­tion can sup­port recov­ery efforts
  • Iden­tify projects/activities that address the impacts of cli­mate change and rec­om­mend fur­ther actions to address cli­mate change
  • Rec­om­mend suc­cess­ful project mod­els that could be pro­lif­er­ated to addi­tional areas to make impor­tant con­tri­bu­tions to Puget Sound recovery
  • Develop a com­mu­ni­ca­tions approach for project results
  • Iden­tify audi­ences and cre­ate mes­sages around the results that will be effec­tive in com­mu­ni­cat­ing with key audiences
  • Iden­tify oppor­tu­ni­ties to effec­tively dis­sem­i­nate project results and sup­port recov­ery efforts
  • Iden­tify poten­tial new venues for dis­sem­i­na­tion of results
  • Dis­sem­i­nate project information

The posi­tion can be housed either at the Cen­ter for Urban Waters in Tacoma, or in Seat­tle. Start date: ASAP. Inter­ested? Please send a let­ter and resume to Tessa Fran­cis: tessa@uw.edu.