Job Information
Michigan State University(MSU) Assistant Professor-Tenure System in East Lansing, Michigan
Position Summary
The Department of Fisheries and Wildlife at Michigan State University invites applications for a full-time, 9-month tenure-track Assistant Professor with a 50% research, 23% teaching, 20% outreach, and 7% leadership/service assignment. The position start date is anticipated to be 8/16/2024.
The selected candidate will join the leadership of the Quantitative Fisheries Center (QFC; canr.msu.edu/qfc) and along with other QFC faculty, staff, and students help advance the center's mission of providing research, consulting/outreach, and education services to fishery and other resource management agencies with a focus on the Laurentian Great Lakes basin. The incumbent will be expected to develop an internationally recognized program of research, instruction, and outreach consistent with both the QFC Strategic Plan and Great Lakes Fishery Commission (GLFC) Joint Strategic Plan. Similarly, the candidate will successfully compete for extramural research funds, participate in classroom and online education, and lead outreach and consultation services focused on agency partners throughout the Laurentian Great Lakes.
The area of research emphasis will be decision science and/or risk analysis. The incumbent will be expected to make broad scholarly advancements in the decision science/risk analysis fields with specific focus on applied fishery management pertaining to fishery targeted, invasive, and/or threatened fish/wildlife populations, and other environmental challenges that federal, state, provincial, and tribal resource agencies confront. Structured decision-making has been and is anticipated to continue as an area of emphasis and growth in the Great Lakes region because of the scale of the systems and problems, diversity of stakeholders, and degree of uncertainty associated with management challenges. Structured decision-making projects in the Great Lakes, such as invasive carp control and developing harvest policies for Lake Erie percid fisheries, have included quantitative modeling to evaluate consequences and tradeoffs of potential management actions, so candidates should have strong modeling/simulation skills.
Research should be targeted towards providing results with clear, tangible benefits to resource management agencies. The initial teaching assignment will comprise one graduate-level course focused on decision science/structured decision making every other year and one undergraduate course (possibly co-taught) every year consistent with the incumbent's expertise and teaching needs of the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife. Development and delivery of in-person or online workshops and short courses to agency partners is also expected. The selected candidate will advise both graduate students and post-doctoral research associates. Extension/outreach activities will be targeted towards working professionals (e.g., biologists and managers) of resource agencies in the Great Lakes basin and will involve leading or assisting with quantitative analyses, meeting facilitation, and leading a range of decision-science/risk-analysis projects. Leadership/service duties will include: service to the department, university and fisheries science profession, such as serving on university and agency boards and committees; conducting peer-reviews for scientific journals; participating on editorial boards; and serving on various review panels. Service on committees, boards, and/or task forces coordinated through the GLFC will also occur. In addition, leadership/service will involve active participation in QFC leadership and coordination of synthesis activities with faculty affiliated with a sister-institution (Center for Ecosystem Management) at the University of Guelph.
Equal Employment Opportunity Statement
All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, ci