Post-doctoral Associate in Socioecological Outcomes and Monitoring of Restoration in Dryland Ecosystems

This postdoctoral associate works on the NSF DISES project "Socioecological Outcomes of Restoration: Discovering the interplay among biophysical, socioeconomic, and institutional dimensions of dryland forest-grassland landscapes", a collaboration between Penn State (Ida Djenontin and Erica Smithwick), Duke University (Tong Qiu), the University of Minnesota (Forrest Fleischman), the University of the Witwatersrand (Wayne Twine) and LUANAR (Judith Kamoto).

The postdoc analyses the social and ecological impacts of ecosystem restoration in mosaic forest-grassland landscapes and designs monitoring frameworks, using household and community surveys, qualitative interviews, ecological surveys of forests and farms, remote sensing of land-cover change and secondary data from Malawi and South Africa. Most effort goes to research publications and policy briefs, with roles in team planning and community engagement.

Ida Djenontin is the main mentor, with cross-disciplinary co-mentoring. The initial appointment is one year, renewable for a second; about 10% of the work involves travel, including to Southern Africa.

PhD in a field suited to integrated social-ecological analysis of ecosystem restoration; Penn State policy requires employees to live primarily in Pennsylvania.