The International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) – a member of the CGIAR Consortium (www.cgiar.org) – develops technologies, innovative methods, and new knowledge that better enable farmers, especially smallholders, to make agriculture competitive and profitable as well as sustainable and resilient. CIAT conducts research for development in tropical regions of Latin America, Africa, and Asia (www.ciat.cgiar.org). CIAT’s Research Area on Soils and Landscapes for Sustainability (SoiLS) in Africa and Latin America addresses the interface between agriculture and ecology. CIAT Soil scientists work across spatial scales and scientific disciplines to generate information on soil and land health, ecosystem services, agronomy and agriculture and evidence that can be applied to decisions about key issues. CIAT’s pioneering soils research is organized around three interrelated themes closely tied to key SDGs: Restoring degraded land, Sustaining soil fertility and health, and Climate smart soils. CIAT SoiLS leads the Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE) Flagship Program on Regeneration of Degraded Landscapes (RDL). Position Summary: CIAT is seeking to recruit a Postdoctoral Scientist – Soils to provide close support to our research activities in the RDL flagship program, especially its cluster on Soil Restoration and Soil Carbon, in Africa.
Main duties and responsibilities include:
Coordinate CIAT’s global activities of the WLE-RDL cluster on Soil Restoration and Soil Carbon.
- Provide administrative leadership of CIAT’s new research project on Scaling up soil carbon enhancement
- interventions for food security and climate across complex landscapes in Kenya and Ethiopia. Contribute to a methodological guide on measuring soil carbon for carbon trading,
- Familiarize with and apply major biophysical models for simulating soil organic carbon-dynamics, such as DayCent, CropSyst and RothC.
Represent (whenever necessary) the CIAT SoiLS team at international meetings and conferences.
- Communicate project progress, outputs and outcomes on project websites (CIAT and WLE), blogs and other suitable means, and through reports to donors.
Author or coauthor publications, such as journal articles, posters, brochures, presentations on soil restoration and soil carbon.
Contribute to the development of new proposals and initiatives of the SoiLS research area.
The candidate shall have the following competencies, skills and experience:
PhD degree in agronomy, soil science or related field.
- Very good scientific knowledge on tropical soil, soil organic carbon, and soil biology.
- Excellent communication skills and ability to communicate with diverse groups.
- Fluency in English, spoken and written; Swahili and Amharic language skills are an advantage.
- Capable of managing professional relationships, and working in a complex, intercultural and highly dynamic working environment. Values the sharing of information and continuous improvements in a cooperative atmosphere of constructive evaluation and learning, and be committed to staff development.
- Willingness to travel as needed.
Terms of employment:
The position is nationally recruited and based at the CIAT Africa Regional Offices in Nairobi, Kenya. The contract will be for a two-year period, subject to probation period of three (3) months, renewable depending on performance and availability of resources. CIAT offers a multicultural, collegial research environment with competitive salary and excellent benefits; we believe that the diversity of our staff contributes to excellence.
CIAT is an equal opportunity employer, and strives for staff diversity in gender and nationality. How to apply:
Applicants are invited to visit http://ciat.cgiar.org/ciat-jobs to get full details of the position and to submit their applications clearly indicating “Postdoctoral Scientist – Soil” as the position applied for. Applications closing date: 3 rd February 2017. Only short listed candidates will be contacted.
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