Dolphin Jobs

Scientific Officer – Identifying ‘Areas of Concern’ for Global Cetacean Outreach Programme

Hours: 5 days a week (Equivalent 37.5 hours)

Contract Period: **14* weeks; commencing 13th May until 16th August 2013

Pay: £3500 net

Based: Planet Whale Headquarters, Brighton, UK

Planet Whale is recruiting a Scientific Officer to be based in our Brighton office, UK. The role will focus primarily on running a global outreach programme to encourage the general public, experts, and other stakeholders from around the world to identify their ‘Areas of Concern’ for cetaceans using a free collaborative survey and mapping tool called SeaSketch.

The Scientific Officer will provide technical support and assistance to stakeholders with different backgrounds and interests around the world to identify and map their priority issues affecting cetaceans. By encouraging stakeholders to focus on location, the outreach programme will be an effective way to:

  1. Enable the global community to highlight the many issues affecting cetaceans, and share their concerns and;
  2. Suggest areas and opportunities to work in partnership to deliver effective solutions to highlighted issues.

In addition, the Scientific Officer will participate in a range of other tasks, including data analysis of cetacean survey and photo-identification data, plus other current field and office-based research being conducted by Planet Whale.

Key responsibilities:

  • To lead Planet Whale’s global outreach programme to identify ‘Areas of Concern’ for cetaceans, using and analysing mapping software and
    related survey tools
  • To oversee current cetacean survey work, focusing on maintaining high standards of data collection and analysis with current field and
    office-based team
  • Manage and develop current photo identification catalogues.
  • Utilise social media as a feedback mechanism to notify stakeholders of developments on all scientific projects.
  • To develop a working relationship with partners assisting with the global outreach programme and other projects.
  • To complete a preliminary scientific report and analysis of all data collected during the global outreach programme for release and presentation at the World Whale Conference
  • To assist the team with administrative and other tasks as and when required

Skills and experience:

  • Educated to preferably Masters level in the marine biology/science field
  • Good working knowledge of ArcView GIS essential
  • Excellent verbal and written communication skills and ability to interact with people from all walks of life
  • Ability to lead and manage a small team, maintaining focus on work quality
  • Team player with a positive and pro-active approach
  • Highly motivated and able to concentrate in busy working office
  • Experience in conducting surveys of cetaceans
  • Experience in photo identification of cetaceans preferable

Candidates will either be interviewed in Brighton, UK or via telephone/skype. There is also a possibility of introductory interviews at the ECS conference in Setubal, Portugal, early April if more convenient (please mention this in your application).

To apply please send your CV and covering letter to dylan@planetwhale.comwith ?Scientific Officer Application? as the subject header.

Closing date for applications is 19th April, with interviews expected to take place the following week.


Postdoctoral position in animal bioacoustics

The Bioacoustics Research Group in the Department of Biology at Syracuse University in Syracuse, NY (http://parkslab.syr.edu/), is seeking a postdoctoral scientist to bring new ideas, approaches and analytical methods to the analysis of passive acoustic data collected from marine and terrestrial organisms. The work in the lab is focused on the ecological role of acoustic communication with emphasis on marine mammal systems. This position is a full-time one-year position with the possibility of renewal based on performance. Salary will be competitive with full benefits. Some funds are available to support travel to conferences, workshops, and/or fieldwork.

The successful candidate will be expected to contribute to work in three main areas in the lab:
1. Collect acoustic data from North Atlantic right whale mother-calf pairs.
2. Develop new methods to analyze and visualize passive acoustic data sets.
2. Explore different analytical options for signal detection, classification, and discrimination using existing datasets of whale vocalizations or other datasets of interest to the candidate.

Qualifications
PhD in Electrical Engineering or Computer Science; or a PhD in Ecology, Marine Biology, or similar field, with strong analytical skills in signal processing and/or statistical analysis. Three or more years experience in analysis of acoustic datasets as evidenced by publication in peer-reviewed journals is preferred. We are specifically looking for a candidate with a strong quantitative background in statistics and/or signal processing with an interest in applying new analytical methods to animal acoustic signal datasets.

Interested candidates should complete the online application at the Syracuse University website.  A complete application package should include a brief description of past research accomplishments and future goals, CV, PDFs of two publications, and contact information for three professional references. Review of candidates will begin on April 1, 2013 and preference will be given to applicants that submit a full application prior to that date. The position start date is flexible, some time after May 1.
Questions regarding the position can be directed to Susan Parks at sparks@syr.edu.