Social & Natural Sciences Nexus Postdoc Opportunity at NMSU
The project is described on the website http://www.nmepscor.org/science/social-science-nexus. This is one component of the NSF EPSCoR project, Energize New Mexico.
The social and natural science team is developing a cutting-edge multidisciplinary model that links natural and human systems to better understand the trade-offs that occur between different energy and economic development choices while considering the potential for sustainable socio-economics, environment, and water use. Dynamic budgets provide the relationships between inputs and outputs of a resource over time:
- the energy budget based largely on parallel work in other parts of the NM EPSCoR project,
- socio-economic budgets incorporating a newly developed data gathering mechanism for human perceptions; and
- a statewide water budget adding other river basins and groundwater basins to the Rio Grande database already incorporated into the existing SD toolbox.
This research considers interactions and feedbacks between the social and natural sciences in order to determine the sustainability and acceptability of energy production and use. Particular emphasis is placed on water budgets due to the concurrent legislative interest in a dynamic statewide water budget that has been fully developed and makes an excellent launch pad for exploring energy, water, environment and economics statewide with a system dynamics model.
World caliber opportunity:
This is an outstanding opportunity for a postdoctoral researcher to focus on the energy water nexus with exciting opportunities to address one of the most important natural resource issues of our time. New Mexico is at the crossroads of renewable energy and fossil fuel issues. The post doc will work with experts at three different universities (NMSU, University of New Mexico, , New Mexico Tech) along with Sandia National Laboratories. Many of the data have been collected and modeling is well developed, so there are excellent opportunities for rapidly producing significant publications. The opportunity is particularly suited for a researcher interested in multidisciplinary modeling. The work will be supported by graduate students immersed in work across disciplines including hydrology, environmental and resource economics, engineering, planning, climate, environment, remote sensing, earth and planetary science, agriculture.
New Mexico State University is a comprehensive land-grant institution of higher learning accredited by the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Universities. An active research university, NMSU anchors the southern end of New Mexico’s Rio Grande Research Corridor, exceeding $140 million in research and public service expenditures. NMSU is classified as a Hispanic-serving institution by the federal government with a total minority enrollment over 48%. Home to the state’s NASA Space Grant Program, NMSU is located in Las Cruces, which features desert mesas, the farmlands of the Rio Grande Valley, and the Organ Mountains, an extension of the Rocky Mountain chain. The University is committed to building a cultural diverse educational environment.
Questions?
Contact Sam Fernald at (575) 646-4337 or afernald@nmsu.edu