The University of Washington Puget Sound Institute is seeking a Research Scientist experienced in applying state of the art numerical models, or analysis and reporting of results for large model and measured physical data sets. This position will expand current capabilities within the Puget Sound Institute and the Salish Sea Modeling Center at the Center for Urban Waters, supporting applied water quality modeling for regional utilities, research centers, environmental NGOs, and state, federal, and tribal governments. We are particularly interested in candidates who have experience in data analysis using Python or MATLAB, or related coding experience, and communicating the scientific findings of coastal oceanography modeling or related disciplines, in reports and papers. This full-time position with benefits has a preferred start date in February 2022, and is currently funded for one year with the expectation of continuation. The position is housed at the Center for Urban Waters in Tacoma, working in-person with the potential for some teleworking.
Read the full job description and apply for the position at the University of Washington Human Resources website.
Search for Req #:201723
The University of Washington Puget Sound Institute is seeking a Research Scientist experienced in applying state of the art numerical models, or analysis and reporting of results for large model and measured physical data sets. This position will expand current capabilities within the Puget Sound Institute and the Salish Sea Modeling Center at the Center for Urban Waters, supporting applied water quality modeling for regional utilities, research centers, environmental NGOs, and state, federal, and tribal governments. We are particularly interested in candidates who have experience in data analysis using Python or MATLAB, or related coding experience, and communicating the scientific findings of coastal oceanography modeling or related disciplines, in reports and papers. This full-time position with benefits has a preferred start date in February 2022, and is currently funded for one year with the expectation of continuation. The position is housed at the Center for Urban Waters in Tacoma, working in-person with the potential for some teleworking.
Read the full job description and apply for the position at the University of Washington Human Resources website.
Search for Req #:201723
The Puget Sound Institute is seeking a highly motivated researcher with a background in interdisciplinary environmental science, marine/aquatic resource management, or conservation planning and experience connecting science to policy. The position is housed at the Center for Urban Waters in Tacoma, Washington, and is expected to work on campus but may be eligible for partial teleworking. Preferred start date is January 2022, and the position is funded through December 2023.
This position will support a project funded by the Puget Sound National Estuary Program’s Habitat Strategic Initiative. The primary focus is to synthesize and communicate results of ~100 individual Puget Sound recovery projects funded by a Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife grant program since 2016. The successful applicant will evaluate project outcomes in relation to regional recovery strategies and priorities documented in Implementation Strategies and the Action Agenda for Puget Sound. The successful applicant will also work with the Encyclopedia of Puget Sound’s editor, staff writers, and graphic designers to develop communication materials to convey key findings. This work will be performed in a highly collaborative environment in partnership with colleagues from the Puget Sound Partnership, other state agencies, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Read the full job description and apply for the position at the University of Washington Human Resources website.
The Puget Sound Institute is launching a new program that will use supercomputers to advance ecosystem recovery of the Salish Sea. The Salish Sea Modeling Center will allow scientists from around the region to access sophisticated computer models to predict changes in the ecosystem. Work at the center will tackle vexing environmental problems such as the changing chemistry of the Salish Sea and other mysteries puzzling scientists. The center is supported by the Environmental Protection Agency and other regional water quality partners.
If you want to understand where fish or killer whales go, or how toxic chemicals move through the ecosystem, it helps to know how the water moves. The ebb and flow of currents is fundamental to scientific efforts to protect and restore the Salish Sea.
Researchers have known for many years that they could create physical models to simulate the movements of these currents. In the 1950s, engineers created scale replicas out of concrete that used saltwater and colored dye to track the motion of processes like tidal flows and circulation. These scale models were a standard for oceanographers for more than 30 years.
Now, computer models can replace circulating dye and water pumps with just about any conceivable data. They can reveal how water temperature changes, how fast Arctic melting will raise the tideline along the shore, or when global carbon emissions will eventually turn the Salish Sea acidic. They can anticipate herring spawns or answer policy questions about where and how to clean up toxic chemicals. A map image showing the range of the Salish Sea Model. The range extends beyond the boundaries of the Salish Sea to include influences from coastal hydrodynamics. Image courtesy of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.
Providing the region’s policy leaders and scientists with these powerful tools is the goal of the Salish Sea Modeling Center, a new enterprise from the University of Washington Puget Sound Institute. The center will initially focus on expanding the capabilities of the Salish Sea Model, an advanced computer simulator developed over the past decade. The Salish Sea Model accurately describes how water, sediments, and nutrients enter and cycle through the Salish Sea, and is widely used by resource and regulatory agencies in the region. The model was developed by Dr. Tarang Khangaonkar and his team at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). The work was done in collaboration with the Washington State Department of Ecology with grant support from the Environmental Protection Agency. Khangaonkar, who is both a principal program manager at PNNL and an affiliate professor at the University of Washington Tacoma, will serve as director of the Salish Sea Modeling Center. Support for the new center is provided by the Environmental Protection Agency’s National Estuary Program and other regional water quality partners.
“This is perhaps the first model of the entire Salish Sea that was built specifically for supporting ecosystem restoration and water quality management,” according to Khangaonkar, who says the massive, cross-border ecosystem posed significant challenges for developers during the early efforts. The Salish Sea’s 4600 miles of winding shoreline and its deep, underwater canyons, sills, and numerous islands were far too complex for conventional and commercially available models used in coastal applications at the time. “Computational challenges are particularly hard for our fjord-like estuary with its complex features,” says Khangaonkar. “In addition, the model must take into account runoff from 161 different watersheds, and wastewater load from nearly 100 outfalls from an ever-growing population along the shoreline.”
To capture these complexities, the model runs on a modified supercomputer consisting of up to 384 processors working in parallel (“like many desktop computers all working together,” Khangaonkar says). The result is a predictive tool that is already being applied to critical policy questions in the region. In recent years, the Washington State Department of Ecology began using the model to understand how nutrients from wastewater might be diminishing Puget Sound’s water quality. That work led to ongoing discussions about the future of the region’s wastewater treatment plants, and the model has been at the center of policy debates that could affect hundreds of millions of dollars in treatment plant retrofits.
But the model has quickly become a framework for probing many other scientific questions. Its open source software is designed to be used by anyone, and scientists from many different disciplines are now plugging in their data.
“Work at the center will focus on the use of the model to take on other issues of regional importance,” says Dr. Joel Baker, director of the Puget Sound Institute. “It allows a really well-designed and well-built model to be more widely used. We can now bring critical questions from policymakers back to the scientific community and ask, ‘Can you model this?’” Puget Sound’s orcas are among the species experiencing contamination from PCBs.
One such question concerns the fate of toxic PCBs in Puget Sound. Scientists have noted that levels of PCBs have remained relatively constant in parts of the food web, despite efforts to remove them from sediments on the seafloor. Some theorize that legacy PCBs are entering Puget Sound through stormwater and are being cycled through the estuary without settling to the bottom. Puget Sound Institute scientists and their collaborators at the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife are using simulations of the Salish Sea Model to better understand how important contaminants are moving throughout the Salish Sea.
“If it turns out this is true, just cleaning up the sediments may not fix the problem,” says Puget Sound Institute research scientist Andy James, one of the principal investigators on the project. Knowing how toxic contaminants move through the system could help policymakers identify the best places to focus their cleanup efforts, potentially reducing the amounts of harmful chemicals in fish that humans eat such as salmon.
Other mysteries currently being addressed by the model include the short-term effects of ocean warming on giant Pacific octopus populations, predictions of sea level rise impacts on estuary restoration, and the potential ways that eelgrass might offset ocean acidification.
In addition to its work with the Salish Sea Model, the center will also work with other organizations to combine information from computer simulations such as NOAA’s Atlantis food web model, EPA’s VELMA watershed model, or the University of Washington’s LiveOcean model which addresses water flow into the Salish Sea through the California Current.
–The position has been filled–
The Puget Sound Institute at the University of Washington is seeking a GIS Specialist to work on geospatially explicit tasks relating to the regional strategy to restore and recover valued components of the Puget Sound ecosystem. These include data acquisition, development, maintenance, mapping, and basic geospatial analysis. The position is funded by the EPA’s National Estuary Program.
DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES:
Develop and maintain effective working relationships with project clients, stakeholders and team members.
Contribute to the design of spatial elements of projects aimed at advancing recovery of the Puget Sound ecosystem.
Conduct GIS analyses required to complete tasks with specified objectives.
Design, produce, and deliver maps, tables, and other graphic products as outputs of these tasks.
Organize content to support the development of GIS products for PSI’s webpage.
Describe the significance and implications of results in documented and presentation formats. MINIMUM
REQUIREMENTS:
Bachelor’s Degree in Geography, Natural Resources, or science or technology field with significant application in GIS, or an equivalent combination of GIS experience and knowledge.
Two to three years of experience in: Knowledge of GIS production of cartographic and other spatial data displays, analysis, and applications from a natural resources perspective.
Two years of applied professional experience in the application and use of GIS technology including two years of applied professional experience with ArcGIS 10.6 or higher.
Excellent oral and written communication skills.
Experience and proficiency with MS Office Suite products, including word processing, spreadsheet, database, scheduling and e-mail.
Perform accurate data entry in a timely manner.
Must be comfortable with internet and intranet usage and management of electronic documents.
DESIRED:
Applied professional experience, knowledge and experience with off-the-shelf products offered by the latest version of ArcGIS Online.
Skills in conducting research on specific work assignments, use of analytical, problem-solving, and troubleshooting skills, and maintaining confidentiality on sensitive matters.
Skill in handling multiple competing priorities, effectively handling a number of detailed projects or tasks simultaneously.
Demonstrated initiative and accountability for delivery of detail-oriented products or services as directed.
Skill in working in a team environment; ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships with other staff.
Highly desirable: Knowledge of ongoing approaches, participants, and advances in the ongoing effort to recover Puget Sound.
Work Location: Puget Sound Institute, Center for Urban Waters, 326 E D St, Tacoma, WA. Work schedule: The regular workweek is full-time 40 hours, Monday through Friday. Deadlines for task deliverables are set according to contract work plan. Team members work towards delivery of outputs by deadline, not on a schedule set by regular business hours.
The GIS Specialist reports to: PSI Senior Scientist Nicholas Georgiadis. For more information, please contact: Nicholas Georgiadis, Puget Sound Institute (nicogeo@uw.edu, 406 580 2853). See the full announcement and apply at UW Hires Req # 176403.
–The position has been filled–
The Puget Sound Institute at the University of Washington is seeking a GIS Specialist to work on geospatially explicit tasks relating to the regional strategy to restore and recover valued components of the Puget Sound ecosystem. These include data acquisition, development, maintenance, mapping, and basic geospatial analysis. The position is funded by the EPA’s National Estuary Program.
DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES:
Develop and maintain effective working relationships with project clients, stakeholders and team members.
Contribute to the design of spatial elements of projects aimed at advancing recovery of the Puget Sound ecosystem.
Conduct GIS analyses required to complete tasks with specified objectives.
Design, produce, and deliver maps, tables, and other graphic products as outputs of these tasks.
Organize content to support the development of GIS products for PSI’s webpage.
Describe the significance and implications of results in documented and presentation formats. MINIMUM
REQUIREMENTS:
Bachelor’s Degree in Geography, Natural Resources, or science or technology field with significant application in GIS, or an equivalent combination of GIS experience and knowledge.
Two to three years of experience in: Knowledge of GIS production of cartographic and other spatial data displays, analysis, and applications from a natural resources perspective.
Two years of applied professional experience in the application and use of GIS technology including two years of applied professional experience with ArcGIS 10.6 or higher.
Excellent oral and written communication skills.
Experience and proficiency with MS Office Suite products, including word processing, spreadsheet, database, scheduling and e-mail.
Perform accurate data entry in a timely manner.
Must be comfortable with internet and intranet usage and management of electronic documents.
DESIRED:
Applied professional experience, knowledge and experience with off-the-shelf products offered by the latest version of ArcGIS Online.
Skills in conducting research on specific work assignments, use of analytical, problem-solving, and troubleshooting skills, and maintaining confidentiality on sensitive matters.
Skill in handling multiple competing priorities, effectively handling a number of detailed projects or tasks simultaneously.
Demonstrated initiative and accountability for delivery of detail-oriented products or services as directed.
Skill in working in a team environment; ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships with other staff.
Highly desirable: Knowledge of ongoing approaches, participants, and advances in the ongoing effort to recover Puget Sound.
Work Location: Puget Sound Institute, Center for Urban Waters, 326 E D St, Tacoma, WA. Work schedule: The regular workweek is full-time 40 hours, Monday through Friday. Deadlines for task deliverables are set according to contract work plan. Team members work towards delivery of outputs by deadline, not on a schedule set by regular business hours.
The GIS Specialist reports to: PSI Senior Scientist Nicholas Georgiadis. For more information, please contact: Nicholas Georgiadis, Puget Sound Institute (nicogeo@uw.edu, 406 580 2853). See the full announcement and apply at UW Hires Req # 176403.
The Puget Sound Institute (PSI) is looking for an early-career research scientist or engineer to contribute to a collaborative project modeling the sources, movements, and fates of toxic chemicals in the Salish Sea.
In this position you will be responsible for aggregating, evaluating, and interpreting large monitoring data sets to support the development of a deterministic, hydrodynamic water quality model. You will also serve as the collaborative link between the modelers from the Pacific Northwest Laboratories, who developed the Salish Sea Mosel, and water quality scientists and engineers from PSI, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, and other stakeholders. The successful candidate will have:
PhD in environmental chemistry/engineering, oceanography, or closely related field;
Demonstrated ability to quantitatively describe chemical transport at the ecosystem scale;
3 months of job-related experience;
Experience working in estuarine environments (helpful but not required).
Position title: Postdoctoral research Scientist 2 Supervisor: C. Andrew James (jamesca@uw.edu) Location: Center for Urban Waters, 326 East D. Street, tacoma Schedule: Full time To Apply:Visit UW Hires and search for Req# 175691 Priority Consideration Date: January 31, 2020
Tessa Francis is both the lead ecosystem ecologist at the Puget Sound Institute, housed at UW Tacoma’s Center for Urban Waters, and the managing director of the Ocean Modeling Forum (OMF), a science-collaboration group led by UW.
She is quoted in this story about new findings from the Ocean Modeling Forum’s ongoing study of Pacific herring, a species that is identified by the Puget Sound Partnership as a ‘vital sign’ for the health of the Salish Sea ecosystem.
In addition to the science findings—that herring instinctually find their way to spawning grounds by a process where younger fish follow older fish on their journeys to specific beaches—the story emphasizes how the OMF has broken new ground by convening scientists, commercial fishers, and First Nations and Indigenous stakeholders. The project specifically brings together “different approaches and knowledge—including traditional ecological knowledge” to rethink fisheries management practices.
Tessa Francis is both the lead ecosystem ecologist at the Puget Sound Institute, housed at UW Tacoma’s Center for Urban Waters, and the managing director of the Ocean Modeling Forum (OMF), a science-collaboration group led by UW.
She is quoted in this story about new findings from the Ocean Modeling Forum’s ongoing study of Pacific herring, a species that is identified by the Puget Sound Partnership as a ‘vital sign’ for the health of the Salish Sea ecosystem.
In addition to the science findings—that herring instinctually find their way to spawning grounds by a process where younger fish follow older fish on their journeys to specific beaches—the story emphasizes how the OMF has broken new ground by convening scientists, commercial fishers, and First Nations and Indigenous stakeholders. The project specifically brings together “different approaches and knowledge—including traditional ecological knowledge” to rethink fisheries management practices.
PSI is seeking a postdoctoral research scientist to focus on modeling the connections between terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems in Puget Sound. The full job announcement is available below. University of Washington Postdoctoral Research Scientist Modeling Terrestrial-Aquatic Linkages in Puget Sound
The Puget Sound Institute, a University of Washington research center located in Tacoma (www.pugetsoundinstitute.org), is seeking a postdoctoral research scientist who focuses on modeling the connections between terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, especially how the built environment controls the movement of water, nutrients, and chemical contaminants into adjacent surface waters. This position will contribute to our collaborative group by conducting qualitative or quantitative analysis of the connections between land use, stormwater quantity and quality, and the resulting ecological, social and economic endpoints. Regional-scale strategies currently being developed to protect and restore critical Puget Sound habitats and ecosystem functions depend on such modeling tools to design smart land use and water management policies for Puget Sound.
The successful candidate will hold a doctoral degree in fisheries biology, oceanography, ecology, environmental science/engineering or a related field and will have demonstrated clever and impactful approaches to relating human activities on the landscape to impacts in estuaries. We are especially interested in candidates whose work considers the social and economic benefits and costs of both watershed development and the resulting strategies to mitigate impacts on adjacent waters.
Specific opportunities and approaches include:
Evaluating the linkages between stormwater treatment and social, economic, and ecological endpoints in Puget Sound using qualitative modeling techniques, which could include Bayesian network models, fuzzy logic, quantitative network models (e., “loop analysis”), or other approaches.
Developing relatively simple qualitative tools to inform, support, and guide the development of more complex quantitative models that address policy options, including stormwater management options in the Puget Sound region.
Coordinating with multiple stakeholders and collaborators to define objectives and research questions, to refine conceptual models, to devise management scenarios, and to interpret and communicate results.
Publishing and presenting modeling approaches and results and engaging with other regional, national and international experts.
This is a full-time position for at least one and up to three years, depending on funding, beginning in the first quarter of 2019. The successful candidate will be based at the UW Tacoma Center for Urban Waters, will travel regionally to meet with collaborators, and may be eligible work remotely. Interested candidates should provide a short statement of interest, a curriculum vitae, one or more recent publications, and the names of three professional references via e-mail to Joel Baker (jebaker@uw.edu) and apply through the UW Hires portal (https://uwhires.admin.washington.edu/ENG/) Requisition #165198.
The University of Washington is an equal opportunity, affirmative action employer. To request disability accommodation in the application process, contact the Disability Services Office at 206-543-6450 / 206-543-6452 (tty) or dso@uw.edu.
