PhD assistantship on forests role in post-catastrophe scenarios

Penn State’s Department of Ecosystem Science and Management (https://ecosystems.psu.edu/) is seeking a student, to start Fall 2020 if possible, to pursue a fully funded PhD in multiple methods analysis on the role of forest products and other related resources in meeting food (and energy and water) security and resilience needs in the face of global catastrophes such as a nuclear war or current COVID-19 pandemic, as examples. The candidate will be supervised by Michael Jacobson but work on this project with an interdisciplinary team of researchers from across the university with expertise in plant biology, environmental engineering, food science, ethics, and human behavior. Overall, the project seeks to develop and evaluate strategies for food resilience at the household and community levels and provide a roadmap for scalable and adaptable use of local resource use for post-catastrophic survival. Strong quantitative and qualitative skills are required in fields related to forests and/or environmental/natural resources. International development experience and previous work on economic and other social science issues is highly desired. If interested and for more information, please contact Michael Jacobson (mgj2@psu.edu).  

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