The Yao lab at Yale University has a Postdoctoral position available for sustainable forest resource utilization. Forest plays an essential role in the development of a sustainable bioeconomy to produce energy, chemicals, and products. The Yao Lab develops systems analysis tools to understand the carbon, environmental, and economic implications of forest resources and other biomass utilization technologies throughout their life cycle. The Yao Lab has multiple ongoing projects under this research direction. Those projects investigate various technologies for producing materials and products from woody biomass (e.g., biochar, wood products, and advanced materials such as bio-based plastics).
The position will focus on:
- Using ecosystem models to simulate forest ecosystem carbon cycle and soil organic carbon turnover.
- Using process-based simulations to quantify changes in carbon stock and GHG fluxes for different forest management practices and wood product pathways.
- Conducting geospatial analysis, life cycle assessment, and techno-economic analysis for sustainable production and utilization of woody biomass.
- Leading and developing innovative systems modeling frameworks to understand geospatial and temporal implications of woody biomass utilization from economic, climate, and ecological perspectives.
- Facilitating collaborations with researchers in different disciplines, including engineering, forestry, and economics.
- Mentoring graduate and undergraduate students and advising student course projects.
Required education and experiences of:
- Ph.D. in engineering, environmental science, forestry, agronomy, ecology, or systems analysis.
- Ecosystem carbon modeling experiences using forest-ecosystem models, agro-ecosystem models, or soil models.
- Publications related to LCA/TEA for biomass systems.
Required skills/abilities of:
- GIS modeling using such as ArcGIS, QGIS, Python, or R.
- Basic coding such as Python, R, or Matlab.
Interested candidates should email a cover letter and their CV, along with a list of at least three references to Dr. Yuan Yao, y.yao@yale.edu. Lab website: https://yao.research.yale.edu/