The Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences is committed to creating an environment that affirms diversity across a variety of dimensions, including ability, class, ethnicity/race, gender identity and expression. We particularly welcome applicants who can contribute to such an environment through their scholarship, teaching, mentoring, and professional service. We strongly encourage historically underrepresented groups to apply.
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Duties and Responsibilities
This is a 9-month tenure-accruing position that will be 70% research (Florida Agricultural Experiment Station) and 30% extension (College of Agricultural and Life Sciences) in the Agronomy Department, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS), at the University of Florida. This assignment may change in accordance with the needs of the unit. Tenure will accrue in the Agronomy Department. The position is based at the Gainesville campus.
Research activities will include development of a program focused on the use of advanced artificial intelligence (AI) techniques to quantify ecosystem services (ES) and enhance sustainability across the continuum of managed/natural and rural/urban systems. Position will connect numerous faculty programs within IFAS and the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering (HWCOE). The position will use historical, current, and future data sources to generate basic discoveries and develop solutions to adapt or mitigate climate and other perturbations affecting environmental and agricultural systems through quantification of ES.
The ideal candidate will have a strong background in AI related to biological processes and assessment of ecosystem services from natural or agroecosystems. A primary goal of this position is to bridge different disciplines from IFAS Agronomy and the HWCOE optimizing the use of AI to assess ecosystem services. The ideal candidate is expected to apply for federal funding and have close interaction with federal, state, and regulatory agencies. Collaborative research is encouraged and expected, in particular with faculty from the HWCOE, plant breeders and genetics researchers, agronomists, ecologists, and other scientists across IFAS, UF, and other institutions.
The faculty member primarily will perform research and extension activities related to the discipline and will actively participate in undergraduate and graduate education by chairing graduate committees, serving on graduate committees, supervising thesis and dissertation research, supervising undergraduate research, and publishing the results with graduate students.
The faculty member will seek contract and grant funding to support the research and extension program. The successful candidate will develop a nationally and internationally recognized research program highlighting the use of AI to assess ecosystem services. The candidate must develop an applied extension program to help producers optimizing the delivery of ES from their operations by using AI methods.
Because of the IFAS land-grant mission, all faculty are expected to be supportive of and engaged in all three mission areas—Research, Teaching and Extension—regardless of the assignment split specified in the position description.
Applicants with experience and degrees from higher educational institutions other than the University of Florida are particularly encouraged to apply.
Background Information:
The Agronomy Department (http://agronomy.ifas.ufl.edu) is an UF/IFAS unit with diverse teaching, research, and extension programs. The department has 35 faculty members located on the main campus in Gainesville and at Research and Education Centers throughout the state who conduct research on diverse crops, including cotton, peanuts, forages, carinata, sorghum, hemp, and edamame.
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