Student Opportunities
Graduate funding opportunities (2022-2024): Residential Development Impact Scorecard for the Environment (RISE)
Professor Dawn Parker is recruiting for one or two Master’s students, to start in Fall 2023.
The Master’s students will contribute to the following areas of the RISE project:
- Estimate and report above-ground carbon sequestration trajectories for use in the RISE Scorecard.
- Work with residential developers and planners for incorporating feedback into the RISE Scorecard.
Trainees will gain specific skills and experience in carbon and stormwater modelling and interpretation, development and application of software, participatory modelling with professional stakeholders, residential development landscaping design and planning, systems thinking, and knowledge translation and mobilization.
Please review the PDF for more details.
Postdoctoral Fellowship
Professors Xiao Yu Wu and Alain-Désiré Nimubona are seeking a highly motivated and exceptional researcher for a post-doctoral fellowship position at the University of Waterloo. The focus of this position is on conducting a mixed method (qualitative and quantitative) and policy-relevant study as part of a two-year interdisciplinary project funded by the New Frontiers Research Funds (NFRF) Exploration in Canada.
One of the goals of the project is to enhance our understanding of low-carbon ammonia's role as a "currency" to connect the food, energy, and trade sectors. This will accelerate the transition to a hydrogen economy that can help achieve the net-zero emissions target in Canada, while creating new jobs and promoting economic growth. The research work to be conducted by the post-doctoral fellow (PDF) will be structured around the following objectives:
1. Understand what economic and policy levers are effective to incentivize the adoption of low-carbon ammonia in different sectors.
2. Quantify the economic benefits, risks and constraints associated with using low-carbon ammonia in the current context where there is competition between multiple sectors, and in the presence of such economic and policy levers.
3. Analyze and develop a model to capture the negotiations arising from the exchange of ammonia between these different competing sectors.
4. Inform the policy design for a successful transition towards a zero-net economy using ammonia.
The start date is September 1st, 2023, and the appointment is on an annual basis with the potential for annual renewal - based on satisfactory performance – for a maximum of two years.
Collaborative Postdoctoral, PhD and MSc Positions in Adaptive Management of Green Stormwater Infrastructure to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Urban Watersheds
Professors are looking for applicants for two postdoctoral fellow (PDF), five PhD and two MSc positions to participate in a collaborative research project to assemble and propose solution options for urban green stormwater management (SWM) infrastructure that optimize the reduction of greenhouse gases (GHGs; CO2, CH4, and N2O). The project aims to quantify the landscape-scale drivers and processes within stormwater ponds (SWPs) and bioretention systems (BRSs) that control GHG exchanges. The resulting knowledge will be integrated into robust representations of SWPs and BRSs in coupled hydrology-biogeochemistry models to analyze the responses of urban GHG emissions and nutrients export to the implementation and management of green SWM infrastructure.
The main supervisor for each position is listed in parentheses; however, each position will have an interdisciplinary supervisory team consisting of multiple project team members.
PDF-1 will use statistical predictors including land use/land cover, climate variables, event characteristics, and system design to identify drivers of GHG emissions from green SWM infrastructure. (Elodie Passeport, University of Toronto)
PDF-2 will use biogeochemical modeling to predict GHG emissions from green SWM systems and propose solution options for municipal and regional climate action. (Philippe Van Cappellen, University of Waterloo)
PhD-1 will quantify GHG emissions from green SWM infrastructure using existing GHG emission data plus field monitoring of GHG fluxes at SWP and BRS sites with fixed and floating chambers. (Fereidoun Rezanezhad, University of Waterloo)
PhD-2 will focus on processes controlling the organic and inorganic carbon cycles in SWM systems to identify external and internal sources and sequestration pathways for GHG emission reduction. (Scott Smith, Wilfrid Laurier University)
PhD-3 will generate mass balances of carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus in SWM infrastructure to assess trade-offs between GHG reduction and water quality protection. (Philippe Van Cappellen, University of Waterloo)
PhD-4 will simulate and analyze management scenarios with variable SWM configurations and hydroclimatic conditions in urban watersheds to optimize the reduction of GHG emissions at the watershed scale. (Andrea Brookfield, University of Waterloo)
PhD-5 will test the full-scale feasibility of geochemical interventions in SWPs and BRSs that increase carbon sequestration in green SWM infrastructure. (Bahram Gharabaghi, University of Guelph)
MSc-1 will determine the rates of carbon sequestration in green SWM systems with the focus on CO2 saturation and carbonate mineral sequestration potential. (Fereidoun Rezanezhad, University of Waterloo)
MSc-2 will simulate and analyze the vulnerability of GHG emissions from SWM infrastructure to changes in urban watershed hydrology including more extreme flooding and drought events. (Andrea Brookfield, University of Waterloo)
Applications will be reviewed as they are received. Preference will be given to applications submitted before June 1, 2023.
Please review the PDF for more details.
External Opportunities
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