USGS Mendenhall Postdoctoral Fellowship

[nganju]

Dear colleagues-

The Sediment Transport Group of the U.S. Geological Survey Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center is pleased to announce a new postdoctoral opportunity through the Mendenhall Research Fellowship Program.

RO 14-44: Understanding estuarine geomorphic change under hurricane forcing: role of sediment composition, aquatic vegetation, and hydrodynamics
http://geology.usgs.gov/postdoc/opps/20 ... 0Ganju.htm

This Mendenhall Research Opportunity will allow a strong scientist with a background in coastal processes to improve the capability for evaluating estuarine geomorphic change in response to storm events, through testing and application of an existing hydrodynamic-sediment transport model of Barnegat Bay, New Jersey. Specific questions may include:

-How should aquatic vegetation be represented in sediment transport models?
-Are hurricanes strong agents of geomorphic change in estuaries?
-Does aquatic vegetation play a large role in estuarine geomorphic stability?
-Do sediment transport models have any predictive skill in simulating episodic events?

Model development may involve the incorporation of seagrass as a momentum sink in the existing COAWST/ROMS modeling framework. Bottom characterization data collected by the USGS can be used to specify bottom sediment type and stratigraphy. The incumbent will determine how to apply the model: whether in an idealized context (representative conditions) or with a fully explicit hindcasting simulation. Depending on the applicant’s expertise, further work on the role of seagrass either geomorphically or ecologically could be explored with the modeling system. This type of bio-geomorphic model application and assessment is highly innovative and lacking in the peer-reviewed literature.

Mendenhall Fellowships are 2-year appointments with competitive salary and benefits.
Mendenhall Fellows are typically granted project expense funds appropriate to the scope
of research to be conducted. Postdoctoral research projects under this program have
spanned a wide range of scientific topics of interest and relevance to the mission of the
USGS. For additional information, please consult the Project Profiles section of the
Mendenhall Program web site at the following URL: http://geology.usgs.gov/postdoc.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions.
Research Advisor: Neil K. Ganju, nganju@usgs.gov, 508-457-2252