Vacant Post: - Senior Officer in Environmental and Ecological Statistics

Kadoorie Farm & Botanic Garden Corporation

Notice of Vacant Post: Senior Officer in Environmental and Ecological Statistics

JOB SUMMARY
To assist in the planning and execution of the conservation work undertaken by the Flora Conservation Department at Kadoorie Farm and Botanical Garden Hong Kong, focusing on the application of environmental and ecological statistics and GIS based methods. Your work will play a key role in helping to protect Hong Kong and South China’s natural environments. Staying one step ahead of the latest technology, you'll provide essential analytical and technical support to our regional and area teams, to solve challenging spatial problems that arise in our projects. We seek an exceptional individual with preferably a PhD and postdoctoral experience relevant to computational biology, including a degree in areas of biology, computer science, mathematics, and/or statistics with fundamental GIS and ecological and environmental modelling experience. Daily duties will include spatial image preparation and processing (e.g. rectification, resampling), digitisation, spatial data management using GIS, climate and vegetation modelling. Applicants must be enthusiastic and have excellent communication skills, as they will be an integral part of a small and dynamic team.

Major Responsibilities

• To assist in the execution of habitat and species conservation projects, through the planning and application of experimental computational techniques
• To technically support and if necessary to participate in field work to survey habitats and species distributions
• To help maintain and review inventory systems including the management of the KFBG database
• Plan and manage land and vegetation surveys using up to date GIS and remote sensing technologies
• Model vegetation, potential species distributions and habitats using climate envelopes
• Run predictive analysis on the influence of climate change on vegetation, habitat and species distributions
• Produce vegetation, habitat and species distribution maps
• To handle general administrative duties and daily operations towards the development of capacity within the Flora Conservation Department
• As assigned from time to time


Requirements

• You should be passionate about biodiversity and its conservation
• Preferably PhD degree holder with postdoctoral experience in one of the following disciplines: computational biology, computer science, mathematics, and statistics
• Experience in statistical computing using R
• Experience in GIS analysis using ArcGIS software suite (ArcMap, ArcCatalog, ArcToolbox) and/or GRASS GIS
• Experience in different remote sensing satellite and air-photo methodologies and techniques using adequate software suites (ENVI, ERDAS, Definiens etc.)
• Experience in spatial data management using preferably Open Source technologies
• Naturally, you'll have superb IT skills

The following attributes are desirable, but non-essential:

• Previous programming or GIS customization experience, including writing customized R packages using the R/S and/or C/C++ or Fortran languages
• Field work experience using GPS technology preferable Trimble or Topcon

Application Method
Interested parties should send a detailed CV, expected salary, and a short essay
(describing relevant work experience and reasons for interest in the post) to:

Dr. Gunter Fischer,
Head of Flora Conservation Department,
Kadoorie Farm & Botanic Garden Corporation
Lam Kam Road, Tai Po, N.T., Hong Kong
Email: gfischer@kfbg.org

or

Human Resources Manager, Kadoorie Farm & Botanic Garden Corporation,
Lam Kam Road, Tai Po, New Territories, Hong Kong
Email to kfjobs@kfbg.org