Graduate Fellowship in Kenya (closing date: 30 April 2019)
The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) seeks to recruit a PhD Graduate Fellow to investigate GHG emissions from rangelands by focusing on enteric methane emissions of rangeland-based beef production systems in Kenya.
Responsibilities of the fellow
- To study enteric methane emissions from beef cattle kept on different rangelands in Kenya;
- To test and compare different methodologies for measuring and/or calculating enteric methane emissions (e.g., respiration chamber, SF6 tracer technique, IPCC’s Tier 2 approach for calculating emission factors);
- To collect data on animal performance, activity, intake, diet composition, rangeland species composition and basal cover etc.;
- To test possible interventions and their effects on methane emissions and animal performance;
- To upscale the results on a regional basis for different rangeland systems using a partial life-cycle assessment (LCA) approach;
- To closely work together, cooperate and participate in supervision of MSc students and field research staff;
- To statistically analyze the data, write scientific papers and prepare conference/workshop presentations;
- To cooperate and share results with an interdisciplinary team of researchers with different backgrounds (animal nutrition, biogeochemistry, social sciences, gender studies, rangeland ecology etc.)
Requirements for the ideal candidate
- MSc in Agricultural Sciences (preferably Animal Nutrition with a focus on ruminants), Environmental Sciences, Rangeland Ecology, or another relevant discipline;
- Experience in greenhouse gas measurements at different scales, i.e. respiration chambers or SF6 tracer technique would be an advantage;
- Experience in upscaling field data by modelling or LCA approaches would be an additional asset;
- Knowledge of grassland/rangeland-based production systems in developing and/or developed countries are an advantage;
- Experience in handling of diverse datasets, data processing and statistical software such as R, SPSS, Matlab or python;
- Careful and correct mode of work, especially about field data collection and data analysis, demonstrated skills in writing scientific papers;
- Experience of living or working in the context of developing countries, especially East Africa, would be beneficial;
- Willingness to perform field work in rural conditions and ability to work independently and solution-oriented;
- Ability to cooperate with students and field assistants, farmers and other stakeholder groups, and partly supervise MSc students;
- Ability to jointly work in a multinational team of scientists, technicians and students from other disciplines (biogeochemistry, agricultural sciences, environmental sciences, ecology, social sciences etc.);
Location: ILRI, Kenya, Mazingira Centre
Duration: 3 years
Closing Date: 30 April 2019
Apply: to read more about the fellowship and to apply, please click here to access the ILRI webesite.