Boise State University

Position Title/Short Description

Full Text of JOE Listing:

We have three years of funding available for a research scientist/postdoctoral scientist focused on analyzing the efficacy and unintended consequences of policies intended to encourage sustainable land use practices.

The post-doc will join the Human-Environment Systems community (https://www.boisestate.edu/hes/), a group of faculty, researchers and students committed to trans-disciplinary, team-based, actionable research that addresses real-world environmental challenges. The project team includes Dr. Jodi Brandt (land use scientist at Boise State), Dr. Mitch Hunter (Research Director at American Farmland Trust), Dr. Jayash Paudel and Lee Parton (economists) and Matt Williamson (conservation scientist).

This project investigates land use policies aimed at protecting farmland from development across the continental US. States and counties across the U.S. have implemented a diverse range of policy mechanisms, providing a wide range of excellent opportunities to conduct sophisticated land use policy impact analysis research. Our project team has rich geospatial datasets on farmland conversion and policy implementation across the United States. We are looking for someone with advanced data science, analytical and econometric skills to quantify policy efficacy, identify leakage, and to investigate how social-ecological context influences policy outcomes. This project has strong potential for both high-impact peer-reviewed publications and to influence U.S. land use policies.