Career Center

Faculty Position in the Department of Forest Resources, University of Minnesota

Classification & Title: 9403R, Research Assistant Professor or 9402R, Research Associate Professor
Working Title/Specialty: Forest Management and the Bioeconomy
FLSA Status: Exempt, 100%
Term: 12 month (annually renewable), 75% Research / 25% Teaching
Type: Non-Tenure Track
Reports to: Department Head
College/Admin Unit: College of Food, Agricultural, and Natural Resource Sciences
Campus Location: Cloquet Forestry Center, Cloquet, MN

College Overview
The College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences (CFANS) is composed of 12 academic departments, 10 Research and Outreach Centers across Minnesota, plus the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, the Bell Museum, and dozens of interdisciplinary centers that span the college, the university, and the globe. CFANS offers 13 undergraduate majors and 13 graduate majors, three pre-major/pre-professional programs and 23 minors for undergraduate students. Undergraduate enrollment in the college is about 2,000 students. CFANS students are well-prepared for a diverse, multicultural workforce through the college’s emphasis on experiential, interdisciplinary, and intercultural learning, internships, and global perspectives.

At CFANS, we aim to inspire minds, nourish people, and enhance the natural environment, and we believe that's only possible if everyone feels seen, heard and respected. Our College embraces equity and diversity and prioritizes purpose-driven scientific discovery in order for us to build a better tomorrow, together. We align with the University of Minnesota in providing equal access to and opportunity in its programs, facilities, and employment without regard to race, color, creed, religion, national origin, gender, age, marital status, disability, public assistance status, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression.

Department Overview
The Department of Forest Resources (https://www.forestry.umn.edu/) is one of the oldest and most highly regarded forestry programs in the United States. Its mission is to inform and advance the science and management of forest ecosystems and related natural resources. The Department has 18 faculty and approximately 50 full-time researchers, scientists, and postdocs representing a breadth of disciplines in the biological, physical, social, and managerial sciences. Faculty and scientists maintain extensive relationships with public, private, tribal, and nonprofit organizations focused on the sustainable use and management of forest resources. The Department hosts BS, MS, and PhD programs, supports many nationally and internationally recognized research programs, and has a long tradition of public engagement and outreach. Faculty and scientists use several University centers across the state including the 3,400 acre Cloquet Forestry Center, Hubachek Wilderness Research Center near Ely, Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve in East Bethel, and North Central Research and Outreach Center in Grand Rapids. Departmental faculty and staff also engage with urban-focused groups and initiatives such as the Urban Forestry Outreach Nursery and Research Lab, the Urban Research and Outreach-Engagement Center, and the Minneapolis-St. Paul Metropolitan Area Long Term Ecological Research Program.

Cloquet Forestry Center Overview
The Cloquet Forestry Center is located on the traditional, ancestral, and contemporary lands of Indigenous people and has been the University of Minnesota’s experimental forest since 1909. Located west of Cloquet, Minnesota, it is in the middle of the Fond du Lac Reservation on approximately 3,400 acres. The Center’s mission is to build understanding of northern forest ecosystems through field-based research, education, and outreach and it accomplishes this by hosting forest related research, providing a venue for middle school through undergraduate education and serving as a meeting space for natural resource professional development programs. It is one of CFANS 10 Research and Outreach Centers and host of one of the University’s Regional Extension offices. The Center is the home to both the Sustainable Forests Education Cooperative and the Minnesota Tree Improvement Cooperative and in 2019 recorded over 11,000 visitor days and 4,500 lodging nights in a wide mix of programs. 

Twin Cities Overview
The Twin Cities campus is located on traditional, ancestral and contemporary lands of the Dakota people. The Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area is a thriving community of nearly three million people across seven counties and 182 communities. It is home to an extensive parks and trails system with over 47 million visits per year. The University of Minnesota-Twin Cities campus is Minnesota’s only land-grant university and one of the most prestigious public research universities in the nation. The Twin Cities has a large urban American Indian community and is at the center for worldwide calls for social and racial justice. We believe that fostering diverse and healthy ecosystems in our communities can bring about ecological and social change.

Position Description:
Non-tenure track, 12-month, full-time appointment with responsibilities for research (75%) and teaching (25%), with non-tenure track promotion (i.e., assistant, associate, full research professor). The position is in the Department of Forest Resources and located at the University of Minnesota’s Cloquet Forestry Center (CFC) near Cloquet, Minnesota.

Responsibilities

• Develop a nationally-recognized research program that addresses the major issues associated with the sustainable management and utilization of forest resources. A priority focus will be research and analysis that increases the productivity, utilization, sustainability, climate solution potential, and economic contribution forests make to society. This research will be developed in collaboration with UMN faculty and scientists at St. Paul, Cloquet, and Grand Rapids, and with constituent groups and forest professionals at local, state, tribal and federal agencies across the region. 
• Seek and secure extramural funding that supports this research program.
• Develop and maintain strong relationships with key partners such as forest products industries; tribal (e.g., Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Resource Management), federal (e.g., USDA-Forest Service), state (e.g., MN Department of Natural Resources) and county agencies; and local land management organizations, logging businesses, forest-based trade associations, conservation or habitat management  organizations, and private forestland owners.
• Develop and maintain collaborative relationships with scientists at the University of Minnesota, Natural Resources Research Institute, forestry and natural resource Extension educators and specialists, and the University’s Sustainable Forests Education Cooperative.
• Develop and maintain collaborative relationships with scientists, government program managers, and the private sector working to expand the capacity of forests to contribute to the bioeconomy through the development of existing and new products and associated market opportunities such as carbon sequestration, mass timber, thermal energy (pellets), liquid biofuels, specialized chemicals, and cellulosic materials.
• Teach undergraduate and graduate courses that complement the candidate’s discipline expertise. Topics may include silviculture, biometrics, traditional ecological knowledge, forest management and utilization of a broad range of forest products, forest economics, or forest operations.
• Mentor undergraduate students and advise M.S. and Ph.D. graduate students.
• Participate in faculty governance, and where appropriate, provide leadership to outreach activities statewide.

Minimum Qualifications

• Ph.D. with an emphasis and/or expertise in forest management, silviculture, forest operations/engineering, forest economics, or forest inventory/measurements. 
• Demonstrated experience designing and conducting applied research that addresses one or more of the following areas:
  • Increasing productivity of timber or other forest products.
  • Expanding the production of forest-based ecosystem goods and services, for example, resources of cultural significance to Indigenous tribes.
  • Sustaining the economic competitiveness of forest resources. 
• Demonstrated experience in undergraduate or graduate teaching, including the demonstrated ability to advise and train students. 
• Demonstrated ability to work and collaborate with diverse audiences. 
• Demonstrated success in securing extramural funding. 
• Demonstrated success publishing in leading peer reviewed scientific journals for their  discipline.
• Experience developing relationships with partners such as tribal nations and key stakeholder groups such as forest and natural resource managers and related business enterprises, local units of government, timber harvesting operators, forest landowners, conservation organizations, and forest-based industry and trade associations.

Preferred Qualifications

• Specialized expertise in a particular area such as forest informatics, supply chain analysis, forest analytics, quantitative forest planning techniques, spatial/temporal modeling of forest landscapes, scheduling of operations, decision-support research, operations research, information technologies, quantitative silviculture, or natural resource economics.
• A forestry degree accredited by the Society of American Foresters or a similar forestry accreditation program.

Salary and Benefits:
Salary is competitive and commensurate with experience and qualifications. Additional start-up funding includes graduate student support, moving expenses, and other start-up expenses.

The University of Minnesota offers a comprehensive benefits package including:

• Competitive wages, paid holidays.
• Low cost medical, dental, and pharmacy plans.
• Health care and dependent daycare flexible spending accounts.
• Excellent retirement plans with generous employer contribution and immediate vesting.
• Employer paid disability and life insurance.
• Wellbeing program with reduced insurance premiums.
• Tuition reimbursement opportunities covering 75% of eligible tuition.
• Opportunities for sabbaticals and other professional leaves.
• Opportunities for growth and promotion.
• Employee Assistance Program.

For more information regarding benefits: https://hr.umn.edu/Benefits/U-M-Employment-Benefits. 

About University of Minnesota Twin Cities

The University of Minnesota, founded in the belief that all people are enriched by understanding, is dedicated to the advancement of learning and the search for truth; to the sharing of this knowledge through education for a diverse community; and to the application of this knowledge to benefit the people of the state, the nation, and the world.

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