USDA-APHIS Ecology & Biology Science Fellowship

*Applications are reviewed on a rolling-basis.

APHIS Office/Lab and Location: A research opportunity is currently available with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Animal Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) located in Fort Collins, Colorado. The selected participant may either relocate to Fort Collins or participate remotely.

The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is a multi-faceted Agency with a broad mission area that includes protecting and promoting U.S. agricultural health, regulating genetically engineered organisms, administering the Animal Welfare Act and carrying out wildlife damage management activities. These efforts support the overall mission of USDA, which is to protect and promote food, agriculture, natural resources and related issues. APHIS' mission also includes addressing issues such as wildlife damage and disease management; regulation of genetically engineered crops and animal welfare; and protection of public health and safety as well as natural resources that are vulnerable to invasive pests and pathogens.

Research Project: The participant will collaborate with wildlife biologists, ecologists, statisticians, and economists, specializing in population prediction, epidemiology, risk analysis, disease modeling, to operationalize and when needed improve analytical tools. Activities will support improvement and implementation of national scale models to prediction feral swine population size and changes in population. Additionally, the participant will aid in development of adaptive risk-based approaches to identify feral swine populations of importance for disease surveillance. 

Specific activities include, but are not limited to:

• Collaborate closely with quantitative ecologists to evaluate quality of feral swine population predictions made by national scale catch effort models.
• Develop approach to make catch-effort population predictions routinely available to managers and policy makers.
• Develop data pipeline to facilitate easy routine running of models.
• Collaborate with subject matter experts and policy makers to ensure analytical tools are developed in a way that meets program needs.
• Participate in professional shadowing experiences or short details to enhance knowledge and skills in disease risk modeling and application to support programmatic decisions and policy.

Learning Objectives: The fellowship will provide opportunities for the participant to learn about applied ecology and aid in operationalizing analytical tools that support national scale programmatic decisions and policy.

Mentor: The mentor for this opportunity is Ryan Miller (ryan.s.miller@usda.gov). If you have questions about the nature of the research please contact the mentor.

Anticipated Appointment Start Date: October 2023.  Start date is flexible and will depend on a variety of factors.

Appointment Length: The appointment will initially be for two years but may be renewed upon recommendation of APHIS and is contingent on the availability of funds.

Level of Participation: The appointment is full-time.

Participant Stipend: The participants will receive a monthly stipend commensurate with educational level and experience. The current annual stipend for this opportunity is $55,000 - $64,000 and includes a medical insurance supplement.

Citizenship Requirements: This opportunity is available to U.S. citizens only.

Background Investigation Requirements: Background investigations are required for the selected candidate so the individual can work in biocontainment without an escort and handle select agents. Adjudication of a Special Agency Check (SAC) is required before the selected candidate can start at Plum Island Animal Disease Center. An advanced BI security clearance will be conducted/adjudicated after start date, allowing for unescorted access to biocontainment. An APHIS Select Agent Clearance is also required so that the selected candidate can work with select agents. Paperwork for all of these clearances will be sent to the selected candidate after acceptance of the official offer from ORAU.

ORISE Information: This program, administered by ORAU through its contract with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to manage the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE), was established through an interagency agreement between DOE and APHIS. Participants do not become employees of USDA, APHIS, DOE or the program administrator, and there are no employment-related benefits. Proof of health insurance is required for participation in this program. Health insurance can be obtained through ORISE.

This is an equal opportunity program open to all qualified individuals without regard to race, color, age, sex, religion, national origin, mental or physical disability, genetic information, sexual orientation, or covered veteran’s status.

Questions: Please visit our Program Website. After reading, if you have additional questions about the application process please email USDA-APHIS@orau.org and include the reference code for this opportunity.

Qualifications

The qualified candidate should have received a master's or doctoral degree in one of the relevant fields or be currently pursuing one of the degrees with completion before December 29, 2023. Degree must have been received within five years of the appointment start date.

Preferred Skills:

• Demonstrated skills with working with biological and spatial data. 
• Skills in R preferred.