Scientist - Greenhouse Gases Emissions at International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI)

Responsibilities

• Conduct agronomic, livestock productivity and greenhouse gas (GHG) measurements for different land use systems in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) to allow the quantification of system specific GHG fluxes and subsequently to develop reliable mitigation options;
• Manage and maintain laboratory and field facilities, specifically automatic soil GHG chambers, laser absorption spectrometers included in various setups (i.e. animal respiration chambers, eddy covariance etc.) to quantify GHG emissions from ruminants, soil, vegetation, manure and whole ecosystems;
• Training and supervision of staff;
• Quality control and quality assurance of the collected data;
• Conduct laboratory scale, mesocosm parameterisation experiments to allow direct comparison of GHG emission potentials from manures and soils for different environmental conditions;
• Write scientific papers and prepare conference/workshop presentations describing results and their implications for productivity, GHG and nutrient management; and contribute to other communication products (research briefs, policy briefs, stakeholder meetings etc.);
• Develop innovative concepts and ideas for further research (including proposal writing) to address environmental aspects of agricultural productions systems that do not compromise food security.

Requirements

• PhD in nutrient cycling in agroecosystems, agronomy, geo-ecology, environmental sciences or related fields
• Considerable practical knowledge of techniques and experience with equipment used in the measurement of greenhouse gas emissions from terrestrial ecosystems, experience with the eddy covariance technique is beneficial
• knowledge of chemical analysis of environmental samples (soil and plant analysis) is an asset
• Ability to effectively manage, visualize and analyse (statistics) large datasets using standard programming languages (i.e. R, python etc.)

Post location: The position is based in Nairobi, Kenya.

Position level: The position level is 4C.

Duration: 3 years with the possibility of renewal, contingent upon individual performance and continued funding.