The College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences (CMNS) at the University of Maryland is conducting an open search for the Director of its Earth Systems Science Interdisciplinary Center (ESSIC). The Center was originally established in 1999 as a partnership among CMNS, the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences (BSOS), and the NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center. It includes three partner departments (Atmospheric and Oceanic Science and Geology in CMNS, and Geographical Sciences in BSOS). Academic faculty in ESSIC hold their tenure and teach in one of the partner departments.
Under the active leadership of Professor Antonio Busalacchi, the Center has grown in size and stature to a complement of 10 academic faculty and 150 research scientists, with an annual research income of approximately $35M. It has added a second major partner, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration. The Master Grant with Goddard supports four major research areas: climate variability and change; atmospheric composition and processes; the global carbon cycle (including terrestrial and marine ecosystems/land use/cover change) and the global water cycle. The NOAA Cooperative Institute for Climate and Satellites (CICS) between ESSIC and the North Carolina State University enhances NOAA's ability to use satellite observations and Earth system models to advance the national climate mission.
Understanding the Earth system - the combination of the physical planet and the animals, plants and people who live on it - is now essential to our national prosperity and security, and ESSIC must contribute to the University’s response to this urgent national need. To this end, and reflecting the broad interdisciplinary nature of the field, the next Director will leverage the excellence across the campus to build co-operative partnerships with other units. In particular, s/he will proactively encourage and support faculty participation in campus collaborations to plan for future large-scale funded proposals, as well as efforts to provide useful knowledge about the Earth system to the non-academic world. S/he will also proactively strengthen the relationships with NASA and NOAA, and engage new external partners from universities, federal agencies, the State of Maryland and the private sector, thereby continuing to raise the national and international profile of the University.
The ESSIC Director will report to the CMNS Dean. The candidate should have a strong commitment to faculty and staff development. S/he will be a scientist of the highest quality in any of the disciplines essential to understanding the Earth system, and will be appointed as full professor with tenure in the appropriate department. The Director must be a recognized player in the earth system community, with a strong record of strategic leadership and a demonstrated ability to work collaboratively and successfully, nationally and internationally, in a range of contexts and perspectives inside and beyond academia. Ph.D. or equivalent required.
Applicants should submit as a SINGLE document a curriculum vita including publications, a description of how their research and their experience qualify them for this position and the names and contact information for five referees. Please apply at: http://go.umd.edu/essicdir
Start day and salary negotiable. The position will remain open until filled, but for best consideration applications should be received by December 31, 2016.
For additional information please contact:
Professor Steve Halperin
Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center
5825 University Research Court, Suite 4001
College Park, MD 20740
shalper@umd.edu