The Megafauna Conservation Group at the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG), Yunnan is newly formed (2020) and led by Professor Ahimsa Campos-Arceiz. The group’s work focusses on the ecology and conservation of megafauna – especially elephants – and their habitats in China and throughout tropical Asia. One of the group’s key research areas is understanding human-wildlife interactions and developing evidence-based approaches to turn conflict into coexistence. The Megafauna Conservation Group forms part of XTBG’s Center for Integrative Conservation (CIC) and the Southeast Asia Biodiversity Research Institute (SEABRI), all part of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).
1. Seeking positions:
(1) Assistant/Associate Professor (work place: will usually work in Menglun, China, but will spend periods working in Myanmar and other tropical Asian countries if related projects needed.)(the one who applies for assistant professor position would be recruited as “special research assistant”, which will be informal position for 3 years)
(2) group secretary (work place: Menglun, Mengla, Yunnan, China)
2. Position responsibility and requirements
(1) For Assistant/Associate Professor:
Responsibility: The successful candidate will help the group PI with the academic task or undertake related projects; assist with the group PI for project application or apply project independently and also help for the group management.
Requirements: We are seeking to appoint a member of academic staff at Assistant/Associate Professor level specializing in conservation social science, particularly on human-wildlife interactions and the study and mitigation of human-wildlife conflicts. We are seeking applicants with expertise on social aspects of conservation such as community and multi-stakeholder engagement, quantitative and qualitative social science techniques, conservation policy and planning, and interdisciplinary aspects of wildlife conservation.
Applicants are expected to have a PhD degree or equivalent experience and a track record of publications in the leading scientific journals in the field. They also need to speak Chinese and a strong command of English. The successful candidate will work in accordance with the Megafauna Conservation Group’s vision and research strategy and will be encouraged to develop new – yet complementary – research directions within the group. The appointee will be expected to contribute to the research group management and development, to graduate student supervision, and to seek external funding as required by the research goals.
(2) For group secretary:
Responsibility: The candidate will mainly assist the research group in daily management, reimbursement, and help group members (especially foreign staff) to carry out scientific research work.
Position requirements: The applicant should have a MSc degree or above, have quite strong capacities on speaking, reading and writing skills in both Chinese and English as the group work involves translation. The applicant needs to be able to be proactive and solution oriented, be comfortable assuming responsibilities, and be good at cooperating and communicating with group members and partners. Preferably, the applicant should have some experience working on conservation biology, animal or plant ecology, landscape ecology, human or physical geography, plant-animal interactions, or related disciplines.
3. Applying for the position:
Applicants should submit (1) a CV including contact details for three referees, (2) a cover letter indicating their suitability for the position and a statement of research interests/plans, (3) pdfs of representative publications in the latest 5 years, (4) scanning of degree certificate. And other materials could be used to support the capacity of applicants. Applications should be submitted before the end of 15 June 2020 by email to Prof Ahimsa Campos-Arceiz (ahimsa@xtbg.ac.cn) and cc to Ms Fang Chunyan (fcy@xtbg.ac.cn) with the topic of “position application of Megafauna Conservation Group”.
For informal, confidential enquiries about the position, please contact Prof Ahimsa Campos-Arceiz (ahimsa@xtbg.ac.cn).
