Postdoctoral Scholar - GMACS

The College of the Environment fosters existing and new collaborations between outstanding faculty, staff and students who are engaged in the study of: the solar system and Earth's dynamic land, water and atmosphere; the development and application of environmental engineering and technological advances; and the impact of policy and human actions on the environment, and the management of natural resources.

The School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences (SAFS) is dedicated to sustaining healthy marine and freshwater environments. Our school comprises one of the largest and most diverse academic aquatic and fisheries sciences program in the United States. Our faculty conduct innovative research from the organism to the ecosystem scale, and are recognized leaders in aquatic biology, sustainable fisheries management, and aquatic resource conservation.

The School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences values the strengths and professional experience that students, faculty, and staff bring to our community. We are committed to providing excellent education to all of our students, regardless of their race, gender, class, nationality, physical ability, religion, age, or sexual orientation. We are proud of the different roles that our students, staff, and faculty play in the community of the School and in the College of the Environment. We recognize that science is richer and the SAFS community is more vibrant when a diverse group of people participate in the SAFS community.

Stock assessment of exploited marine populations is a cornerstone of effective management. Assessment for exploited populations of crustaceans generally rely on size-structured population dynamics models (rather than age-structured models) because of the difficulty determining the age of a given organism. Standardized software exists to perform age-structured assessments, but not size-structured assessments. The General Model for Assessing Crustacean Stocks (GMACS), an ongoing, open-source, and collaborative effort, aims to fill this gap and improve the transparency and reproducibility of the science used to inform management advice provided by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NOAA).

The postdoctoral scholar will advance the status and promote the use of GMACS. GMACS has already been adopted for use in the assessment of several crab stocks in the Bering Sea, including Bristol Bay red king crab, Pribilof Island red king crab, and St. Matt's blue king crab.  However, several activities need to be completed to further operationalize the use of GMACS in both Alaska and elsewhere, as well as to ensure its long-term functionality. These include incorporating options for variations in life history, writing documentation and user manuals, developing software for visualizing results and producing reports, and developing methodologies for seamlessly incorporating and testing community-driven changes to the code.

This a full-time, position located at the University of Washington in Seattle, although the location at which work is to be conducted is flexible, and remote work is possible.  The post-doc will be supervised by Dr. André Punt (University of Washington) and will primarily collaborate with Dr. Cody Szuwalski (Alaska Fisheries Science Center).This is a 12- month initial appointment, with the possibility of renewal.  

Postdoctoral scholars are represented by UAW 4121 and are subject to the collective bargaining agreement, unless agreed exclusion criteria apply. For more information, please visit the University of Washington Labor Relations website.

Responibilities Include the following: 

• Modifying the GMACS assessment code;
• Developing unit tests;
• Writing a user's manual;
• Developing an R package for visualization of GMACS output;
• Creating generalized rmarkdown templates for assessment documents;
• Converting assessments for crab populations in the Bering Sea to GMACS;
• Writing a peer-reviewed manuscript describing GMACS; and
• Giving presentations to the North Pacific Fishery Management Council Crab Plan Team.