IN-13066 Linking Human Welfare and the Environment

Internship Description: Seeking a creative, quantitative student to help us test the relationships between natural ecosystems and human welfare using big, diverse datasets. Much of human welfare and health is linked to the functioning of the world’s ecosystems, but the nature and strength of these links is poorly quantified and therefore controversial. The Master’s student will help us better understand these links, as part of a newly-funded project at NSF’s new social-environmental synthesis center, SESYNC. The project will combine several global, freely available datasets (e.g., geo-referenced household and agricultural surveys, biophysical and governance data) to test relationships among human health and welfare, ecological condition, and natural resource governance. We will focus on sub-Saharan Africa and coastal fisheries in the developing world.

The intern will:

- access these datasets and compile them into a common database

- help develop a data retrieval system to ease in analysis and publication

- help select specific research questions within the

- spend time at SESYNC in Annapolis, MD to develop the database with their IT staff and to possibly participate in working group meetings.

 

Minimum Requirements:

- exceptional quantitative skills, including data handling, database development, data quality control, programming in R a plus.

- the ability to work independently and to deliver high quality products.

Location:

Burlington, VT

Compensation:

Unpaid. For all unpaid internships, applicants must be enrolled in school and be able to obtain academic course credit from their university.

How to apply: Please email a resume & cover letter with the subject line “Internship Application” to Brendan Fisher at brendan.fisher@wwfus.org.