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The World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), based in Nairobi, Kenya, conducts 
agroforestry research and development with the goal of improving food and 
nutritional security, livelihoods, and environmental resilience in 
developing countries.  ICRAF works with a wide range of partners in the 
public and private sectors and is one of the Future Harvest centers of the 
Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). ICRAF 
has a long history of research on agroforestry and natural resource 
management interventions for sustainable soil management. To help better 
target agroforestry interventions, ICRAF is conducting innovative research 
on new methods for diagnostic surveillance of soil degradation based on 
analysis of satellite imagery at multiple scales, rapid soil analysis using 
near-infrared spectroscopy, and application of new statistical tools for 
analyzing multilevel and multivariate data. ICRAF is situated in its own 
campus on the outskirts of Nairobi with well-equipped office, internet and 
laboratory facilities.

ICRAF, in partnership with Biomathematics and Statistics Scotland (BioSS), 
requires a highly competent biometrician to assist with development of 
statistical approaches to analysis of complex environmental data sets.


The Position:
The position is based in Nairobi at ICRAF Headquarters, but involves 
extensive visits to BioSS in Scotland for consultations, and occasional 
travel to field sites in Africa.

The incumbent will work with a multinational team of landscape ecologists, 
soil scientists and biometricians on a project to develop and test new 
approaches for land degradation surveillance. The incumbent will also work 
with senior scientists on statistical analysis of data libraries of 
visible-near-infrared reflectance spectra collected from satellite and 
laboratory-based sensors. Through collaborative projects, ICRAF has the 
largest soil spectral libraries in the world. These include a spectral 
library with more than 50 soil physical, chemical and mineralological 
attribute data for 4200 diverse soils from the United States and a global 
library of 900 reference soil profiles associated with the digital Soil Map 
of the World.  Large georeferenced spectral libraries have been acquired in 
Eastern Africa, and acquisition is starting in West Africa. The project is 
aiming to develop expert systems for estimating soil funtional attributes 
from soil spectral libraries and implement large area soil surveillance 
systems in Africa. Futher details of the work is available at: 
http://www.worldagroforestrycentre.org/sites/program1/specweb/home.htm. 
Specific duties will include:

·       Development of methods for statistical analysis of soil spectral 
libraries, including development of optimal data pre-treatments, spectral 
classification and calibration procedures;
·       Design and statistical analysis of hierarchical data sets involving 
spectral measurements, including satellite data at multiple scales, and 
field and laboratory observations;
·       Capacity building of staff in national programmes, including 
instruction of students and national staff in statistical analysis of soil 
spectral data and preparation of training courses and manuals; and
·       Assist with statistical design and analysis problems in other ICRAF 
projects where required.

Qualifications:
·       MSc in Biometrics or Mathematics;
·       Good knowledge of a wide range of statistical techniques, including 
multivariate methods, pattern recognition and classification, taxonomic 
classification approaches, clustering methods including classification and 
regression trees, and mixed effects modelling.  Chemometrics experience a 
distinct advantage;
·       Highly innovative in researching and testing new statistical 
approaches (e.g. wavelets for spectral data reduction);
·       Programming skills for data manipulation and statistical analysis;
·       Fluent in English with good technical writing skills; and
·       Ability to work with multinational multidisciplinary teams.

Terms of offer:
ICRAF offers a competitive salary and benefits package.   The contract is 
for an initial period of one year with possibility of extension based on 
mutual agreement and availability of funds. Applicants are invited to send 
a cover letter illustrating their suitability for the above position 
against the listed qualifications/competencies/skills and a detailed 
curriculum vitae, with names and addresses of three referees (including 
telephone, fax numbers and email address).  All correspondence should be 
addressed to the Human Resources Unit, World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), 
P.O. Box 30677, Nairobi, Kenya; email: [log in to unmask]  Applications 
will be considered until June 30th, 2004.  Only short-listed applicants 
will be contacted.

ICRAF offers a collegial and gender-sensitive working environment and 
believes that staff diversity promotes excellence, and strongly encourages 
applications from women.