"Assistant/Associate Specialist - Restoration and Rangeland Ecology"

Job Details

Assistant/Associate Specialist - Restoration and Rangeland Ecology - Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management

Position overview
Salary range: The UC academic salary scales set the minimum pay determined by rank and step at appointment. See the following table(s) for the current salary scale(s) for this position https://www.ucop.edu/academic-personnel-programs/_files/2025-26/represented-july-2025-scales/t24-b.pdf. The current base salary range for this position is $63,500-$88,000. "Off-scale" salaries, which yield compensation that is higher than the published system-wide salary at the designated rank and step, are offered when necessary to meet competitive conditions.

Percent time: 100

Anticipated start: Fall 2025

Position duration: One year with the possibility of extension based on performance and availability of funding

Application Window
Open date: September 16, 2025
Next review date: Tuesday, Sep 30, 2025 at 11:59pm (Pacific Time). Apply by this date to ensure full consideration by the committee.
Final date: Friday, Oct 17, 2025 at 11:59pm (Pacific Time). Applications will continue to be accepted until this date, but those received after the review date will only be considered if the position has not yet been filled.

Position description
The Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management is home to multidisciplinary research programs that recognize the urgency of the challenges—and the enormous opportunities—that may lead to transformative change. We have award-winning faculty in climate science, biodiversity, environmental policy, land use, and community outreach who are all driven by a collective interest in our environmental future.

The Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management at the University of California, Berkeley, seeks applications for an Assistant/Associate Specialist in the Luong Lab, in the area of restoration and rangeland ecology.

Dr. Justin Luong (PI), is an Assistant Professor with the Department of Environmental Science, Policy, & Management (ESPM) within the Rausser College of Natural Resources (RCNR) at the University of California, Berkeley.

The Luong Lab seeks to answer research questions that can directly support restoration practitioners, land managers and private citizens to steward important ecosystems across California. To ensure our work is relevant to practice, our research questions are developed with perspectives from restoration practitioners and natural resource managers. We use a combination of interdisciplinary methods that combine field, greenhouse and social science approaches to address our questions. We also extend our research to practitioners in the form of research briefs, reports, and workshops. At present, we focus our work on California rangelands to help support biodiversity, endangered species conservation, grazing management, mechanisms of functional traits, restorative agrivoltaics, bridging the science-practice gap and plant communities and restoration projects responses to climate stressors and varying land management practices.

This position will coordinate and implement field and lab work, manage and analyze data, and contribute to publications in support of active research projects.

Specific responsibilities include:

• In collaboration with the PI, finalizes study designs for field data collection projects focused on ecological surveys of restoration studies and rangeland management. Coordinate fieldwork by training field crews and managing field crew data collection. Coordinates the field collection of field samples, such as functional traits, for lab processing.
• Leads the laboratory management and processing of field samples and associated data. Assists with the management and analysis of range and restoration science data. This assistance will entail data entry, development of database descriptions, quality control and quality assurance checks, and statistical analysis of key metrics.
• Generates progress reports as needed at quarterly intervals for the relevant projects. Reporting includes tracking the status of deliverables and tasks, and a summary of progress in the format required by the sponsor.
• Contribute to the planning, analysis, and writing of peer-reviewed manuscripts and final reports. These contributions may include the drafting of figures and tables, the analysis of data, editing and proofreading text, and the compilation of references.
• Assists with the development of deliverables tied to Extension projects that are focused on science delivery to practitioners, which can include contributing to the creation of Fact Sheets, Research Briefs, and workshops.

Qualifications
Basic qualifications (required at time of application): Bachelor's degree or equivalent international degree.

Preferred qualifications: Master's degree in related field; Experience publishing a first author paper; Experience mentoring undergraduate researchers; Expertise with California Plant Identification; Proficiency with R Statistical Software or Python for statistical programming; Experience conducting field work in remote locations with harsh environmental conditions; Experience sampling plant physiological traits and morphological functional traits; Experience with data organization and databasing.

Application Requirements
Document requirements: Curriculum Vitae; Cover Letter.

Reference requirements: 3 required (contact information only).

Apply link: https://aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF05140

Help contact: k.mao@berkeley.edu