Extension Associate: Birds of the World Science Lead

Cornell Lab of Ornithology

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Cornell University

Ithaca, NY

• Data and Scientific Synthesis (50%). Serve as a key academic/professional component and resource for the Lab’s Science synthesis and editing team. Develop and implement efficient workflows for comprehensive scientific content updates for all bird families and more than 10,000 bird species in online monographs while ensuring appropriately authoritative scientific coverage and the academic rigor of these Cornell Lab publications. Beyond maintaining current scholarly content, the expectation will be to increase the rate of annual account revisions that synthesize new findings; the specific goals for publishing will be discussed annually and set by the team and the Birds of the World Managing Editor, as these depend in part on account management infrastructure and staff, and the level of external collaborator engagement. Keep Birds of the World current with avian taxonomic changes in collaboration with the Cornell Lab Systematics team. Work closely with a team of technical information specialists and software designers at the Lab who will assist in developing the infrastructure required to run the project, as well as archiving and serving the digital assets.

• Community stewardship activities (30%). Work together with the Birds of the World Managing Editor to coordinate and manage a community of professional scientist authors and associate editors to produce and review incoming science content. Identify and recruit authors from the scientific ornithological community to revise family and species accounts. Work with these authors to incorporate new science and associated citations, amend and replace text as needed, and integrate into each account a suite of rich media assets (sound recordings, photos, video, diagrams, etc.) that illustrate various aspects of each species’ natural history.

• Mentoring, teaching, and training (15%). Mentor and supervise Cornell undergraduate students who are working with BOW and/or engaged in independent research projects that advance our understanding of ornithology. Train and supervise individuals from a variety of backgrounds and career levels in scientific data synthesis and scientific writing skills. Supervise Cornell undergraduate workers, and mentor those engaged in independent research projects leading to senior theses and peer-reviewed publications.

• Other (5%). Keep abreast of, and take part in current research related to this position. Represent the Lab in professional contexts related to avian systematics and taxonomy. Other ad hoc duties as assigned by the supervisor.
  

• Experience leading large-scale, multi-layered projects and research. 
• Familiarity with and connectivity to the global community of ornithologists, especially those outside of North America and Europe. 
• Strong record of enhancing the performance of a team through productive collaborations. 
• Strong record of successfully meeting schedules and milestones of research projects that involve multiple stages and several participants.

Supervision Exercised

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