by Nick Redding | January 8, 2015

The Advanced Consortium on Cooperation, Conflict, and Complexity (AC⁴) at Columbia University’s Earth Institute is seeking a graduate research assistant (GRA) to support the second phase of a multi-disciplinary initiative aimed at exploring the fundamental principles of sustainable human development (SHD). Conducted as part of a partnership with the Agirre Lehendakaria Center at the University of the Basque Country and several other US-based institutions since 2013, the SHD initiative seeks to understand the preconditions, basic parameters, and necessary conditions for achieving development trajectories that simultaneously safeguard environmental functioning, ensure sustainable and equitable economic development, and promote individual and societal well-being.

During the first phase of the project, extensive disciplinary reviews as well as analysis and synthesis of existing measures of sustainable human development were used to propose a unified theoretical framework for SHD. The second phase of this initiative will focus on building statistical models to test hypotheses associated with this theoretical framework.

Duties:

Responsibilities will primarily consist of conducting basic statistical research, including data processing, analysis, and interpretation. The GRA will work independently as well as collaboratively with the project team to conduct and analyze quantitative research that furthers understanding of the essential components of SHD.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree and academic or applied experience in any of the following:
  • Computational science
  • Sustainable development
  • Economic policy
  • Natural resource science and management
  • Human rights, social justice,and/or peace and conflict resolution
• Excellent quantitative data management skills and experience in statistical analysis, demonstrated in CV
• Proficiency in statistical packages (e.g. Stata, R, SAS, SPSS)
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Task-oriented, with the ability to work independently as well as on a team
• Must be enrolled at least 1⁄2 time in a Master or PhD program at Columbia.

Compensation:

Commensurate with experience and subject to Columbia University guidelines.

Appointment Dates and Time Commitment:

Approx. 20 hours/week, Spring 2015 semester, starting February 2015.

Application:

Qualified candidates should submit a letter of interest and a CV in English via email tokar2174@tc.columbia.edu by Friday, January 30, 2015. Please include the phrase “SHD GRA 2015” in the subject line.