Hiring three Undergraduate Student Research Assistants in Food Security and Waste to Energy

 Hiring three Undergraduate Student Research Assistants in Food Security and Waste to Energy 

 

The Bioenergy and Bioprocessing Technology Laboratory under the direction of Dr. Stephanie Lansing in the Department of Environmental Science and Technology is looking to hire three part-time (10-20 hours/week) Undergraduate Student Research Assistants.

 

Position #1: Modeling/GIS to reduce food insecurity. The undergraduate assistant will work with a postdoctoral researcher in modeling food waste and creating a platform for redistributing recoverable food back to market (food pantries) and modeling energy production from unrecoverable food through anaerobic digestion processing. The position would be a computer-based project, with regular meetings with the post-doc but no laboratory analytics performed. Previous modeling and GIS experience is a plus but not necessary. The student must show a demonstrated work ethic, attention to detail, a willingness to learn, and stick to a punctual work schedule

 

Position #2: Modeling/LCA of energy from animal waste technologies. The undergraduate assistant will work with a postdoctoral researcher in creating a life cycle assessment (LCA) of greenhouse gas reductions and nutrient recovery from anaerobic digestion and/or gasification/pyrolysis of manure and animal processing waste. Individual farm digesters/gasifiers as well as community-based system will be modeled to determine total energy production possible as well as greenhouse gas emissions reduced. The position would be a computer-based project, with regular meetings with the post-doc but no laboratory analytics performed. Previous modeling and LCA experience is a plus but not necessary. The student must show a demonstrated work ethic, attention to detail, a willingness to learn, and stick to a punctual work schedule

 

Position #2: Creating energy from municipal solid waste (MSW), i.e., trash. The undergraduate assistant will work with PhD student to collect MSW from locations on and off-campus, sort the MSW into categories, and perform laboratory analyses on the sorted MSW to determine organic matter content, energy production potential, and other parameters. The student would also assist in inputting data into Excel spreadsheets, washing laboratory glassware, and keeping the laboratory environment clean. The student must be comfortable working with laboratory equipment and food waste/MSW samples. Previous lab experience is a plus but not necessary. The student must show a demonstrated work ethic, attention to detail, a willingness to learn, and stick to a punctual laboratory work schedule

 

Pay rate for all positions will start at $15/hour, with a possibility of pay increases with experience gained. Opportunities include professional development with mentoring from graduate students, post-docs, and Dr. Lansing. Attendance at monthly laboratory meetings is mandatory, where relevant research topics will be discussed and results from the laboratory experiments presented. 

 

Applications should be emailed to Dr. Stephanie Lansing: slansing@umd.edu by January 30th at 5pm. The applications should include an updated resume, a cover letter detailing which position you are applying for (can be more than one position), detailing relevant experience for that position, expected graduation date, and a schedule detailing the proposed blocks of time (Monday – Friday from 8am to 6pm) that you would be able to work during the Spring semester.