Fully funded PhD position with Dr. Tal Avgar at the University of British Columbia Okanagan

Wildlife population and space-use ecology

Start date: September 2025 (negotiable).

The pay: Minimum $37,000/year for four years.

The location: This position will be based at the Department of Biology, Irving K. Barber Faculty of Science, the University of British Columbia, Okanagan campus (UBCO), located on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded Syilx Okanagan Nation Territory (Kelowna, BC, Canada). Kelowna, BC’s 3rd largest metropolitan area (20th largest in Canada), is situated on the shore of Okanagan Lake, surrounded by provincial parks, pine forests, vineyards, orchards, and mountains. The area offers excellent access to a variety of outdoor recreational activities, including hiking, climbing, water sports (motorized and non-motorized), biking (road, gravel, cross country, and downhill), and skiing (Nordic, Alpine, and Touring).

The advisor: Dr. Tal Avgar (he/him) is a quantitative wildlife ecologist with expertise in space-use ecology, wildlife population biology, animal conservation, predator-prey interactions, and statistical and mathematical modelling. Tal is an assistant professor at the Department of Biology at UBCO and a senior science advisor at the Wildlife Science Centre, Biodiversity Pathways Ltd. Before moving to Kelowna, Tal was an assistant professor at Utah State University (2018-2022), a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Alberta (2014-2017), and a PhD student at the University of Guelph (2008-2013).

Minimum qualifications: BSc and research experience in ecology, math/stats, or related fields. Applicants must be admissible to the Biology graduate program at UBCO.

Competitive applicants will also have:

· MSc degree in ecology, wildlife biology, or conservation biology, with strong quantitative skills and training in statistics

OR

MSc degree in statistics, mathematics, or data science with a strong interest in animal ecology

· Experience conducting statistical analysis of spatial and population data in R and/or Python

· Experience in writing and publishing peer-reviewed scientific articles

· Experience in presenting research to diverse audiences

· Experience in working collaboratively with indigenous peoples, governments, and/or other stakeholders

Priority will be given to applicants who identify as belonging to equity-seeking groups, including (but not limited to) Indigenous peoples, LGBTQ+, and first-generation or otherwise non-traditional college students.

Consideration of applications will begin immediately and will continue until the position is filled. Qualified applicants should email the following materials, as a single PDF file, with the subject line “PhD@WEiRG”, to tal.avgar@ubc.ca:

  1. Cover letter describing relevant experience, interests, and professional goals
  2. CV demonstrating their qualifications
  3. Contact information for three professional references