Research Assistant Professor

Position Title

Research Assistant Professor, Biological Oceanography

Western Washington University, with over 15,000 students in seven colleges and the graduate school, is nationally recognized for its educational programs, students and faculty. The campus is located in Bellingham, Washington, a coastal community of 90,000 overlooking Bellingham Bay, the San Juan Islands and the North Cascades Mountain range. The city lies 90 miles north of Seattle and 60 miles south of Vancouver, British Columbia.

Western has additional sites in Anacortes, Bremerton, Everett, Port Angeles, and Poulsbo. Western is recognized nationally for its successes, such as being named one of the top public master's-granting institutions in the Pacific Northwest for 25 years in a row by U.S. News & World Report.

SPMC is Western Washington University’s coastal research facility, located in Anacortes, Washington, approximately 45 miles from Western’s main campus in Bellingham. The 78-acre site includes Pacific lowland forest and 3,000 feet of undisturbed shoreline along the Salish Sea. SPMC supports and advances WWU’s undergraduate and graduate programs in marine science, facilitates research across a broad range of marine-related disciplines, and provides access to facilities for visiting scientists.

The center also hosts federally funded programs that enable undergraduates nationwide to conduct mentored research and promotes ocean literacy through K–12 and community education initiatives.

Facilities include a flow-through seawater system, a fleet of research vessels, SCUBA support, oceanographic instrumentation, a fully equipped analytical chemistry laboratory, and a fully equipped molecular laboratory. Together, these resources support the research and educational activities of WWU faculty, resident scientists, and visiting researchers. For more information visit spmc.wwu.edu.

Marine and Coastal Science (MACS) is an interdisciplinary Bachelor of Science (BS) degree program with permanent and affiliated faculty in units across the university, drawing together the wealth of marine expertise in the Biology, Geology, Environmental Sciences, and Chemistry departments and at the Shannon Point Marine Center. The mission of MACS is to promote the study of marine systems with an emphasis on place-based learning, early exposure to research, and cohort-based, immersive educational experiences.

The goal of the program is to help students develop into confident, thoughtful, ethical scientists ready to address the growing challenges affecting our marine and coastal environments marine.wwu.edu.

Shannon Point Marine Center and the Marine and Coastal Science Program support Western's mission, which states that together with our students, staff, and faculty, we are committed to making a positive impact in the state and the world with a shared focus on academic excellence and inclusive achievement. We encourage applications from women, people of color, people with disabilities, veterans, and other candidates from underrepresented backgrounds and with diverse experiences interested in this opportunity.

The Shannon Point Marine Center (SPMC) invites applications for a university supported, year-round, half-time Research Assistant Professor position with expertise in biological oceanography. This non-tenure track research faculty position will be based at the Shannon Point Marine Center (SPMC) in Anacortes, Washington with the position title granted through the Marine and Coastal Science (MACS) program.

We seek a dynamic and collaborative researcher who will be an active member of the SPMC community. The successful candidate will be expected to:

• Develop and sustain a rigorous, externally funded research program in biological oceanography that leverages SPMC laboratory resources.
• Engage and mentor students through research involvement and training opportunities.
• Contribute to SPMC programs and the broader mission of the center through participation in research, outreach, and collaborative initiatives.

The position requires that the…