Post Doctoral Research Fellow Ecologist; Terrestrial Laser Scanning

Final date to receive applications: 30 October 2026

Department: Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute

Employment Type: Full Time

Location: Washington, DC

Compensation: $61,722 / year

OPEN DATE: October 1, 2026

CLOSING DATE: October 30, 2026 (This vacancy will be closed at 100 applications, which might happen prior to the proposed closing date)

POSITION TYPE: Trust Fund

APPOINTMENT TYPE: Temporary, 2 years with possibility of extension, contingent on funding availability.

SCHEDULE: Full Time

DUTY

LOCATION:

Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Tennessee

Position sensitivity and risk:

Non-Sensitive/Low Risk

Who May Apply:

Open to all qualified applicants

Trust Fund positions are unique to the Smithsonian. They are paid for from a variety of sources, including the Smithsonian endowment, revenue from our business activities, donations, grants and contracts. Trust employees are not part of the civil service, nor does trust fund employment lead to Federal status. The salary ranges for trust positions are generally the same as for federal positions and in many cases trust and federal employees work side by side.

Trust employees have their own benefit program, which may include Health, Dental & Vision Insurance, Life Insurance, Transit/Commuter Benefits, Accidental Death and Dismemberment Insurance, Annual and Sick Leave, Family Friendly Leave, 403b Retirement Plan, Discounts for Smithsonian Memberships, Museum Stores and Restaurants, Credit Union, Smithsonian Early Enrichment Center (Child Care), Flexible Spending Account (Health & Dependent Care).

• Pass Pre-employment Background Check and Subsequent Background Investigation for position designated.
• Complete a Probationary Period.
• Maintain a Bank Account for Direct Deposit/Electronic Transfer.
• The position is open to all candidates eligible to work in the United States. Proof of eligibility to work in U.S. is not required to apply.
• Applicants must meet all qualification and eligibility requirements within 30 days of the closing date of this announcement.

The GEO-TREES initiative in partnership with the Forest Global Earth Observatory (ForestGEO) invites applications for a postdoctoral position in tropical forest terrestrial laser scanning for the estimation of tropical forest carbon stocks.

GEO-TREES is an ambitious world-wide initiative – the world's first ground-based, standardized reference system to transparently and independently ensure that satellite observations accurately represent real forest carbon stocks, in all forest types and conditions, today and into the future. This unprecedented multi-network collaboration will use innovative technology, partnerships and training, broad sampling, as well as long-term commitment and fair funding for field partners to establish 100 core sites and 200 supplementary sites around the globe to measure and monitor forest biomass stocks.

It will deliver these data in a powerful portal—openly accessible to the public, to the science and corporate communities, and to space agencies driving critical advances in satellite technology.

High-quality, above-ground biomass reference data collected by the GEO-TREES initiative will involve three sets of co-located measurements at all core sites: forest inventory data, terrestrial laser scanning (TLS), and airborne laser scanning. These standardized measurements share a common requirement for high-quality data acquisition, transparent measurement protocols, and a long-term monitoring strategy. The integration of these three sets of measurements provides the greatest reduction in uncertainty associated with biomass measurements.

This…