Roland Kays

Columbia University’s new National Synthesis Center for Organismal Resilience (NSCORE) is hiring its first postdocs in New York City. This opening is for the Behavioral Flexibility working group, co-led by Roland Kays and Alex Jordan, and focuses on animal behavior , movement ecology , biologging , machine learning , computational biology , and statistics . The project will combine accelerometer and GPS data from thousands of tracked animals worldwide with video of animal behavior and new machine learning models. The goal is to test whether behavioral signals improve movement models and produce biodiversity metrics useful for conservation and policy. The postdoc will spend half of their time on the working group and half on an independent synthesis project of their own design, mentored by affiliated faculty. The position is based at NSCORE in Columbia’s Department of Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology, with office space, compute, and a research and travel allowance. Eligibility: PhD in biology, computer science, data science, or a related field; experience applying computational, statistical, or AI methods to biological data. Funding: Salary $72,116–$74,000, plus research/travel support. Timeline: Start date between February and July 2027; review begins November 9. If you work in animal behavior, movement ecology, conservation, or AI for biological data, this is a strong fit.