Geologist 3 - Ohio Geological Survey

The Ohio Geological Survey seeks applications for the position of Geologist 3 for the Geologic Mapping & Industrial Minerals Group. The successful candidate will be a versatile and highly motivated geoscientist with a thorough understanding of geologic mapping, bedrock geology and stratigraphy, and glacial geology and geomorphology. Background knowledge in areas such as geophysical exploration, interpretation of logs, familiarity with coring, sampling, and drilling, geologic modeling, and GIS, particularly any 3-D or geostatistical analysis is a major plus. A Master’s degree is preferred although a Bachelor’s degree with relevant experience will be considered. The complete job posting will be available on the ODNR website beginning August 23^rd. (www.ohiodnr.com); applications will be accepted thru September 3, 2010. The Ohio Department of Natural Resources is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer. For more information concerning application procedures, please contact Rene Norris at 614-265-6406. For more information about position duties and qualifications, please contact Mike Angle at 614-265-6602.

Additional info

The Ohio Geological Survey (OGS) is a Division within the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, with offices located at Fountain Square in Columbus, Ohio and at Alum Creek State Park in Delaware, Ohio. The Geologic Mapping & Industrial Minerals Group currently has a staff of eight full-time geologists plus a part-time seismologist and technicians/interns. The group is involved in diverse research and mapping of deep subsurface to shallow bedrock and surficial glacial and alluvial deposits. This section is also heavily involved in delineating Ohio’s geohazards including karst terrain, abandoned underground mines, landslides, and shoreline erosion along the Lake Erie coastline. The Group also compiles mineral resource statistics ranging from coal to sand and gravel aggregate

Excellent written and oral communications skills, publications record, and demonstrable mapping and/or GIS experience is preferred.

Computer Skills: Integrated geologic mapping and analysis software (e.g. GeoGraphix), GIS - ESRI Arc/Info including Geostatistical Analyst, Microsoft Office, Fluid flow modeling (e.g. Mod Flow).

In order to be eligible to accept a permanent part-time or full-time job with the state of Ohio, you must be a U.S. citizen or a legal resident of this country. Those here on student visas cannot be offered permanent employment.

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Funding Opportunity and Award Description

The Mineral Resources Program (MRP) of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is offering a grant and/or cooperative agreement opportunity, called the Mineral Resources External Research Program (MRERP) in Fiscal Year (FY) 2009. This opportunity is extended to universities, State agencies, Tribal governments or organizations, and industry or other private sector organizations that have the ability to conduct research in topics related to nonfuel mineral resources. For FY 2009 this has been expanded to include uranium.

The total amount of funding available for the FY 2009 MRERP is expected to be $250,000. As of the posting date of this announcement the Federal appropriations process for FY 2009 was not complete. If the available funding remains $250,000, the MRP anticipates making awards in FY 2009 for 3 to 5 proposals; however, individual proposals are not restricted to a set level of funding.

Note that the schedule for proposal submittal and application for the MRERP has changed from previous years. The FY 2009 MRERP is accepting applications and proposals from August 18 to September 29, 2008. Access and download the FY 2009 MRERP announcement by going to http://www.grants.gov/ and search for this grant opportunity by using keyword “mineral”, funding opportunity number “09HQPA0002”, or CFDA number “15.808”.

Applicant Eligibility

Applications will be accepted from any individual who has the ability to conduct research consistent with the Mineral Resources Program goals (see Research Topics section below) and who is not employed by a U.S. Federal agency. Applicants need not be U.S. citizens and can be affiliated (but are not required to be affiliated) with universities, State agencies, Tribal governments or organizations, industry, or other private sector groups.

Research Topic Eligibility

All proposals must meet two primary criteria to qualify for funding consideration. Criterion 1: The proposed work must be research; a systematic inquiry to generate new knowledge about a subject of investigation, through a process of interpretation. Data collection and compilation are important early steps in a research project, but do not, alone, constitute research. Criterion 2: The proposed research must address one of the long-term goals of the MRP, as defined in the MRP Five-Year plan for FY 2006-2010 (http://minerals.usgs.gov/plan/2006-2010/2006-2010_plan.html). These are:

· Long-term goal 1: Ensure availability of up-to-date quantitative assessments of potential for undiscovered mineral deposits
· Long-term goal 2: Ensure availability of up-to-date geoenvironmental assessments of priority Federal lands
· Long-term goal 3: Ensure availability of reliable geologic, geochemical, geophysical, and mineral locality data for the United States
· Long-term goal 4: Ensure availability of long-term data sets describing mineral production and consumption

Note that evaluation criteria reward proposals that address one or more of the priority research topics outlined below.

Priority Research Topics

The USGS MRP conducts research to reduce the uncertainty in nonfuel mineral resource and mineral environmental assessments. As assessments are dynamic, so must be the research that supports them. Each year the MRERP designates research topics as priority for support. As the MRP prepares to embark on a new national mineral resource assessment of the United States in 2012, work is underway to update mineral deposit and mineral environmental models and to improve techniques of assessment for concealed mineral resources.

To support this on-going effort, the FY 2009 MRERP will solicit research proposals that (1) will improve our assessment for concealed mineral resources in general, or (2) will contribute to accurate and comprehensive mineral deposit or mineral environmental models for deposit types, known or expected to be found in the United States, that are important sources of the following commodities (listed in alphabetical order):

beryllium
chromium
cobalt
iron
lithium
manganese
nickel
phosphate
platinum-group metals
potash
rare earths
titanium and TiO2
uranium

The MRP also intends to include gold, silver, copper, lead, and zinc in the new national mineral resource assessment, but the MRERP is not soliciting research proposals related to updating models for these commodities at this time.

For further information contact MRERP@usgs.gov.