Research Assistant

As part of a multi-year, NSF-funded project that explores human skeletal correlates of physical activity (https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1748282&HistoricalAwards=false), co-PIs Holt (University of Massachusetts-Amherst) and Stieglitz (University of Toulouse) are recruiting graduate students to participate in various field-based initiatives. These initiatives include observational field work (including physical activity assessment [via focal follows, interviews, accelerometry and GPS], anthropometry, nutritional assessment and bone ultrasound) and bio-imaging using peripheral quantitative computed tomography. This NSF project is part of a long-term NIH-funded project on the biodemography of aging among Tsimane forager-horticulturalists of the Bolivian Amazon (www.unm.edu/~tsimane).

The ideal candidate will be fluent or comfortable but not necessarily fluent in Spanish, able and willing to conduct fieldwork in rural lowland Bolivia for an extended period of time, able and willing to develop database management skills, comfortable living under rustic conditions (for example, no electricity or running water), comfortable working as part of a team (including coordinating activities of local Bolivian research assistants), and motivated to engage with local indigenous communities.

Funding is available to support the research assistant’s stipend, travel and living expenses while conducting fieldwork. The stipend will be commensurate with experience.

The start date is flexible.

For more information please contact Brigitte Holt (holtb@anthro.umass.edu)