Research Assistant

The Research Assistant will join our team and gain hands-on experience in various aspects of the Strait of Georgia Data Centre’s operations. The Strait of Georgia Data Centre (SGDC) serves as a central data repository to protect and collate marine ecosystem information for the Strait of Georgia. In 2016, we began developing mapping products to allow for visual interpretation and increased visibility to many of the datasets housed in the SGDC. The SGDC’s Contaminants Atlas is a collection of data georeferencing environmental samples taken for contaminants analysis in the Strait of Georgia and West Coast Vancouver Island. Data comes from a myriad of sources since the early 1970s – including peer-reviewed scientific literature, reports, environmental impact assessments, and government monitoring programs. The aim of this tool is to facilitate access to data for interested parties rather than providing a comprehensive understanding of contaminant concentrations in our environment. It is our hope that providing this tool will increase awareness around the problem of marine contaminants and their impacts on the food web, and further scientific work in the field. A key step to building the Atlas involves the extraction of data from our working collection of contaminants data sources – which currently consists of around 300 documents.

Roles and Responsibilities

• Facilitating with the extraction of information from the BC Government archived contaminants monitoring reports.
• Collaborate with the SGDC team on the development of an automated data-extraction program for more recent reports.
• Assist in the maintenance and enhancement of the Contaminant Atlas dashboard.
• Assist in conducting metadata record updates in the SGDC.
• Other duties, as assigned.

Reporting and Supervision

Reporting to and supervised by the Data Integration Specialist with oversight by program leads, the Research Assistant is responsible for undertaking all work identified by them and meeting or exceeding the standard of care set by them.

• Actively working to obtain an undergraduate degree in a related field.
• Strong organizational and time management skills.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint)
• Ability to work independently and as part of a team.
• Positive attitude, willingness to learn, and adaptability to new tasks.
• Comfortable with data handling and working with large spreadsheets.

The PSF is committed to life-long learning for all team members. Ongoing mentoring will be available to facilitate the Research Assistant’s career development and appropriate training and skill-building opportunities will be provided subject to budget constraints. Educational opportunities will be encouraged.