Postdoc on data compilation and analysis of impacts of extreme weather

Postdoctoral position in data collection and analysis for impacts of extreme weather events

Are you interested in working with data collection and analysis for impacts of extreme weather events, with the support of competent and friendly colleagues in an international environment? Are you looking for an employer that invests in sustainable employeeship and offers safe, favourable working conditions? We welcome you to apply for a postdoc position at Uppsala University.

The Department of Earth Sciences at Uppsala University is Sweden´s largest and most versatile department of its kind. We are approximately 280 employees at the department. Our activities are interdisciplinary and combine natural science and technology with social science. We have research programs in air, water and landscape science; geophysics; natural resources and sustainable development; petrology, mineralogy and tectonics; paleobiology, and wind energy. By investigating the history of Earth, we understand how our planet has developed over time and how sustainable development benefits from this knowledge.

The Programme for Air, Water, and Landscape Science encompasses education and research in meteorology, hydrology, environmental analysis, and physical geography. More information on the programme’s science can be found at LUVAL.

G. Messori’s research group hosts several H2020/Horizon Europe and national research projects, focussing on multiple aspects of mid and high latitude climate extremes. More information on ongoing research can be found at https://gmessori.eu/. The post-doc will work on a project in collaboration with Research Institutes of Sweden (RISE) and the German Helmholtz centre UFZ which makes use of large language models to extract information on impacts of climate extremes from textual data.

Duties
The postdoc is expected to work, among other things, on climate or impact data compilation, annotation of textual sources and/or connecting impact data to climate-related hazards. Some national and international travel is expected. The postdoc is expected to communicate their findings by authoring articles in international peer-reviewed scientific journals. If the candidate wishes, will also have the opportunity to engage in teaching/supervising duties up to 20%.

Requirements
PhD degree in Climate Science, Computational Linguistics, Physics, Data Science, Information Technology, Mathematics, or related disciplines or a foreign degree equivalent to a PhD degree. The degree needs to be obtained by the time of the decision of employment. Those who have obtained a PhD degree three years prior to the application deadline are primarily considered for the employment. The starting point of the three-year frame period is the application deadline. Due to special circumstances, the degree may have been obtained earlier. The three-year period can be extended due to circumstances such as sick leave, parental leave, duties in labour unions, etc.

You also need to have strong programming skills as needed to use textual analysis algorithms and analyse large amounts of data.

Additional qualifications
Documented experience in compiling databases, conducting quantitative analyses of climate impact data, implementing machine-learning approaches and using language models are a merit. The ranking of the candidates will also accord weight to evidence of independent thinking, quality of peer-reviewed publications and regular peer-reviewed publication output. Additionally, we welcome the ability to interact effectively in a multi-disciplinary research environment, and in particular willingness to collaborate with colleagues in RISE and Helmholtz centre UFZ who participate in the project. Experience in private sector employment in fields relevant to the position will also be positively evaluated.

The application should contain:

• A Curriculum Vitae.
• A short research statement (maximum 1 page) describing how the candidate’s past experience is relevant to the topic of the project and describing some existing knowledge gaps within the project’s research scope.
• A list of publications in peer-reviewed international journals.
• Two references (names and full contact details, including telephone number).

Please do not provide reference letters.

About the employment
The employment is a temporary position of 2 years according to central collective agreement. Full time position. Starting date 01-03-2025 or as agreed. Placement: Uppsala

For further information about the position, please contact: Gabriele Messori, 018-471 2588, gabriele.messori@geo.uu.se

Please submit your application by 20 November 2024, UFV-PA 2024/3597.

Are you considering moving to Sweden to work at Uppsala University? Find out more about what it´s like to work and live in Sweden.