Postdoctoral Research Fellow/Associate

The Faculty wishes to recruit a Postdoctoral Research Fellow/Associate of up to three year duration to work on modelling deliberate climate intervention to cool the planet and counterbalance the impacts of global warming. 

The climate crisis means that the targets set by COP21 may soon be exceeded leading to increasingly damaging climate impacts. While stringent mitigation methods are obviously essential, greenhouse gas concentrations and the associated global warming and climate change are projected to continue to increase under all future scenarios exposing the Earth to increasingly damaging extreme events and potential tipping points. The successful applicant will be expected to work on modelling the impacts of solar radiation modification (SRM) to provide an objective assessment of their feasibility. 

The successful applicant will be expected to work closely with colleagues at the University of Exeter, but also with colleagues in the national and international arena and with colleagues at the Met Office Hadley Centre. They will be expected to produce peer-reviewed papers documenting the results.

MCB and MSB have been suggested as a method to combat both global and regional climate changes such as coral reef bleaching or tropical storms. However, providing a regionalised cooling effect may have detrimental climate impacts away from the source region. It is vital that potential MCB/MSB strategies are therefore investigated for their a) efficacy at reducing the target climate change, and b) the trade-offs elsewhere. The successful candidate will analyse UKESM1 climate simulations where MCB/MSB has been modelled over the Atlantic hurricane main development region to target tropical storm intensity. The candidate will then perform and analyse complementary UKESM1 simulations where MSB is used to combat other high-impact climate changes to explore the downstream trade-offs. Candidates should have strong experience in climate modelling preferably with the UKESM1 climate model, and demonstratable expertise in the climatic impacts of aerosols and/or modelling storms and hurricanes. This post is funded by QCF under the guidance of Prof Jim Haywood and Dr Anthony Jones.

About you

At Grade F: Applicants will possess a relevant PhD or equivalent qualification/experience in maths, physics, computer-science, meteorology, or a related numerate scientific discipline. The successful applicant will be a nationally recognised authority in atmospheric sciences and possess sufficient specialist knowledge in the discipline to develop research programmes and methodologies. The successful applicant will also be able to work collaboratively, supervise the work of others and act as team leader as required. Applicants will be able to perform analysis of climate model/aerosol-cloud process model/machine learning as appropriate to the positions noted above, and will have an appreciation of the role of aerosols in climate change.

At Grade E: Applicants will possess or be nearing completion of a relevant PhD or possess an equivalent qualification/experience in a related field of study and be able to demonstrate sufficient knowledge in the discipline and of research methods and techniques to work within established research programmes. Applicants will be expected to learn to perform analysis of climate model/aerosol-cloud process model/machine learning as appropriate to the positions noted above, and will have an appreciation of the role of aerosols in climate change.

Please ensure you read the Job Description and Person Specification for full details of this role.

For further information please contact Prof Jim Haywood, e-mail j.m.haywood@exeter.ac.uk.

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