Postdoctoral Research Associate in Forest Resilience, Climate Change, and Human Health in the Amazon

Reporting to the Principal Investigator, Dr. Jesús Aguirre Gutiérrez, the post holder is a member of the research group BioEO: Biodiversity and Earth Observation within the Environmental Change Institute, School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford. The post holder will have responsibility for developing research on the ecology, climate change and remote sensing of tropical forests in the Amazon and on how these relate to the distribution of vector-borne diseases in the Amazon forest. The post holder will carry out their research, advised by the PI and Dr. Milton Barbosa from the BioEO group and Dr. Claudia Codeço from the Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (https://fiocruz.br).

Climate change poses a critical threat to tropical forests and human well-being, particularly in biodiverse and socioeconomically complex regions like the Amazon. This PhD will explore how tropical forests are functionally adapting to climatic pressures such as drought and warming, and how these ecological shifts intersect with public health outcomes and socioeconomic dynamics across Amazonian municipalities.

The Postdoctoral researcher will investigate how tree communities in primary forests are responding to climate change via changes in functional traits (e.g., sclerophylly, phenology, nutrient content), and how these adaptations vary across agrarian economic systems known as Techno-Productive Trajectories (TTs). Furthermore, the Postdoctoral researcher will quantify how such forest changes affect the prevalence of diseases linked to environmental degradation, including vector-borne and zoonotic illnesses. The post holder will also co-supervise a PhD student who will be involved in the same project. This is a highly interdisciplinary project combining forest ecology, remote sensing, machine learning, epidemiology, and socio-environmental modelling.

Applications for this vacancy should be made online, and you will be required to upload a CV and supporting statement as part of your application, explaining your interest in the role and how you meet the essential and desirable criteria for this post.

For further guidance and support, please visit https://www.jobs.ox.ac.uk/how-to-apply

Enquiries may be directed to recruit@ouce.ox.ac.uk. The closing date for applications is midday on 7 July 2025.

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