Research Associate/Senior Research Associate - Climate Science

Salary: 

Grade I £38,249 – £44,128, or

Grade J £42,882 - £48,149, per annum depending on experience

The role

We are pleased to announce an exciting opportunity for a postdoc Research Associate/Senior Research Associate to work on the NERC-funded project “Advancing holistic risk assessment for measures to address climate change” - developing scientific evidence to inform risk assessments around the use of solar radiation management activities as a climate intervention strategy.

The successful candidate will join a cross-institutional team funded by NERC and led by Imperial College London (Dr Sebastian Eastham). The work at the University of Bristol is led by Prof Chris Jones who also holds the position of Research Fellow at the Met Office Hadley Centre.

This will involve running and developing climate models and rapid-response tools and emulators. All work is theoretical/computer based and no real-world deployment of SRM techniques is included.

Focus will be on understanding climate thresholds that may lead to large-scale dieback of the Amazon forest, and how these risks are affected under future climate scenarios by deployment of SRM techniques.

More details of the project are available from Chris Jones on request (chris.d.jones@bristol.ac.uk). The project is in collaboration with multiple institutions across the UK including with Imperial College and the UK Met Office Hadley Centre.

What will you be doing?

The successful candidate will be responsible for carrying out and analysing climate model simulations from the HadCM3 Climate model and developing aerosol pattern responses in the PRIME climate emulator tool. The successful candidate will have the opportunity to work with teams at the Met Office Hadley Centre.

Focus will be on exploring possible tipping points in the climate system which may cause large scale dieback of the Amazon forest. We will look at land-surface/vegetation responses and also how aerosols affect local climate patterns of change. The resulting probabilistic information can guide risk assessment of a range of climate scenarios.

You should apply if

You will have a PhD or are close to finishing a PhD in a relevant subject with strong climate modelling experience.

You should also have:

• Demonstrable understanding of climate change and the roles of mitigation and geoengineering in future scenarios
• Experience of running climate models
• Experience of analysis of large and complex datasets (such as CMIP)

And ideally:

• Experience of developing General Circulation Models (GCMs) or complex land surface models (such as HadCM3 or JULES)
• Evidence of the ability to write and publish first-author scientific papers, or equivalent

Additional information

Contract type: Open ended with fixed funding until 30/09/2029

This advert will close at 23:59 UK time on 07/08/2025

For informal queries, please contact Chris Jones, chris.d.jones@bristol.ac.uk

Our strategy and mission

Available documents

• ACAD108214 - Research Associate - Senior Research Associate - JD.pdf
• Science Engineering Further Particulars 2024-2025.pdf

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