Research Fellow – Mathematical & Computational Ecology

About us

Biosciences is one of the world’s foremost centres for research and teaching in the biological sciences and one of the largest Divisions within UCL. The Division has a diverse portfolio addressing all areas of biology from protein interactions to cell function, organism development, genetics, population studies and the environment.

This is an exciting opportunity to join an interdisciplinary team of researchers to develop new statistical approaches to forecast how forest ecosystems will respond to environmental change. This project is part of a 5-year ERC Starting Grant which aims to develop a novel framework to forecast survival and responsiveness of communities under disturbance.

About the role

Your role will help design and develop a new suite of computational and statistical tools for forecasting the stability of ecological communities under environmental change. This will involve combining tools from across parametric statistics, machine learning, dynamical systems, and deep learning to build and benchmark novel computational approaches against large, real-world datasets. The initial focus will be on Bayesian hierarchical modelling, but the role will demand moving fluidly between methodological frameworks.

This is a fixed-term role for 24 months, with the possibility to extend.

Appointment at Grade 7 is dependent upon having been awarded a PhD; if this is not the case, initial appointment will be at Grade 6B (salary £34,502 - £36,348 per annum) with payment at Grade 7 being backdated to the date of final submission of the PhD Thesis.

This appointment is subject to UCL Terms and Conditions of Service for Research and Professional Services Staff. Please visit https://www.ucl.ac.uk/human-resources/conditions-service-research-teaching-and-professional-services-staff

If you need reasonable adjustments format to apply for this job online or have any queries, please contact the HR Administrator.

About you

The successful candidate will hold/be completing a PhD in a quantitative discipline or related field. Strong training in mathematics, statistics, and computational tools is essential. You should be comfortable working across domains and moving quickly between computational and mathematical approaches. Your research must demonstrate novel application of statistical, mathematical, machine-learning, or computational methods. Some experience conducting computational research on large, real-world datasets is required, and experience with biological or environmental data is helpful. Expertise in scientific computing and advanced programming is essential, along with extensive experience using scientific computing infrastructure and collaborative research practices. Knowledge of community, forest, or theoretical ecology is useful but not required. Excellent written and verbal communication skills are essential.

What we offer

As well as the exciting opportunities this role presents, we also offer some great benefits. Visit https://www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/reward-and-benefits to find out more.

Our commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

As London’s Global University, we know diversity fosters creativity and innovation, and we want our community to represent the diversity of the world’s talent. We are committed to equality of opportunity, to being fair and inclusive, and to being a place where we all belong.

We therefore particularly encourage applications from candidates who are likely to be underrepresented in UCL’s workforce.

These include people from Black, Asian and ethnic minority backgrounds; disabled people; LGBTQI+ people; and for our Grade 9 and 10 roles, women.

Our department holds an Athena SWAN Silver award, in recognition of our commitment to advancing gender equality.

You can read more about our commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion here: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/equality-diversity-inclusion/

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