Job description

Job summary

We are seeking a Research Associate to join the Transport section in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Aviation’s climate impact is primarily attributable the radiative forcing of contrails and contrail cirrus. Managing contrail impacts through operational and routing strategies offers a near-term opportunity to significantly reduce the climate impact of flying. You will conduct leading research into the modelling and impact assessment of aviation emissions and contrails, which will contribute to the realisation of this opportunity. Your role will also contribute to the Net Zero Flight project and work with existing collaborators across academia and industry.

Duties and responsibilities

You will lead research that refines, improves, and validates models of contrail formation and persistence. You will contribute to the development of datasets against which contrail model predictions can be compared and your work will include comprehensive evaluation of uncertainties. You will be expected to interact with collaborators, and you will have opportunities to help supervise research students.

Essential requirements

• A PhD related to aviation and the environment, atmospheric physics, climate science or a closely related discipline, or equivalent research, industrial or commercial experience


• A background in research on aviation and its environmental impacts, atmospheric physics, climate science, or air transport systems,


• Experience of publication in peer-reviewed journals,


• Excellent communication skills and experience with working in teams and with external collaborators,


• Ability to organise own work with minimal supervision and prioritise work in response to deadlines,


• Advanced programming skills, preferably in Python,


• Ability to work as part of a multi-disciplinary team.

Experience of aircraft emissions modelling, contrail modelling, or knowledge of machine learning applied to image processing or global sensitivity analyses is desirable.

Further information

This vacancy has an anticipated start date on 1 July 2023, although this date is flexible. This is a fixed term post for 24 months, with the possibility of further extension. 

For informal enquiries about the post please contact Dr Marc Stettler at m.stettler@imperial.ac.uk.

Any queries regarding the application process should be directed to Briony Webb at b.webb@imperial.ac.uk. 

Candidates who have not yet been officially awarded their PhD will be appointed as a Research Assistant within the salary range £38,194 - £41,388 per annum.

Further information is available within the job description. 

Benefits

As Imperial College staff, in addition to a competitive salary and package of attractive terms and conditions of service, we offer many more benefits to enjoy. This includes career development tailored to your ambitions, an attractive pension scheme, and generous family leave packages. We have a flexible, supportive work environment and encourage you to achieve and maintain a healthy work-life balance!

We are an equal opportunity employer and welcome applications from all backgrounds and disabilities. We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable adjustments to participate in the interview process and to perform crucial job functions, as well as other support including staff networks. Please contact us to request accommodation.

The College is a proud signatory to the San-Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA), which means that in hiring and promotion decisions, we evaluate applicants on the quality of their work, not the journal impact factor where it is published. For more information, see https://www.imperial.ac.uk/research-and-innovation/about-imperial-research/research-evaluation/

The College believes that the use of animals in research is vital to improve human and animal health and welfare. Animals may only be used in research programmes which are ultimately aimed towards finding new treatments and making scientific and medical advances, and where there are no satisfactory or reasonably practical alternatives to their use. Imperial is committed to ensuring that, in cases where this research is deemed essential, all animals in the College’s care are treated with full respect, and that all staff involved with this work show due consideration at every level. Find out more about animal research at Imperial.

Documents

• Job Description Research Associate ENG02591.docx