Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (f/m/d) | Land-use, Climate, and Earth Systems Modeling

Job Code: GEA-isotropics02

Job Offer from November 01, 2022

The isoTROPIC Research Group at the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology in Jena is research centre focused on using insights about the history of our species from across the global tropics to help practically inform conservation concerns and planning in the present.

We are offering a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (f/m/d) in Land-use, Climate, and Earth Systems Modeling starting on the 1st of June 2023.

Your tasks

The successful candidate will play a central role in the project and its outputs. They will be responsible for integrating multidisciplinary (including archaeology-, history-, and palaeoenvironmental-based) models of past human land-use into earth systems models to determine the degree to which changes in human activities and land organisation in pre-industrial time periods may have influenced soil erosion, precipitation, temperature, and even the composition of the atmosphere.

The candidate will work in a leading global centre for deep time earth systems research at the MPI of Geoanthropology, an Institute combining archaeological, anthropological, geochemical, and earth systems expertise in field and laboratory methodologies. They will also work closely with key project partners Dr. Grace Baretto-Tesoro (University of the Philippines) and Prof. Dr. Jed Kaplan (University of Hong Kong) and will be expected to also work within the framework of ongoing international research initiatives to ensure maximum reach of results.

Your qualifications

Essential:

• PhD and Masters degree in Earth Sciences, Geography, Earth Systems Modeling, Climate science, Mathematics, Physics, or a similar discipline.
• Hands on, practical experience with Earth Systems Models (Global Climate and/or Vegetation Models) and/or experience with the compilation of diverse multidisciplinary datasets to produce estimations of land use that can be factored into dynamic Earth Systems Models

Advantageous:

• Analytical experience in the tropics.
• Experience with archaeological, historical, and palaeoenvironmental datasets as well as their relative pros and cons in land-use/landcover reconstructions.
• Enthusiasm for applying earth systems, physics, and climate science methods to archaeological and historical records.
• Outreach skills in the context of communicated climate science or the ramifications of human land-use to a non-academic audience.

Our offer

The position offers a unique opportunity to develop cutting edge research in the city of Jena that is renowned for its position at the intersection of Biogeochemical, Ecological, and Archaeological research. The Max Planck Society and the European Research Council both promote these multidisciplinary connections and this position offers the candidate the possibility of making the most of such networks and become a leader in novel approaches to the utilization of archaeological and palaeoenvironmental datasets in earth systems modelling.

The Max Planck Society is committed to employing more individuals with disabilities and especially encourages them to apply. We are also committed to encouraging diversity and actively challenging biases based on gender, nationality, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion and other components of identity.

Your application

Please submit your application (which should include a cover letter, a CV of no more than 3 pages, list of publications with a maximum of 10 relating to the topic, and any relevant certificates) by January 15, 2023 at career@shh.mpg.de . You are also required to ask three referees to submit letters of recommendation, which are also due by January 15, 2023. Please submit your application and the identification number as a single pdf file in English to the address below. Referees should independently submit their letters as a pdf file to the same address by the same deadline.

If you have any further questions, please contact Dr. Patrick Roberts .