Careers

Whenever there are any new positions available at the ICOS or related communities we will announce it on this page.

If you have information about related open vacancies, please send an email to ICOS Communications at icos-comms (at) icos-ri.eu

Open positions in the ICOS field

Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Coastal Forest or Wetland Biogeochemistry, Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, Edgewater, MD, USA

The Biogeochemistry Lab at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) is searching for a post-doctoral research fellow to join a highly-collaborative, interdisciplinary team of biogeochemists, plant ecologists, and modelers to advance COMPASS-FME, a project led by Pacific Northwest National Lab focused on coastal ecosystems transitioning between upland forest and wetland ecosystem states. COMPASS-FME in the Chesapeake Bay includes highly instrumented upland-wetland field transects and TEMPEST, a novel large-scale field manipulation in an upland coastal forest that mimics storm surge-driven intrusion of seawater and intensified precipitation. Research topics will be tailored to the current and aspirational expertise of the successful candidate.

Deadline for applications is 30th September 2024. Read more and apply here: https://serc.si.edu/fellowships/opportunities/postdoctoral-research-fellow-in-coastal-forest-or-wetland-biogeochemistry 

Research Technician (Biogeochemistry Lab), Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, Edgewater, MD, USA

The Biogeochemistry Lab at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) is searching for a technician interested in research on coastal ecosystem responses to global change. We seek motivated people who enjoy collaborating in a multidisciplinary environment. This person will analyze and curate data (60%), operate lab instruments (30%), and collect and analyze environmental samples of water, soil, gas, and plants (10%). The position is in support of the COMPASS project.

All applicants will be seriously considered but the best candidates will have one or more of the following:

• Experience in field or laboratory settings working on environmental or ecological projects 
• Experience operating analytical instruments to measure water, gas, or soil chemistry 
• Experience in R coding 
• Knowledge of data curation and data management, including documenting with metadata

Deadline for applications is 30th September 2024. Read more and apply here: https://serc.si.edu/get-involved/job-opportunities/research-technician-biogeochemistry-lab 

Fully Funded Alexander von Humboldt Postdoctoral Fellowship (topic flexible), Biosphere-Atmosphere Interaction Research Group at the Institute of Landscape Ecology, Department of Geosciences, University of Münster, Germany

Join the Biosphere-Atmosphere Interaction Research Group at the Institute of Landscape Ecology, Department of Geosciences, University of Münster, through Germany's most prestigious postdoctoral fellowship program.

Requirements for this position:
• A PhD degree in environmental sciences, atmospheric or climate science, hydrology, or a closely related field.
• Demonstrated experience with either of these fields:
- novel gas exchange measurement techniques (experience with eddy covariance is an advantage)
- mechanistic ecosystem modelling
• If selected, you will be nominated as an international “talent“, thus an excellent track record is required.
• Eligibility is limited to those who have neither studied nor worked in Germany previously.

Deadline for applications is 20th September 2024. Read more and apply here: https://twitter.com/ManaGharun/status/1824436994954375669 

PhD position: Effect of climate change on observed weather and its extremes in Northern Europe, Institute of Atmospheric and Earth System Research (INAR), University of Helsinki

The ongoing climate change manifests itself in changes in both average weather conditions and various types of extremes – most notably exceptionally high temperatures. To efficiently adapt to the changing conditions, society needs the best possible quantitative information on these changes. The project CLAIMS (From climate change to attribution of extremes and their impacts in Finland and northern Europe) aims to fulfill this need by combining information from observations, global climate models and very high-resolution regional climate model simulations for northern Europe. This 4-year project is a co-operation between the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) and Institute of Atmospheric and Earth System Research (INAR) at University of Helsinki.

What is expected from you:
• A MSc degree, preferably in meteorology, atmospheric sciences or statistics. However, MSc students near the completion of their degree are also encouraged to apply.
• Willingness to pursue a PhD degree in meteorology
• Some previous skills in programming (e.g., Fortran or python) and statistical analysis of scientific data. Previous experience from working with meteorological data sets (e.g. CMIP6 climate models, reanalysis data and station observations) is an advantage
• Sufficient skills in written and spoken English
• Interest in doing research and ability to independent creative thinking, combined with good self-discipline and reasonable communication skills.

Deadline for applications is 26th August 2024. Read more and apply here: https://www.icos-cp.eu/media/408 

Postdoctoral position (18 months), Assessing atmospheric methane and hydrogen sources in the Aix-Marseille area (fine scale modelling and field measurements) in the framework of the environmental transition, Aix-Marseille Université, France

Aix-Marseille Université are looking for a postdoctoral researcher to work in the HYFLEX project, funded by ITEM. HYFLEX is a transdisciplinary project aiming at understanding the stakes and risks - especially on the climate and on the environment - of the energy transition from fossil fuels (mostly natural gas i.e. mostly methane) to hydrogen in the south-east of France, but also the underlying mechanisms such as the perception of these risks by the population, stakeholders and socio-economic actors, for shedding light on the current trajectory and flexibility points of this environmental transition.

The group is seeking a proactive postdoctoral fellow specialised in Environmental sciences to conduct the following tasks:

1. Fine-scale modeling of atmospheric methane plumes emitted from industrial sites such as the Geomethane site as a first proxy of potential future Hydrogen leaks, using methane data collected by mobile CRDS (Cavity Ring Down Spectroscopy) measurements started in the Spring 2024, for quantifying the emissions associated to these plumes with a comparison to the local emissions inventory, to help providing better information on current regional greenhouse gas emissions. An attempt at providing a quantitative impact of these leaks on climate through a combination of a literature survey and of the modeling results will be performed. 
2. Attempting at measuring directly hydrogen leaks on industrial sites in the Fos-Berre area already producing hydrogen, and modeling the associated H2 plumes (or virtual ones in case of no leak) to understand their propagation into the atmosphere. 

Deadline for applications is 4th September 2024. Read more about how to apply here: https://www.icos-cp.eu/sites/default/files/2024-07/academic_positions-ITEM-HYFLEX-IMBE-IXR_23072024.docx 

 

PostDoc / Data Scientist in the field of geodata and/or remote sensing, Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry (MPI-BGC), Jena, Germany

The Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry (MPI-BGC) in Jena is looking for a PostDoc / Data Scientist in the field of geodata and/or remote sensing (m/f/d) , full-time, for 2 years, extension possible.

They are looking for an enthusiastic scientist to complement our team efforts in tackling current research questions in the field of data-driven estimates of European and global land ecosystem-atmosphere fluxes. The position involves integration and participation in multiple large projects from Horizon Europe and the European Space Agency.

The Global Diagnostic Modelling group coordinates the FLUXCOM initiative (Jung et al. 2020), which uses approaches to integrate satellite remote sensing data, eddy covariance flux observations, and machine learning to generate global estimates of land-atmosphere carbon and energy fluxes. Currently, the FLUXCOM team is composed of individuals from ecophysiology, data science, machine learning, and remote sensing.

The Global Diagnostic Modelling group seeks a candidate to integrate new and high-resolution observational datasets into the existing FLUXCOM workflow. This includes building tailored pipelines for data extraction and pre-processing to generate analysis-ready data (ARD). In addition, the new person will implement a novel machine learning model structure that is able to account for the mismatch in observational supports (i.e. spatial footprints) between eddy covariance measurements and satellite observations. In practice, this will require characterising the dynamic nature of both types of footprints and evaluate the representativity of the matching area in both space and time.

Deadline for applications is 30th August 2024. Read more and apply here: https://bgc-jena.mpg.de/karriere/14-2024 

Post-Doctoral Fellowship - Exploring the evolution of aerosol properties along their transport through ground-based and satellite observations in the Southern Hemisphere, University of La Reunion, Saint-Denis, France

Laboratoire de l’Atmosphère et des Cyclones (LACy) at University of La Reunion, Saint-Denis, France, is looking for a postdoctoral fellow. The objective of this post-Doc project is a characterization of the evolution of aerosols properties in the troposphere in the Southern Hemisphere. 

This work should help to answer the following scientific questions: 

• How do evolve the aerosol properties (size distribution, shape, absorption and scattering properties, hygroscopicity, and vertical distributions of these parameters) along their transport in the troposphere of the Southern Hemisphere? 
• What are the processes (mixture, growth, sedimentation, interaction with clouds and rainfall) governing this evolution? 

The work will be divided into 3 distinct parts: 

• Retrieval of aerosol characteristics at their emission using available databases, in situ and remote sensing (ground-based and spaceborne) observations 
• Retrieval of aerosol characteristics along their transport using in situ and remote sensing (ground-based and spaceborne) observations 
• Meso-scale simulations of plume ageing case studies.

Read more and apply here: https://lacy.univ-reunion.fr/activites/programmes-de-recherche/realistic/job-opportunity 

PhD Position, Exploring the climate-altering potential of biomass burning aerosols from wildfire origin on the regional climate in the South West Indian Ocean, University of La Reunion, Saint-Denis, France

Laboratoire de l’Atmosphère et des Cyclones (LACy) at University of La Reunion, Saint-Denis, France, is looking for a PhD candidate. This thesis project intends to explore the climate-altering potential of biomass burning aerosols from wildfire origin on the regional climate in the South West Indian Ocean. The smoke belt (South America, Africa and Australia) is the targeted emission source. 

The thesis should bring light to the following scientific questions: 

• Is the aerosol impact on regional climate in the SWIO driven by biomass burning aerosols? 
• How comparable is this impact w.r.t. GHG climate impact? 
• What is the impact at the regional scale?

Read more and apply here: https://lacy.univ-reunion.fr/activites/programmes-de-recherche/realistic/job-opportunity