Job Reference
813_24_ES_AC_R2
Position
Postdoctoral position - Investigating the effects of air pollution climate penalty on policy-related metrics in Europe (R2)
Closing Date
Wednesday, 27 November, 2024
Reference: 813_24_ES_AC_R2
Job title: Postdoctoral position - Investigating the effects of air pollution climate penalty on policy-related metrics in Europe (R2)
About BSC
The Barcelona Supercomputing Center - Centro Nacional de Supercomputación (BSC-CNS) is the leading supercomputing center in Spain. It houses MareNostrum, one of the most powerful supercomputers in Europe, was a founding and hosting member of the former European HPC infrastructure PRACE (Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe), and is now hosting entity for EuroHPC JU, the Joint Undertaking that leads large-scale investments and HPC provision in Europe. The mission of BSC is to research, develop and manage information technologies in order to facilitate scientific progress. BSC combines HPC service provision and R&D into both computer and computational science (life, earth and engineering sciences) under one roof, and currently has over 1000 staff from 60 countries.
Look at the BSC experience:
BSC-CNS YouTube Channel
Let's stay connected with BSC Folks!
We are particularly interested for this role in the strengths and lived experiences of women and underrepresented groups to help us avoid perpetuating biases and oversights in science and IT research. In instances of equal merit, the incorporation of the under-represented sex will be favoured.
We promote Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, fostering an environment where each and every one of us is appreciated for who we are, regardless of our differences.
If you consider that you do not meet all the requirements, we encourage you to continue applying for the job offer. We value diversity of experiences and skills, and you could bring unique perspectives to our team.
Look at the BSC experience:
BSC-CNS YouTube Channel
Let's stay connected with BSC Folks!
We are particularly interested for this role in the strengths and lived experiences of women and underrepresented groups to help us avoid perpetuating biases and oversights in science and IT research. In instances of equal merit, the incorporation of the under-represented sex will be favoured.
We promote Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, fostering an environment where each and every one of us is appreciated for who we are, regardless of our differences.
If you consider that you do not meet all the requirements, we encourage you to continue applying for the job offer. We value diversity of experiences and skills, and you could bring unique perspectives to our team.
Context And Mission
We are looking for a motivated postdoctoral researcher to join the Atmospheric Composition (AC) group of the Earth Sciences Department of the BSC (BSC-ES). The BSC-ES aims to carry out research into modelling and understanding the behavior of the Earth’s system. The AC group is currently composed of about 50 people among researchers, engineers and students of different nationalities. It aims at better understanding and predicting the spatiotemporal variations of atmospheric pollutants along with their effects upon air quality, weather and climate. This is addressed through the continuous development and application of numerical models over multiple scales, from weather to climate and from global to urban scales.
The successful candidate will join the research team of the recently granted project “Isolating the air pollution climate penalty impacts on Policy and Health in Catalonia” (INSPEnCaT) funded by the Departament de Recerca i Universitat, Departament d’Acció Climàtica, Alimentació i Agenda Rural, and Oficina Catalana del Canvi Climàtic de la Generalitat de Catalunya. Air pollution is well recognized as one of the most critical environmental issues with 311.000 premature attributable deaths annually in Europe as reported by the European Environmental Agency. The Zero pollution action plan adopted by the European Commission aims to achieve air pollution levels below concentrations considered harmful to health and natural ecosystems in the 2050 horizon. However, since air pollution is directly influenced by the local meteorological conditions that are expected to strongly evolve in the coming decades due to climate change, strong uncertainties persist on this specific effect of climate change on regional air pollution, isolated from the change of local anthropogenic air pollutant emissions. Commonly known as the air pollution climate penalty, this feedback is of crucial importance as it could jeopardize the efficiency of planned mitigation plans, especially for ozone and secondary particulate matter. The INSPEnCaT project aims to unravel the effect of climate change on air pollution levels in Catalonia and other European regions and quantify the impacts, benefits and trade-offs of abatement emission plans projected for 2050, designed to achieve the Zero pollution strategy.
In this context, the successful candidate will contribute to the following activities to achieve the objectives of INSPEnCaT: (i) analyzing historical trends of air pollutants monitored across Europe, (ii) processing regional climate-chemistry modeling results of a coupled Earth System Model with a regional chemistry model, and (iii) quantifying the effect on policy-related metrics of the effects of air pollution climate penalty.
The candidate will work in a highly collaborative environment, with tight links with other researchers in the AC group but also other members of the INSPEnCaT consortium composed of a multidisciplinary team of experts on air pollution, policy and health impacts. The researchers will have the opportunity to follow multiple training activities, including those aimed at improving coding and data analysis, scientific and project writing abilities, or project management. All this will be implemented via the formal courses organized by the Education and Training team and Human Resources, and the participation in the regular seminars organized by the department.
The successful candidate will join the research team of the recently granted project “Isolating the air pollution climate penalty impacts on Policy and Health in Catalonia” (INSPEnCaT) funded by the Departament de Recerca i Universitat, Departament d’Acció Climàtica, Alimentació i Agenda Rural, and Oficina Catalana del Canvi Climàtic de la Generalitat de Catalunya. Air pollution is well recognized as one of the most critical environmental issues with 311.000 premature attributable deaths annually in Europe as reported by the European Environmental Agency. The Zero pollution action plan adopted by the European Commission aims to achieve air pollution levels below concentrations considered harmful to health and natural ecosystems in the 2050 horizon. However, since air pollution is directly influenced by the local meteorological conditions that are expected to strongly evolve in the coming decades due to climate change, strong uncertainties persist on this specific effect of climate change on regional air pollution, isolated from the change of local anthropogenic air pollutant emissions. Commonly known as the air pollution climate penalty, this feedback is of crucial importance as it could jeopardize the efficiency of planned mitigation plans, especially for ozone and secondary particulate matter. The INSPEnCaT project aims to unravel the effect of climate change on air pollution levels in Catalonia and other European regions and quantify the impacts, benefits and trade-offs of abatement emission plans projected for 2050, designed to achieve the Zero pollution strategy.
In this context, the successful candidate will contribute to the following activities to achieve the objectives of INSPEnCaT: (i) analyzing historical trends of air pollutants monitored across Europe, (ii) processing regional climate-chemistry modeling results of a coupled Earth System Model with a regional chemistry model, and (iii) quantifying the effect on policy-related metrics of the effects of air pollution climate penalty.
The candidate will work in a highly collaborative environment, with tight links with other researchers in the AC group but also other members of the INSPEnCaT consortium composed of a multidisciplinary team of experts on air pollution, policy and health impacts. The researchers will have the opportunity to follow multiple training activities, including those aimed at improving coding and data analysis, scientific and project writing abilities, or project management. All this will be implemented via the formal courses organized by the Education and Training team and Human Resources, and the participation in the regular seminars organized by the department.
Key Duties
- Analyze the trends of different air pollutants (e.g. O3, NO2, PM) across Europe during the last decades
- Process numerical results of a coupled climate-chemistry model
- Assess the changes in the compliance of the European Air Quality Directive of different emission scenarios
- Conduct original research and dissemination in peer reviewed publications, internal and external meetings and conferences
Requirements
-
Education
- PhD in atmospheric chemistry, environmental engineering, meteorology, geosciences or related disciplines
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Essential Knowledge and Professional Experience
- Advanced understanding of environmental, atmospheric, or chemistry sciences.
- Experience with Earth system observations and data treatment (2 year minimum)
- Experience with atmospheric composition (modeling, data assimilation or observations) (2 year minimum)
- Experience with UNIX/LINUX environments and with scripting languages (such as bash) (0-2 years).
- Experience in HPC environments will be valued (0-2 years)
-
Additional Knowledge and Professional Experience
- Knowledge of atmospheric science data formats (GRIB, NetCDF) and previous experience with scientific software and tools (CDO, NCO, Python or R)
- Experience working with version control systems, such as GitLab or GitHub, will be valued
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Competences
- Excellent interpersonal skills
- Fluency in English
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills
- Ability to take initiative, prioritize and work under set deadlines
- Ability to work both independently and within a team
Conditions
- The position will be located at BSC within the Earth Sciences Department
- We offer a full-time contract (37.5h/week), a good working environment, a highly stimulating environment with state-of-the-art infrastructure, flexible working hours, extensive training plan, restaurant tickets, private health insurance, support to the relocation procedures
- Duration: Open-ended contract due to technical and scientific activities linked to the project and budget duration
- Holidays: 23 paid vacation days plus 24th and 31st of December per our collective agreement
- Salary: we offer a competitive salary commensurate with the qualifications and experience of the candidate and according to the cost of living in Barcelona
- Starting date: 1/1/2025
Applications procedure and process
All applications must be made through BSC website and contain:
A full CV in English including contact details
A Cover Letter with a statement of interest in English, including two contacts for further references - Applications without this document will not be considered
In accordance with the OTM-R principles, a gender-balanced recruitment panel is formed for every vacancy at the beginning of the process. After reviewing the content of the applications, the panel will start the interviews, with at least one technical and one administrative interview. A profile questionnaire as well as a technical exercise may be required during the process.
The panel will make a final decision and all candidates who had contacts with them will receive a feedback with details on the acceptance or rejection of their profile.
At BSC we are seeking continuous improvement in our recruitment processes, for any suggestions or feedback/complaints about our Recruitment Processes, please contact recruitment [at] bsc [dot] es.
For more information follow this link
In accordance with the OTM-R principles, a gender-balanced recruitment panel is formed for every vacancy at the beginning of the process. After reviewing the content of the applications, the panel will start the interviews, with at least one technical and one administrative interview. A profile questionnaire as well as a technical exercise may be required during the process.
The panel will make a final decision and all candidates who had contacts with them will receive a feedback with details on the acceptance or rejection of their profile.
At BSC we are seeking continuous improvement in our recruitment processes, for any suggestions or feedback/complaints about our Recruitment Processes, please contact recruitment [at] bsc [dot] es.
For more information follow this link
Deadline
The vacancy will remain open until a suitable candidate has been hired. Applications will be regularly reviewed and potential candidates will be contacted.
OTM-R principles for selection processes
BSC-CNS is committed to the principles of the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers of the European Commission and the Open, Transparent and Merit-based Recruitment principles (OTM-R). This is applied for any potential candidate in all our processes, for example by creating gender-balanced recruitment panels and recognizing career breaks etc.
BSC-CNS is an equal opportunity employer committed to diversity and inclusion. We are pleased to consider all qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability or any other basis protected by applicable state or local law.
For more information follow this link
BSC-CNS is an equal opportunity employer committed to diversity and inclusion. We are pleased to consider all qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability or any other basis protected by applicable state or local law.
For more information follow this link