Postdoctoral Research Associate

The Faculty wishes to recruit a Postdoctoral Research Associate of 20-months duration to work collaboratively with the Met Office Hadley Centre on modelling deliberate climate interventions to cool the planet and counterbalance the impacts of global warming. This post is fully funded by the UK Met Office and is available from April 2025 (negotiable).

The climate crisis means that the targets set by COP21 may soon be exceeded leading to increasingly damaging climate impacts. While stringent mitigation methods are obviously essential, greenhouse gas concentrations and the associated global warming and climate change are projected to continue to increase under all future scenarios exposing the Earth to increasingly damaging extreme events and potential tipping points. The successful applicant will be expected to work on modelling the impacts of solar radiation modification (SRM) and greenhouse gas removal in isolation and in combination to provide an objective assessment of their feasibility and their associated benefits and/or risks to the Earth system.

The candidate will work on Earth system modelling of solar radiation modification (SRM) via stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI), carbon dioxide removal (CDR) via afforestation and direct air capture, and methane removal via enhanced oxidation or direct air capture. Dedicated simulations will be designed and run, and the project will involve a detailed investigation and analysis of the climate responses to the different interventions including trends, spatial patterns and relationships among key climate and Earth system variables: surface climate variables, radiative fluxes, carbon cycle metrics, ocean state, aerosol / chemistry concentrations, including surface air quality metrics. Candidates should have experience in climate modelling preferably with the UKESM1 Earth system model, and demonstratable expertise in the climatic impacts of greenhouse gases and/or aerosols.

The successful applicant will be expected to work closely with colleagues at the Met Office Hadley Centre as well as colleagues at the University of Exeter. They will be expected to prepare manuscripts documenting the results in readiness for submission to peer-reviewed journals.

About you
At Grade E: The successful applicant will be able to present information on research progress and outcomes, communicate complex information, orally, in writing and electronically and prepare proposals and applications to external bodies.

Applicants will possess a relevant PhD (or nearing completion) or possess an equivalent qualification/experience in a related field of study and be able to demonstrate sufficient knowledge in the discipline and of research methods and techniques to work within established research programmes. Applicants will be expected to learn to perform analysis on output from Earth system models appropriate for the position noted above, and will have a good understanding of the role of greenhouse gases and/or aerosols on the Earth system and in climate change.

Please ensure you read the Job Description and Person Specification for full details of this role.

For further information please contact Dr Fiona O’Connor, e-mail F.M.OConnor@exeter.ac.uk or Prof. Jim Haywood, email J.M.Haywood@exeter.ac.uk 

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