Postdoctoral Research Associate in River Water Quality

The role

The School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol, seeks to appoint a Post-Doctoral Research Associate (PDRA) for a 2-year (24-month) position in River Water Quality. The PDRA will be working as part of a team of science, industry and policy-facing specialists in the €2million research project “BREATHE: Monitoring river metabolism to assess ecosystem services” part of the Aquatic Ecosystem Services Water4All joint transnational partnership.

This role presents an exciting opportunity to work on river water quality and its implications for scientific and policy considerations as part of an energetic interdisciplinary team with high potential for impact. The successful candidate will co-design an international sensor-based River Observation System (RIOS), leading a UK case study on urbanised rivers to quantify river metabolism and implications for river carbon transport. The candidate will join the wider Watershed Carbon Lab research team led by Associate Professor Joshua Dean (https://watershedcarbonlab.weebly.com/) where there is be a strong focus on career development along with opportunities and funding available to undertake training/development activities, placements with project partners and international research visits.

What will you be doing?

The successful candidate will focus on measurements of dissolved oxygen, and using the data to model river metabolism to quantify aquatic ecosystem services such as climate regulation, water purification, provisioning fisheries for the implementation of EU and global policies. Complimentary measurements of dissolved CO₂, CH₄ and other water quality parameters via sensors and discrete sampling will form a key component of this. The candidate will work with local and national waterway managers to develop data pipelines that will support the Environment Act 2021 requirements for the collection of dissolved oxygen sensor data. Fieldwork locations are focused in the southwest of England, but there will be opportunities to visit other sites and partners within the initial RIOS network (Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, Spain and Brazil).

You should apply if

• You have a postgraduate research degree with subject knowledge and research experience in a relevant area or equivalent professional qualification/experience or be working towards one.
• Experience contributing to and leading scientific publications/presentations;
• Experience collecting and managing high temporal resolution environmental sensor data from rivers OR equivalent experience collecting other environmental data in terrestrial or aquatic environments;
• Experience of planning fieldwork and contributing to data collection in the field;
• Analytical and coding skills within a package such as R, Python or MATLAB.

Additional information

Contract type: Open ended with fixed funding for two years

Work pattern: Full time/35 hours per week

This advert will close at 23:59 UK time on 10/03/2025

Interviews are anticipated to take place in April 2025

For informal queries, please contact: Joshua Dean josh.dean@bristol.ac.uk

Please note: The job title in the University of Bristol is known as Research Associate in River Water Quality 

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The University of Bristol aims to be a place where everyone feels able to be themselves and do their best in an inclusive working environment where all colleagues can thrive and reach their full potential. We want to attract, develop, and retain individuals with different experiences, backgrounds and perspectives – particularly people of colour, LGBT+ and disabled people - because diversity of people and ideas remains integral to our excellence as a global civic institution.

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