Senior Research Associate in Hydroclimatic Extremes and Causal Pathways

Senior Research Associate in Hydroclimatic Extremes and Causal Pathways
Newcastle University
Newcastle, United Kingdom
GBP 48,337 - 51,258 per year
The Role
The EXTREME-FUTURES project will develop a seamless framework for predicting hydroclimatic extremes by connecting global climate drivers, regional weather regimes and extreme events across weather-to-climate timescales. The project focuses on persistent and connected extremes, including heatwaves, floods, storms and compound events, and will combine causal inference, feature tracking, observations and reanalysis, high-resolution modelling, and AI/machine learning.
As Senior Research Associate, you will lead key analyses within Work Package 1:Causal Pathways. You will identify extreme and compound temperature and precipitation events across multiple spatial and temporal scales; investigate the interactions between large-scale climate drivers, circulation regimes and atmospheric features that create pathways to extremes; and develop statistical and AI/ML approaches to identify semi-predictable pathways. The work will begin in Europe, using established weather-regime classifications and comprehensive observations, and will then expand globally. You will work closely with colleagues at ETH Zurich, the UK Met Office, ECMWF and the wider EXTREME-FUTURES team, contributing to WP1’s key outcome: a seamless framework for impactful hydroclimatic events from weather to climate scales.
Key Accountabilities
Assess global temperature and precipitation anomalies across multiple temporal and spatial scales, relative to climatology, to identify extreme and compound hydroclimatic events.
Work with the wider project team to investigate causal pathways to European extreme events and subsequently extend the analysis globally, linking climate drivers, circulation/weather regimes and tracked atmospheric features.
Apply and develop robust statistical and causal-inference approaches to identify key driver–feature interactions and quantify relationships associated with persistent, connected and compound extremes.
Collaborate with project partners to develop and evaluate AI/ML algorithms that capture semi-predictable pathways to extreme events, and benchmark these against physical and machine-learning sub-seasonal to seasonal forecast systems.
Take a leading role in integrating, documenting and disseminating WP1 outputs, contributing to the project’s seamless weather-to-climate framework and to cross-work-package collaboration.
Contribute ideas, including enhancements to the technical or methodological aspects of the project.
Determine appropriate methodologies for research.
Assess research findings for the need/scope for further investigations.
Contribute to the writing up of the research and its dissemination, either through seminar and conference presentations or through publications.
Present research findings, either at conferences or through publications in reputable outlets appropriate to the discipline.
Contribute to grant applications submitted by others and develop own research objectives and proposals for funding.
The Person
Knowledge, Skills and Experience
Knowledge and research experience in climate science, atmospheric science, meteorology, hydroclimatology, or a closely related quantitative discipline, with expertise relevant to weather and climate extremes.
Experience of analysing large observational, reanalysis, climate-model and/or weather-forecast datasets across multiple spatial and temporal scales.
Strong quantitative and scientific programming skills, for example in Python, R or an equivalent language, including reproducible data analysis and visualisation workflows.
Experience of statistical analysis relevant to climate variability and extremes; experience of causal inference, weather regimes/teleconnections, feature tracking, or compound-event analysis is highly desirable.
Experience of, or demonstrable ability to develop, AI/machine-learning methods for environmental or geophysical data.
Ability to collaborate effectively with methodological specialists.
Attention to detail and ability to work at high levels of accuracy
Ability to present complex information effectively to a range of audiences
Proven ability to analyse data and write-up results
Experience of working collaboratively with colleagues
Excellent IT skills in all major office applications
The ability to use personal initiative and creativity to solve research problems.
Awareness of the research environment
High level of analytical and problem solving capacity
Ability to communicate complex information with clarity
Experience of presentations at conferences and/or in high quality publications
Attributes and Behaviour
Commitment to working positively as a member of a multi-skilled research team
Ability to negotiate and prioritise multiple, competing responsibilities and to work to deadlines
Commitment to continued professional development
Understanding of good practice in equality, inclusion and diversity
Qualifications
PhD in climate science, atmospheric science, meteorology, hydrology/hydroclimatology, physical geography, environmental science, applied mathematics, data science, or a closely related discipline, or equivalent research experience.
Apply Now
Deadline 27 October
Don't forget to mention EuroScienceJobs when applying.
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