Postdoc Position on Palaeoclimate Modelling

Are you passionate about understanding Earth's past to inform its future? Utrecht University's Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research (IMAU) invites applications for a two-year postdoc position in palaeoclimate modelling. You’ll be part of the Horizon-Europe P2F (Past to Future: Towards Fully Paleo-Informed Future Climate Projections) project, collaborating with an interdisciplinary European consortium to enhance our understanding of climate dynamics and tipping points.

Your job

The P2F project covers topics like mathematics, physics, geology, (palaeo-)biology and archaeology. Scientists from these fields have joined forces to make the most optimal use of past climatic conditions to better understand Earth’s climate response to different kinds of forcing, with focus on potential abrupt climatic transitions and the crossing of tipping points.

Your tasks will include:

• setting up and performing simulations within the CESM Earth system model for specific PMIP time slice simulations (e.g. Last Glacial Maximum and Pliocene) to perform model-data comparisons with existing and new proxy data collections;
• evaluating the model-data comparisons to identify improvement strategies for earth system models. You will closely interact with consortium partners at NCAR and the PlioMIP, DeepMIP model intercomparison projects to design the model experiments.

Your qualities

We are looking for you if you have multiple of the following requirements:

• a PhD in physics, applied mathematics, meteorology, geosciences or a related field;
• excellent skills in scientific programming and numerical / statistical analysis of simulated and observed data;
• experience with Earth System Modelling and climate model output analyses;
• experience with the CESM or another CMIP model is of advantage;
• experience with proxy data and palaeoclimate model-data comparison is of advantage;
• basic knowledge of (geophysical) fluid dynamics.

Our offer

• The opportunity to work in and with a team of leading experts within a large consortium;
• a position for 2 years;
• a fulltime working week and a gross monthly salary between €3,378 and €5,331 in the case of full-time employment (salary scale 10 under the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities (CAO NU));
• 8% holiday pay and 8.3% year-end bonus;
• a pension scheme, partially paid parental leave and flexible terms of employment based on the CAO NU.