Post Doctoral Research Fellow in glacially induced fluid transport processes on continental margins

The position

A Postdoctoral Research Fellow position is available at the Department of Geoscience, Faculty of Science and Technology with the research group, Centre for ice, Cryosphere, Carbon and Climate (iC3).

The iC3 polar research Centre in Arctic Norway is seeking to recruit a Postdoctoral Research Fellow to advance our knowledge on how ice sheets impact fluid dynamics beyond present-day ice margins. This position is open to qualified applicants of all nationalities.

The position is a fixed term position for a duration of 3 years. Appointment to the position of Postdoctoral Research Fellow within iC3 is mainly intended to provide qualification for work in top academic positions. No person may hold more than one fixed term position as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the same institution.

The appointed postdoctoral fellow must have their daily workplace at the Department of Geosciences UiT The Arctic University of Norway.The workplace is at UiT in Tromsø. You must be able to start in the position within a reasonable time after receiving the offer.

If you receive a personal overseas research grant from NFR it is possible to apply NFR for an extension of the fellowship period corresponding to the length of the stay abroad (minimum three months, maximum 12 months).

About iC3

The Centre for ice, Cryosphere, Carbon and Climate (iC3) is an interdisciplinary polar research hub at UiT The Arctic University of Norway, the northernmost world’s University (https://ic3.uit.no/).

We offer a friendly and supportive working environment to postdoctoral researchers who are passionate about polar science, have a strong work ethic, and share our commitment to teamwork and scientific excellence. Training and supporting the next generation of interdisciplinary polar scientists is a core part of our mission. iC3 has a dedicated mentorship and graduate training program. We actively help postdoctoral fellows to gain new skills, secure grant funding, get their research published, and build their professional networks. The postdoctoral fellow will be one of several fellows to be appointed during 2024.

Our Centre is hosted by UiT, The Arctic University of Norway, the top university worldwide in terms of Arctic research output, and is partnered with the Norwegian Polar Institute and NORCE. We work together across disciplines to answer some of the biggest questions in polar research. iC3 aims to close order of magnitude uncertainty in polar carbon budgets, addressing the hypothesis that changing ice sheets and the cryosphere profoundly impact Earth's carbon cycle, directly affecting human societies via feedbacks to the global climate and polar ecosystems.

Our team has access to world-class facilities including Arctic and Antarctic research stations, ice-going research vessels and in-house laboratory and modelling capacity.

The project/position's field of research

Ice sheet fluctuations across high latitude continental margins are associated with complex geological and physical transformations (e.g. erosion, sedimentation, glacial isostatic adjustments, fracturing, pressure and temperature variations). These transformations impact continental margin hydrology (groundwater) and fluid flow regimes as evidence by post-glacial destabilization of sub-seabed gas hydrates, release of shallow methane stores and discharge of isotopically lighter pore fluids in groundwater releases from now-deglaciated continental margins. The processes involved and the timescales at which they operate, however, remain poorly investigated.

The overall aim of the project is to constrain the impact of glacial dynamics on fluid transport and release beyond present day ice sheet-margins in Antarctica and/or Greenland and their potential impacts on ocean carbon cycling. We seek a motivated geophysicist who will integrate geophysical and geological datasets to:

• 1) Explore the potential to apply advanced geophysical data analyses to document glacially induced sub-surface fluid transport beyond the present-day ice-margins.
• 2) Constrain the processes and timescales involved in such fluid transport.
• 3) Build up conceptual models of ice sheet influenced fluid transport and release and its impact on ocean carbon cycling, suitable for implementation in numerical simulations of sub-seabed fluid flow processes.

Opportunities:

• 1) To join multidisciplinary programs and research cruise(s) to Antarctica and/or Greenland.
• 2) Research visit(s) to key collaborators;
• 3) To work in a multidisciplinary environment that provides multiple opportunities for career development

The post-doctoral fellow will be affiliated with research unit 4 (RU4) within iC3. RU4 focuses on unrevealing how past changes in ice sheets affect the global carbon cycle and marine ecosystems.

The postdoctoral fellow is expected to be involved in all aspects of the research, including study design, planning, conducting research, data analyses, and publishing results. The research work will be performed in collaboration with national and international partners. Results are expected to be published in peer-reviewed scientific journals and presented at national and international conferences/workshops. It is expected that the postdoctoral researcher will take an active role within the iC3 Centre.

Contact

For further information about the position, please contact

• Associate professor Andreia Plaza-Faverola, email: andreia.a.faverola@uit.no
• Associate professor Monica Winsborrow, email: monica.winsborrow@uit.no

For information about iC3 and any general enquiries, please contact:

• iC3 Centre Manager: Dr Terri Souster, iC3manager@uit.no

Website: iC3 Centre for ice, Cryosphere, Carbon and Climate

Twitter: @iC3_CoE

Facebook: iC3 Centre

Linkedin: iC3 Centre

Qualifications

The applicant must document significant experience with seismic data processing and interpretation, as well as integrated geophysical and geological data analyses. Knowledge in geostatistics and numerical modeling would be highly beneficial, as would experience with fluid flow systems on continental margins and glacial dynamics.

This position requires

• A Norwegian doctoral degree (PhD) in the subject area or an equivalent foreign doctoral degree in Geophysics or related disciplines (e.g., marine geology and geophysics, computational geosciences, applied physics, petrophysics, etc).
• Documented fluency in English (both written and oral)
• Programming skills
• File formatting and data management skills

During the assessment emphasis will be put on the candidate’s motivation, potential for research, and personal suitability for the position. We are looking for candidates who:

• Have independence, creativity and engagement
• Have strong problem solving skills
• Have excellent communication and interpersonal skills
• Have excellent work ethic

Qualification with a PhD is required before commencement in the position. If you are at the final stages of your PhD, you may still apply if you have submitted your PhD thesis for doctoral degree evaluation within the application deadline. In that case, you must submit the thesis together with your application. You must have defended your PhD dissertation before the start-up date of the position. During the assessment emphasis will be put on the candidates potential for research, motivation and personal suitability for the position.

UiT wishes to increase the proportion of females in academic positions. In cases where two or more applicants are found to be approximately equally qualified, female applicants will be given priority.

In the assessment the main emphasis will be attached to the submitted works and the project proposal for the qualifying work. Emphasis shall also be attached to experience from popularization/dissemination and academic policy and administrative activity.

During the assessment emphasis will be put on the candidate’s motivation, potential for research, and personal suitability for the position.

At UiT we put emphasis on the quality, relevance and significance of the research work and not on where the work is published, in accordance with the principles of The San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA).

Inclusion and diversity

UiT The Arctic University i Norway is working actively to promote equality, gender balance and diversity among employees and students, and to create an inclusive and safe working environment. We believe that inclusion and diversity is a strength, and we want employees with different competencies, professional experience, life experience and perspectives.

If you have a disability, a gap in your CV or immigrant background, we encourage you to tick the box for this in your application. If there are qualified applicants, we invite least one in each group for an interview. If you get the job, we will adapt the working conditions if you need it. Apart from selecting the right candidates, we will only use the information for anonymous statistics.

We offer

• Involvement in an interesting research project
• Good career opportunities
• A good academic environment with dedicated colleagues
• Flexible working hours and a state collective pay agreement
• Pension scheme through the state pension fund

Norwegian health policy aims to ensure that everyone, irrespective of their personal finances and where they live, has access to good health and care services of equal standard. As an employee you will become member of the National Insurance Scheme which also include health care services.

More practical information for working and living in Norway can be found here: https://uit.no/staffmobility

Application

Your application must include:

• Application letter explaining your motivation and research interests for the post, along with details of how you fit the required and desirable qualifications for the position (max. 2 A4 page)
• CV (containing a complete overview of education and professional work; max. 3 pages)
• Diplomas and transcripts (all degrees)
• Documentation of English proficiency
• Contact information to 2-3 references
• A list of your academic production
• Description of your academic production, stating which works you consider most important
• The academic works (published or not) you wish us to take into consideration in the assessment

If you’re at the final stages of your PhD, you may still apply if you have submitted your PhD thesis for doctoral degree evaluation within the application deadline. You must submit the thesis with your application. Documentation of your completed PhD degree must be submitted before commencement.

All documentation to be considered must be in a Scandinavian language or English. If English proficiency is not documented in the application, it must be documented before starting in the position. We only accept applications and documentation sent via Jobbnorge within the application deadline.

Assessment

The applicants will be assessed by an expert committee. The committee's mandate is to undertake an assessment of the applicants' qualifications based on the written material presented by the applicants, and the detailed description draw up for the position.

The applicants who are assessed as best qualified will be called to an interview. The interview should among other things, aim to clarify the applicant’s motivation and personal suitability for the position. A trial lecture may also be held.

General information

The appointment is made in accordance with State regulations and guidelines at UiT. At our website, you will find more information for applicants.

The remuneration for Postdoctoral research fellow is in accordance with the State salary scale code 1352. A compulsory contribution of 2 % to the Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund will be deducted. You will become a member of the Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund, which gives you many benefits in addition to a lifelong pension: You may be entitled to financial support if you become ill or disabled, your family may be entitled to financial support when you die, you become insured against occupational injury or occupational disease, and you can get good terms on a mortgage. Read more about your employee benefits at: spk.no.

The successful candidate must be willing to get involved in the ongoing development of their department and the university as a whole.

UiT wishes to promote gender equality. If two or more applicants are found to be equally qualified, the university will rank applicants from the underrepresented gender ahead of others.

According to the Norwegian Freedom and Information Act (Offentleglova) information about the applicant may be included in the public applicant list, also in cases where the applicant has requested non-disclosure.

In case of discrepancies between the Norwegian and the English version of this description, the Norwegian version takes precedence.