Assistant Professor in Computational Seismology

Assistant Professor in Computational Seismology

Utrecht University - Faculty of Geosciences

Utrecht, Netherlands

The Department of Earth Sciences is seeking a highly motivated seismologist who applies modern computational tools to image (parts of) the earth interior from crust to core and/or seismic sources. Interest in machine learning is highly appreciated. As our new colleague, you will strengthen research and education in Earth Sciences and develop your own internationally recognised research line that should be complementary to current efforts and contribute to sustain existing infrastructure that is key to the long-term viability of this research line within the department.

Your job

We are active in seismic tomography and the interpretation thereof in terms of thermo-chemical structure. You are expected to expand the development of advanced computational techniques to unleash the full potential of seismic waveforms to various imaging problems of your choice. You should have a keen interest in big data analysis and inverse theory, as demonstrated by your applications, and possibly connect with colleagues for mineral physics interpretations or seismic rupture studies. We have excellent HPC facilities including GPUs, ideally suited for machine learning applications.

You will play an essential role in education by inspiring students and developing innovative courses in the BSc and MSc programmes of the department of Earth Sciences, e.g., in mathematics, physics, data processing and seismology at all levels, and in supervising graduation projects. The educational duties of the quantitative side of Earth Sciences are fairly shared between the larger geophysics team, and we expect you to contribute to these courses. On average, the department of Earth Sciences targets at equal contributions to educational activities and research for all its tenured academic staff, resulting in (up to) 40% BSc/MSc teaching duties, 40% research, and 20% of other activities (management tasks, committee work, etc.). You will also contribute to the supervision of early career scientists such as PhD candidates and postdocs.

Your qualities

We are looking for a strong team player with good communication and networking skills, who is focused on developing her/his own research line and has a high potential for acquiring funding for research projects. A minimum experience of two to three years as a postdoctoral researcher is highly recommended.

We seek a highly motivated candidate who holds a PhD degree in seismology or a relevant natural science. If you:

• are skilled in computational seismology;
• have interest in the integration of observational and computational approaches;
• enjoy using machine learning tools;
• have strong communication, networking and organisational skills;
• have relevant international experience and an outstanding record of academic research, as reflected in high-quality publications;
• are willing to actively obtain research grants and actively develop new research lines;
• have strong didactic skills, enjoy teaching, and are an inspiring mentor to BSc students, MSc students and PhD candidates;
• have obtained a basic teaching qualification (at Utrecht University or equal), or are willing to obtain this qualification in the near future;
• have a keen eye for public outreach, we encourage you to apply.

You are expected to have an excellent level of English, both spoken and written. We require a qualification English at C1 level (CEFR or comparable to level 3 of the Lecturer Assessment Grid) or to be prepared to obtain this level by training. For non-Dutch speaking candidates, Dutch language skills should be at the level of practical communication within two years of the appointment. Willingness to further develop this toward the ability of teaching in Dutch in the longer term is desired.

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