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Department of Geography

 

Job opportunities

Current vacancies within the Department are posted here.

Communications Coordinator (Part Time, Fixed Term)

Salary: £32,332-£38,205 pro rata.

The Communications Coordinator leads on the delivery of the Masters in Conservation Leadership communications and marketing, including the course website, annual report, social media profile and other communications content (e.g. videos and newsletters). The aim of these activities is to attract the right applicants and increase external awareness of the course and its achievements.

The purpose of this role is to manage the dissemination of information regarding the Masters and its alumni to external audiences, to members of the Cambridge Conservation Initiative and the wider conservation community, to the alumni network, funders and any other key stakeholders as required. This is to ensure that the Masters receives good quality applications during its annual marketing round, and to ensure that the profile of the Masters is maintained and understood by all of our target interest groups.

The successful applicant should be educated to A Level standard or NVQ level 3 or equivalent level of practical experience. They should posses demonstrable social media skills on Facebook, Twitter, Linked In and other relevant channels. They should have experience working in communications (e.g. in an NGO or university) coupled with experience of handling communications campaigns and of producing a range of marketing materials. The ability to conceive and create high quality video content is essential alongside desktop publishing and website design skills using products such as Adobe Creative Cloud (publishing) and WordPress (website design) which are desirable. Applicants should review the further particulars for information on all essential criteria.

Informal enquiries should be directed in the first instance to Prof Chris Sandbrook (cgs21@cam.ac.uk).

Fixed-term: The funds for this post are available for 2 years in the first instance.

Once an offer of employment has been accepted, the successful candidate will be required to undergo a health assessment.

Click the 'Apply' button below to register an account with our recruitment system (if you have not already) and apply online.

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Please quote reference LC38488 on your application and in any correspondence about this vacancy.

The University actively supports equality, diversity and inclusion and encourages applications from all sections of society.

The University has a responsibility to ensure that all employees are eligible to live and work in the UK.

Research Associate (Fixed Term)

Salary: £36,024-£44,263.

Reconstructing the carbon cycle of the last 50,000 years using paleoclimate data assimilation

Applications are invited for the Arnell Post-Doctoral Research Associate position for a fixed-term of 24 months to work on a project funded by Downing College and in collaboration with the Centre for Climate Repair. The post holder will be based at the Department of Geography and will work under the guidance of Dr Francesco Muschitiello and Dr Matthew Osman.

To better predict the long-term climate impact of future anthropogenic CO2 emissions, it is essential that we quantify mechanisms of climate system and carbon cycle coupling over centennial to millennial timescales. The last 50,000 years offer an ideal natural laboratory to investigate such climate-carbon cycle feedbacks. This period was punctuated by multiple abrupt climate shifts and large-scale climatic reorganizations, each mediated by changes in the partitioning of carbon across various atmosphere, ocean, and terrestrial reservoirs. However, the spatial and temporal dimensions of carbon sinks versus sources, including their relationship to atmospheric CO2, remain poorly quantified.

Climate model experiments are widely used to evaluate climate-carbon cycle feedbacks over short time frames, but require additional validation from paleoenvironmental proxies across centennial and longer timescales. To more explicitly facilitate the testing and constraining of models beyond the limits of present-day climate scenarios, this project will apply paleo-data assimilation to generate the first proxy-constrained, spatiotemporally continuous global carbon-cycle reanalysis of the last 50,000 years. This will be done by combining transient simulations from climate system models of intermediate complexity with geochemical proxies to investigate drivers and modes of carbon-cycle variability over centennial and millennial timescales.

The successful candidate will i) perform transient climate model simulations using a wide range of forcing and boundary conditions to produce an ensemble of climate and carbon-cycle states from our models, and ii) apply data assimilation techniques to produce a complete reanalysis of climate and carbon-cycle change for the past 50,000 years.

We seek a motivated scholar interested in applied scientific programming and data analysis. Eligible candidates must have a PhD (or equivalent degree) in Climate Physics, Applied Mathematics, Earth Sciences or allied disciplines. A background in paleoclimate modelling and (or) experience in data assimilation is desirable, as is familiarity with interpreting paleoenvironmental proxy data. The candidate must be highly motivated and have excellent time management, organisational and communication skills, and be able to work well as part of a team. The successful candidate will be primarily based in Cambridge, with secondments to Sydney & Hobart, Australia, and (or) Corvallis, Oregon expected over the course of the project to work closely with international collaborators. The candidate will have the opportunity to participate in a wide range of activities within the Centre for Climate Repair and the Department of Geography, including the departmental 'Climate and Environmental Dynamics' research group, and reading groups and seminars across the University.

The Arnell Post-Doctoral Research Associate will be invited to become a member of Downing College and of its Middle Common Room (MCR) with associated privileges, and it is expected that the candidate will make an active contribution towards College life, educationally and socially.

Fixed-term: The funds for this post are available for 24 months in the first instance.

Click the 'Apply' button below to register an account with our recruitment system (if you have not already) and apply online.

Please ensure that you upload your Curriculum Vitae (CV) and a covering letter in the Upload section of the online application. In your letter you are encouraged to explain how your skills and experience match the Person Profile for this role. If you upload any additional documents which have not been requested, we will not be able to consider these as part of your application.

Interviews for shortlisted candidates are expected to take place online in mid-November 2023.

Please quote reference LC38413 on your application and in any correspondence about this vacancy.

The University actively supports equality, diversity and inclusion and encourages applications from all sections of society.

The University has a responsibility to ensure that all employees are eligible to live and work in the UK.

Research Associate in the Social Dimensions of Landscape Regeneration

Salary: £36,024-£44,263.

Applications are invited for a Research Associate position to work as part of the flagship NERC Centre for Landscape Regeneration (CLR).

The Centre for Landscape Regeneration is an ambitious programme of research that aims to provide the knowledge and tools needed to regenerate the British countryside using cost-effective nature-based solutions that harness the power of ecosystems to provide broad societal benefits including biodiversity recovery and climate mitigation and adaptation. The focal landscapes for CLR are in the Fens (north of Cambridge), the Cairngorms National Park and the Lake District National Park. The Research Associate will be part of the social science team, working in partnership with colleagues from multiple departments within the University of Cambridge as well as a range of collaborating organisations.

The role holder will lead research into the way in which stakeholders in the study areas (including citizens, government, NGO staff, private sector actors and CLR project participants) perceive their landscape, its usage and conservation. Building on the Future of Conservation Survey (Sandbrook et al., 2019) the role holder will develop a set of bespoke survey items to identify perspectives. These will then be used in a facilitated process to explore how actors in the study landscapes perceive conservation and related societal goals, and how these views align with, or differ from, those of the actors within the CLR project (academics and partners). These findings will be shared with project participants through facilitated workshops, helping to create a stronger basis for collaboration within the project team, and with stakeholders in the study landscapes. The role holder could work in all three landscapes, or could choose to focus on one.

Eligible candidates must have a PhD in Geography or a related discipline. A background in qualitative and quantitative analysis and of working with diverse actors in conservation landscapes is essential. Applicants must also have proven experience of publishing high-quality research articles. They must be highly motivated and should have excellent time management, organisational and communication skills, and be able to work well independently and as part of a team.

The successful candidate will be based in Cambridge, with significant periods of fieldwork at CLR locations. They will have the opportunity to participate in a wide range of departmental and University activities, including the departmental 'Vital Geographies' research group, departmental seminars, and reading groups across the University. They will also have the opportunity to participate in a wide range of activities taking place in the David Attenborough Building, which is home to the Cambridge Conservation Initiative partnership of the University of Cambridge and ten international conservation NGOs and networks.

Fixed-term: The funds for this post are available for 30 months in the first instance.

Click the 'Apply' button below to register an account with our recruitment system (if you have not already) and apply online.

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Please quote reference LC38556 on your application and in any correspondence about this vacancy.

The University actively supports equality, diversity and inclusion and encourages applications from all sections of society.

The University has a responsibility to ensure that all employees are eligible to live and work in the UK.

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