Research Associate in Environmental Sciences

University of Virginia

15h

About The Position

The Department of Environmental Sciences at the University of Virginia invites applications for a postdoctoral research associate focusing on our improved understanding of cloud processes in global climate models. The successful candidate will explore relationships between modeled tropical climatology, deep convection, and high clouds as part of a project funded through the Department of Energy. The overarching goal of this work will be to identify sources of inter-model spread in high clouds and their response to perturbations among global climate models participating in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP). The postdoctoral research associate will be advised by Dr. Kathleen Schiro (University of Virginia) and co-advised by Dr. Mark Zelinka (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory) and will have opportunities to travel to LLNL to maintain active collaborations with PCMDI scientists.

Requirements

A PhD in Atmospheric Science, Environmental Sciences, or a related field is required by the start date.
Experience analyzing global climate model output to study atmospheric processes is required.

Responsibilities

(a) analyzing publicly-available CMIP output from multiple coordinated experiments
(b) analyzing and augmenting a perturbed physics ensemble (PPE) in the DOE’s Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM)
(c) analyzing observational data to create constraints on cloud processes through relevant atmospheric processes
(d) presenting work at conferences and engaging broadly in the climate dynamics community (e.g., through participation in workshops)
(e) publishing results in the peer-reviewed literature