Faculty (tenure track)
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Other

Assistant Professor (Tenure Track)
Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering

The Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering is seeking to fill a tenure-track position at the rank of assistant professor in either Environmental Chemistry or Surface Water Hydrology.  Outstanding candidates with both fundamental and applied research interests that complement the department’s interdisciplinary Sustainable Water Resources program in these areas are encouraged to apply, particularly if these interests are related to global change or global environmental health.  Candidates with an environmental chemistry background should have expertise relevant to aquatic systems (including how these interface with soil and/or atmospheric processes), with research interests that might include: surface chemistry; kinetics; redox processes; and trace organic and inorganic contaminants.  Candidates with a background in surface water hydrology should have expertise relevant to exploring the impacts of climate change, with research interests that might include: modeling of climate change-induced perturbations to hydrologic processes; adaptation to and mitigation of climate change-related impacts; influence of urbanization and/or changes in land use/land cover; and prediction of extreme hydrologic events (e.g., droughts, floods).

The successful candidate will have a PhD in environmental science, environmental engineering, chemistry, hydrology, or a closely related field.  She or he will play a major role in the teaching and research mission of the Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering. The successful candidate will also demonstrate strong potential for interdisciplinary collaboration within the Department, the School of Public Health, the University and the scientific community at large. Review of applications will begin immediately and will continue until the position is filled. The starting date for the appointment is flexible, but can be as early as July 1, 2008. For consideration, please send a cover letter, detailed curriculum vitae, statement of research and teaching interests, and the names and contact information of four references to:

Chair, Search Committee
c/o Ms. Ann Goodwin
Environmental Sciences and Engineering
School of Public Health
106 Rosenau Hall, CB#7431
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7431

Or electronically to ese at unc.edu

The School of Public Health is actively committed to diversity. We strongly encourage applications from women, minorities, and persons with disabilities. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Posted 01/09/2008

Postdoctoral Research Associate in Spatial Statistics
Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering

The Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill is seeking immediately an enthusiastic and talented post-doc to participate in multidisciplinary research in exposure assessment using spatial statistics. This post-doc position aims to develop and apply novel spatial statistical methodologies for a national environmental risk assessment for a country in the Arabian Peninsula. This person will work as part of a large international interdisciplinary team with the goal of prioritizing environmental risks. Specifically, this position will involve research focused on developing and applying modern methods of space/time statistics to model the space/time variability and uncertainty associated with air, water, and soil contaminants in the environment, modeling the associated health effect in terms of risks, and comparing these with risks from non-ambient sources such as food and the built environment. The work will require a literature review of health effects associated with atmospheric pollutants, pesticide residue, water contaminants and other environmental threats identified in the study. This person will use environmental monitoring data as well as model predictions of air, water and soil contaminants to produce maps describing their distribution and uncertainty across space and time, and will use published health effect relationships as well as health data available in the country to quantify statistically the associated health risks. Various approaches to spatial statistics will be used, including the classical kriging methods of linear geostatistics, Poisson kriging, and Bayesian approaches such as Hierarchical Bayesian modeling, Bayesian Data Fusion, and Bayesian Maximum Entropy. The exposure assessment developed will be based on a holistic stochastic framework propagating and quantifying all significant sources of uncertainty.

A solid background in statistics or in spatial statistics is required, as well as a demonstrated ability for computer programming. Experience in MATLAB and Python are most relevant, but not necessary. A Ph.D. is required in a field related to statistics, or related to environmental engineering, epidemiology, or exposure assessment, with demonstrated statistical skills.

The starting salary will range from $45,000 to $50,000 per year plus health insurance depending on qualifications. The position is initially for a one year period, with possibility to extend that period subject to extension of the project. Please apply immediately, providing a statement of research interest with information on research interests for this project; relevant prior experience, and availability. International applicants must be qualified to work in the U.S. Project starts June 1; applicants must be available and willing to relocate to Chapel Hill, NC, immediately or within two weeks of hire.

The P.I. of this project is Dr. Jacqueline MacDonald, and Dr. Marc Serre is a co-Investigator.

Please send a curriculum vitae and statement of research interests addressed to them, using the following contact information:

Dr. Marc Serre
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering CB#7431
Chapel Hill, NC 27599
nataliya at unc.edu

The School of Public Health is committed to diversity. We strongly encourage applications from women, minorities and individuals with disabilities. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Posted 06/03/2008

Postdoctoral Research Associate in Atmospheric Modeling
Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering

The Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill is seeking immediately a qualified person to participate in developing a national environmental risk assessment for a country in the Arabian Peninsula. This person will work as part of a large international interdisciplinary team with the goal of prioritizing environmental risks. Specifically, this position will involve research focused on understanding the formation and chemical transformation of atmospheric pollutants and its public health implications. The successful candidate will work with existing meteorology, emissions, and air quality modeling team to simulate the region. The candidate will be a critical member of the air quality modeling team who would be expected to help configure and operate the various component models, and conduct advanced model performance evaluations to increase our understanding of the complex chemical and physical processes that lead to pollution formation in the Middle East. The project will have a large international component and require travel to the Arabian Peninsula. Throughout the course of the project there will be direct involvement and communications with international regulators and stakeholders presenting model evaluations and recommendations for improvements to model performance.

An understanding of atmospheric chemistry, or background in environmental chemistry, atmospheric science, environmental engineering, or related discipline is necessary. Familiarity with computer programming and with the UNIX environment is also necessary. Experience with the FORTRAN and Python programming languages is preferred, although not required. A Ph.D. in atmospheric science or a related discipline is required.

The starting salary range is $50,000 per year plus health insurance. Please apply immediately; the position will close when filled. Project starts June 1; applicants must be available and willing to relocate to Chapel Hill, NC, immediately or within two weeks of hire.

More information concerning air quality research at UNC please visit http://www.unc.edu/~vizuete and http://www.ie.unc.edu/content/research/environmental_modeling.cfm. Please send a curriculum vitae and statement of research interests:

Dr. William Vizuete
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering CB#7431
Chapel Hill, NC 27599
airquality at unc.edu

The School of Public Health is committed to diversity. We strongly encourage applications from women, minorities, and individuals with disabilities. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer.

Updated 06/03/2008

Environment and Health Data Manager
Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering

The Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill is immediately seeking an enthusiastic person with good interpersonal skills to research and manage data for a large multidisciplinary environment and health project. This research associate will be charged with obtaining and managing environmental and health data for a national environmental risk assessment for a country in the Arabian Peninsula. This person will work as part of a large international interdisciplinary team with the goal of prioritizing environmental risks. This position will involve researching what data relevant to the project are routinely collected in the country, obtaining these data, and managing them for all project members. Specifically, the data will include all air pollution emission inventory data, environmental monitoring data (on soil, water and air pollutants), demographic data, health surveillance data, and any GIS data that are routinely collected within the county. In addition the data to be managed will include data generated internally by the project, such as air quality modeling inputs and outputs. This person will organize and maintain databases, data storage, and user access.

This position will require Information Technology skills. A strong knowledge of UNIX shell scripts and computing on the Linux cluster, and UNIX file management of large datasets is required. A background in the environmental or health sciences, or in GIS is preferable but not necessary, as is familiarity with (one or more) database languages (MySQL, Oracle, etc.) and environmental and air quality models such as MM5, CMAQ and SMOKE. In addition, this person must have good interpersonal skills, as the work will involve establishing contact with various agencies in a foreign country to obtain data, and possibly traveling to that country.

The starting salary will range from $45,000 to $50,000 per year depending on qualifications.  Please apply immediately; the position will close when filled. Project starts June 1; applicants must be available and willing to relocate to Chapel Hill, NC, immediately or within two weeks of hire.

Please send a curriculum vitae and statement of research interests addressed to:

Jacqueline A. MacDonald
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering CB#7431
Chapel Hill, NC 27599
nataliya at unc.edu

The School of Public Health is committed to diversity. We strongly encourage applications from women, minorities, and individuals with disabilities. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer.

Posted 06/03/2008