Doctoral Candidate “Spatial integration for high-tech (remote) sensing of natural and built ecosystems”

Are you excited to work on physics processes that have so far proven difficult to understand, while at the same time contributing to societal challenges? Then join our research team in advancing our understanding of radiative exchanges within and above open-water, agricultural, natural, and urban environments through state-of-the-art in-situ measurements and remote sensing technologies.

This position is part of the ITEM (Infrastructure Twente for Ecosystem Monitoring) initiative, responding to the Earth and Environmental Sciences (EES) Sectorplan-Beta II, which is aiming at strengthening the scientific foundation by continuous and incidental measurements of (sub)processes on earth while addressing societal missions in the fields of “Security living environment/habitat”, “Agriculture, water and food”, “Energie(transition), circularity and sustainability” and “Health”. This initiative is a faculty-wide effort that connects all four scientific departments of the Faculty ITC of the University of Twente through their four key focus areas: Resource Security, GeoAI, Disaster Resilience, and Urban Futures.

You will be working on remote sensing-based observational modelling by combining spatially distributed optical-thermal ground observations with airborne and satellite-based imagery to unravel radiative exchanges. You will also be working on coupling and upscaling of radiative in-situ observations from our spatially distributed sensor network (ITEM) to airborne and satellite image observations through near-surface and atmospheric radiative transport process modelling. You will examine bidirectional reflectance characteristics and hotspot effects across the typical land-cover types and ecosystems mentioned above: open water, agricultural, natural, and urban environments. You will present (both preliminary and mature) research results at appropriate meetings and conferences, publish results in scientific workshops, conference proceedings, and journals, contribute to teaching on topics related to your work, supervise and mentor involved MSc students as needed.