Postdoctoral Researcher - Remote Sensing for Spatial Sustainable Finance

Department of Geography
Postdoctoral Researcher - Remote Sensing for Spatial Sustainable Finance
80-100 %
We invite applications for a Postdoctoral researcher position in the field of remote sensing for spatial sustainable finance. The successful applicant will contribute to the SNSF-BRIDGE-Discovery project “Spatial sustainable finance: Satellite-based ratings of company footprints in biodiversity and water”. The project is led by the Remote Sensing Laboratories of the University of Zurich (UZH) and the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW).
Your responsibilities
We are looking for a highly motivated, creative, solution-focused and independent person with a passion for technology and sustainability research to join our team. The project should answer research questions along the following lines (but not exclusive to): (a) How to define risk for biodiversity and water and how can these risks be assessed in a scalable way from satellite data? (b) Which company activities cause risk for biodiversity and water and do these risks trigger feedbacks? (c) Under which conditions can financial operations minimize risk to biodiversity and water?
Your profile
The ideal candidate must hold a Ph.D. in earth systems science, remote sensing, geography, or related a field. Extensive experience in programming linked to organizing, exploiting and analyzing large datasets with advanced data science methods (e.g. machine learning, time series analysis, cloud-based computing) is essential. Excelling writing and communication skills in English is mandatory. Developed capacity for analytical and systematic thinking, experience in bridging research and industry, and interest to support a newly funded start-up is important. The project will involve intense interdisciplinary collaborations with project partners in the fields of remote sensing, biodiversity, water and financing.
What we offer
We offer outstanding working conditions, a high quality of life in Zurich, and an excellent support environment. UZH's Remote Sensing Laboratories are internationally renowned and have expertise in various remote sensing domains such as spectroscopy, radar and LiDAR and apply this technology in various application fields such as biodiversity, water systems or earth systems science. The project is at the interface between research and industry and an increasing involvement in start-up established in parallel to this project is possible.
The successful applicant will be based at the Department of Geography in Zurich and supervised by Maria J. Santos (Earth Systems Science) and Alexander Damm-Reiser (Remote Sensing of Water Systems).
Place of work
Department of Geography, University of Zurich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland
Start of employment
The suitable candidate can start as soon as a candidate is found, ideally as of 1 April 2022. The position is funded for a period of three years. Salaries correspond to the SNSF regulations for PostDoctoral researchers.
Deadline for application submission is 11 February 2022.
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