Assistant Professor in Scientific Computing and High-Performance Computing COMP23-3

Working at Durham University  

As one of the UK’s leading universities, Durham is an incredible place to define your career while enjoying a high-quality work/life balance. We are home to some of the most talented scholars and researchers from around the world who are tackling global issues and making a difference to people's lives.  

Find out more about the benefits of working at the University and what it is like to live and work in the Durham area on our Why Durham? information page.  

A competitive salary is only one part of the many fantastic benefits you will receive if you join the University: you will also receive access to the following Total Rewards – Grade 8.    

The Department 

The Department is one of the UK’s leading Computer Science departments, with an outstanding reputation in research, teaching, and student employability. Our internationally recognised research covers Algorithms and Complexity, Artificial Intelligence and Human Systems, Networks, Scientific Computing and Vision, Imaging and Visualisation. There is a lively research culture with many visitors and events, and active and rewarding collaborations with other departments in Durham and with other scientists in the UK and internationally. In the recent assessment exercise REF2021 we improved by six places in the ranking. We aim to provide an encouraging and friendly environment with a strong sense of community. The Department has recently grown rapidly, and now has more than 50 permanent members of academic staff. In 2021, we moved to a newly constructed building, which we share with Mathematics. 

The Department has a proud tradition of delivering excellence in its undergraduate programmes through research-led teaching. Attracting some of the best students in the UK, the Department is ranked 6th in both the Complete University Guide 2023 and the Guardian University Guide 2023 and nationally we are ranked joint 1st for student employability. As part of the expansion of the Department, new MSc programmes in Business Analytics, Scientific Computing and Data Analysis, and in Data Science launched within the past four years. 

The Department holds an Athena SWAN Bronze award. Athena SWAN is a national initiative that recognises the advancement of gender equality, representation, progression and success for all in academia.

The Department of Computer Science at Durham University seeks to appoint a talented individual to the role of Assistant Professor.  We welcome applications from those with research and teaching interests in the broad field of Scientific Computing. We are particularly eager to hear from applicants who make a methodological contribution to High-Performance Computing (HPC) for numerical simulations or establish further links to application domains relying on HPC.

As part of its investments in Scientific Computing, the department has intensified its collaboration with Durham’s Advanced Research Computing directorate and Durham’s three national and regional supercomputing installations (Bede, Cosma and Hamilton). The department has started to install its own set of experimental hardware, and it has established industry collaborations with leading vendors in the field.

This post offers an exciting opportunity to build upon this ecosystem to facilitate your personal research. Possible areas of interest for such research include performance engineering, research software engineering challenges, algorithms that fit to novel supercomputing architectures, tools facilitating better numerical (PDE) solvers, or new programming models. We particularly welcome candidates who can complement research by current members of staff, work together with our current team of researchers and help us to establish new and tighter links to other departments in Durham which rely on HPC.

This post offers an exciting opportunity to make a major contribution to the development of internationally excellent research and teaching while allowing you unrivalled opportunities to progress and embed your career in an exciting and progressive institution. For more information, please visit our Department pages at https://www.durham.ac.uk/departments/academic/computer-science/   

Assistant Professors at Durham 

Assistant Professors on the Education and Research track are encouraged to focus on research and teaching but also to engage in wider citizenship to enhance their own development, support their department and wider discipline, and contribute to the wider student experience. 

Academic colleagues are supported to publish high-quality research in their area of interest with a focus on quality in high-impact outputs including monographs, essays in edited volumes, and book chapters, rather than quantity. We will fully support your research needs including practical help such as resources to attend conferences and to fund research activities, as well as a generous research leave policy and a designated mentor.  

Durham University is also committed to ensuring excellent teaching quality, stimulating learning environments, and innovative curricula for all of our students. You will be supported to develop your teaching expertise and to develop innovative teaching. 

We are confident that our recruitment process allows us to attract and select the best international talent to Durham. We, therefore, offer a reduced probation period of 1 year for our Assistant Professors and thereafter, subject to satisfactory performance, your position will be confirmed as permanent 

Assistant Professor in Scientific Computing and High-Performance Computing

Applicants must demonstrate research excellence in the field of Scientific Computing, with the ability to teach our students to an exceptional standard and to fully engage in the services, citizenship and values of the University.   The University aims to provides a working and teaching environment that is inclusive and welcoming and where everyone is treated fairly with dignity and respect. Candidates will be expected to demonstrate these key principles as part of the assessment process. 

Key responsibilities:  

• To pursue research that is high quality in terms of originality, significance and rigour.  

• To develop clear plans for the pursuit of national and international funding opportunities to support research and end-user engagement; 

• To play a role in relevant teaching and research supervision, and contribute to ongoing curriculum development; 

• Contribute to enhancing the quality of the research environment in the Department, the wider University and beyond through collaborative research activity;  

• Demonstrate a willingness to contribute to the administrative work, citizenship and values of the Department;  

• To deliver lectures, seminars and tutorials at undergraduate and taught postgraduate levels, as well as engaging in related activity such as assessment; 

• To fully engage in and enhance the values of the Department; 

• To contribute to attracting and supervising research students, and to enhance the Department’s commitment to its vibrant and inclusive postgraduate culture.  

• Carry out such other duties as specified by the Head of Department. 

Durham University is committed to equality, diversity and inclusion 

Our collective aim is to create an open and inclusive environment where everyone can reach their full potential and we believe our staff should reflect the diversity of the global community in which we work.  

As a University equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) are a key part of the University’s Strategy and a central part of everything we do.  We also live by our values  and our Staff Code of Conduct.   At Durham we actively work towards providing an environment where our staff and students can study, work and live in a community which is supportive and inclusive. It’s important to us that all of our colleagues are aligned to both our values and commitment to EDI. 

We welcome and encourage applications from members of groups who are under-represented in our work force including disabled people, women, and black, Asian and minority ethnic communities.  

We are committed to equality: if for any reason you have taken a career break or periods of leave that may have impacted on the volume and recency of research outputs, such as maternity, adoption or parental leave, you may wish to disclose this in your application.  We also understand that the Covid-19 pandemic will have had differential impacts on different people and welcome information on this if you wish to share it. The selection committee will recognise that this may have reduced the quantity of your research accordingly 

The University has been awarded the Disability Confident Employer status. If you are a candidate with a disability, we are committed to ensuring fair treatment throughout the recruitment process. We will make adjustments to support the interview process wherever it is reasonable to do so and, where successful, reasonable adjustments will be made to support people within their role.

Person Specification  

Research  

Candidates must have the capacity for and be progressing towards the independent development of internationally excellent research that produces high-quality outcomes, including some work that is recognised as world-class or that has world-class potential.   

Essential Research Criteria 

Education 

Candidates must demonstrate the development and delivery of high-quality teaching that contributes to providing a supportive and enabling learning environment and curricula which encourage students to achieve their potential.

Essential Education Criteria

Service, Citizenship and Values 

Active engagement in the administrative and citizenship requirements of the Department. Positive contributions to University values  and to fostering a respectful environment as well as demonstrating their commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion. 

Essential Services, Citizenship and Values criteria – Grade 8 

Desirable Criteria – Grade 8 

The desirable criteria for this post (for which candidates should provide evidence of some of the criteria) are: 

Contact Information 

Department contact for academic-related enquiries 

For academic enquiries, please contact Professor Tobias Weinzierl by email: [email protected] 

Contact information for technical difficulties when submitting your application 

If you encounter technical difficulties when using the online application form, we prefer you send enquiries by email.  Please send your name along with a brief description of the problem you’re experiencing to [email protected]  

Alternatively, you may call 0191 334 6801 from the UK, or +44 191 334 6801 from outside the UK. This number operates during the hours of 09.00 and 17.00 Monday to Friday, UK time.  We will normally respond within one working day (Monday to Friday, excluding UK public holidays).  

How to Apply  

We prefer to receive applications online.    

Please note that in submitting your application, we will be processing your data.  We would ask you to consider the relevant University Privacy Statement https://www.dur.ac.uk/ig/dp/privacy/pnjobapplicants/  which provides information on the collation, storing and use of data.  

If you are unable to complete your application via our recruitment system, please get in touch with us on [email protected] .  

What to Submit 

All applicants are asked to submit: 

• A CV  

• A covering letter which details your experience, strengths and potential in the requirements set out above; 

• Personal research plan. 

• 2 of your most significant pieces of written work.  Where possible your written work should have been published or submitted since 2020, however work prior to 2020 may be submitted where candidates have had career breaks. 

• An EDI & values statement – (of no more than 500 words) which outlines work which you have been involved in which demonstrates your commitment to EDI and our values. I.e. Involvement in quality, diversity, and inclusion activities such as mentoring, volunteering, or attending conferences 

Where possible we request that you provide accessible web links to your publications, which the hiring Department will use to access your work.  The application form contains fields in which to enter each of the web links. Please note we are unable to access publications behind a paywall.   

In the event you are unable to provide accessible links to online hosting of your work, your work should be uploaded as PDFs as part of your application in our recruitment system. Please ensure that your PDFs are not  larger than 5mb. Please note that your work may be read by colleagues from across the Department and evaluated against the current REF criteria;  

Please save all application documents with your name and document type as PDF files. 

We will notify you on the status of your application at various points throughout the selection process, via automated emails from our e-recruitment system.  Please check your spam/junk folder periodically to ensure you receive all emails.  

Referees 

You should provide 3 academic referees they should not (if possible) include your PhD supervisor(s).  The majority should be from a University other than your own (save for early career applicants applying for their first post). 

References will be requested for candidates who have been shortlisted and will be made available to the panel during the interview process. 

As part of your application, you will be asked whether you give your consent to your academic references being sought should you be invited to attend an interview. We will only request references where permission has been granted.  

Next Steps 

All applications will be considered; our usual practice is for colleagues across the Department to read the submitted work of long-listed candidates.   

Short-listed candidates will be invited to the University, either virtually or in-person and will have the opportunity to meet key members of the Department.  The assessment for the post will normally include a presentation to staff and students in the Department followed by an interview and we anticipate that the assessments and interviews will take place over two days: 5 and 6 June. 

In the event that you are unable to attend in person or virtually on the date offered, it may not be possible to offer you an interview on an alternative date. 

Applicant Guidance  

For further guidance on your application please see HERE