Two research positions open in environmental risk assessment and tracking carbon stocks (closing 5th April 2022)

We are looking for two highly motivated post-doctoral researchers with a demonstrated track record of developing forecasts of environmental risk to carbon stocks and sequestration levels in nature-based systems. The successful candidates have an excellent publication record, knowledge of state-of-the-art research and computing methodologies, enthusiastic about working with colleagues from different disciplines, and with an interest in addressing real-world problems. 

There are two roles open, both closing on the 5th April 2022:

• You will help to develop a standardised approach to forecast the expected permanence in carbon stocks of nature-based projects, as influenced by human activities, climate change, and other disturbance events. You will stochastically extend an existing deterministic difference-in-difference analysis so that it can be used to estimate the expected permanence of nature-based carbon stores and credits derived from them. The modelling will involve combining a variety of different risks, from climate change to the socio-economic drivers of deforestation, and how these are modified through project interventions. Your work will necessitate foundational work on risk-modelling and its application to our automated system for generating and valuing carbon credits. More details at: https://www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/33909/

• You will assess and track changes in carbon stocks working with other research groups and private sector partners. You will bring together appropriate, trusted primary observations from ground-based surveys with remote sensing datasets to measure and track carbon stocks through time. The contexts would include key ecosystems, such as forests and peatlands. The data products should scale to the global level and will be used as an input to our automated system for generating carbon credits. More details at: https://www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/33926/

The roles are based in the Department of Plant Sciences' Forest Ecology Group with Professor David Coomes and Dr Tom Swinfield, as well as the 4C team. You will be based in the Cambridge Conservation Initiative's campus in the David Attenborough Building; a global hub which brings together over 500 conservation researchers, practitioners and policy makers from across the University and 9 different conservation organisations.