项目介绍

2024年12月20日

Your function

We offer an exciting postdoc position in an interdisciplinary research project on the health impacts of extreme weather events. Extreme weather events effect several aspects of human life. One critical area of concern is human health. As climate change increases the frequency of many extreme events, understanding the mechanisms behind these effects becomes crucial. However, most studies about climate-related health impacts focus on specific morbidities or mortality, overlooking the fact that health is multidimensional. Such focus overlooks joint and cumulative effects that are important to overall functionality and well-being of people.

In this project, you will first study different measures of health, beyond mortality, and how they can be used to reflect the diverse effects of climate on health. You will use these measures, weather/climate data and machine learning methodologies to understand how much these different multidimensional aspects of health can be affected by extreme weather events, and how these effects can vary among individuals. Finally, you will create future scenarios of health in line with narratives from the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs), and CMIP6 climate scenarios, to identify vulnerable population hotspots that can be targeted by adequate mitigation policies.

Your duties

• you conduct innovative research on the effects of extreme weather events on multidimensional health
• you use individual-level data and weather/climate data, as well as state-of-the-art machine learning methodologies to estimate the causal link between extreme weather and health
• you publish research results in international peer-reviewed journals and impact-oriented journals
• you contribute to our teaching at BSc and MSc levels

Your profile

• you have a PhD degree in statistics, economics, climate science, AI, computational social sciences or a related discipline
• you have strong quantitative and programming skills
• you have interest in interdisciplinary work
• your experience in statistical modelling, causal analysis and/or AI is highly desirable
• your experience with weather/climate data and spatial analysis and processing is an advantage

We realise that each individual brings a unique set of skills, expertise and mindset. Therefore we are happy to invite anyone who recognises themselves in the profile to apply, even if you do not fully meet all the requirements.

What do we offer?

An exciting postdoc position in a socially-engaged organisation with a supportive project team and an active early-career scientist community. At VU Amsterdam, you contribute to education, research and service for a better world. And that is valuable. So in return for your efforts, we offer you:

• a salary of minimum € 3.378,00 (Scale 10) and maximum € 5.331,00 (Scale 10) gross per month, on a full-time basis. This is based on UFO profile Researcher 4. The exact salary depends on your education and experience.
• a position for at least 0.8 FTE. Your employment contract will initially start with a 1-year contract with the possibility to extend with another 2 years.

We also offer you attractive fringe benefits and regulations. Some examples:

• A full-time 38-hour working week comes with a holiday leave entitlement of 232 hours per year. If you choose to work 40 hours, you have 96 extra holiday leave hours on an annual basis. For part-timers, this is calculated pro rata.
• 8% holiday allowance and 8.3% end-of-year bonus
• solid pension scheme (ABP)
• contribution to commuting expenses
• optional model for designing a personalised benefits package