Introduction

The University of Lausanne (UNIL) is a higher teaching and research institution composed of seven faculties where nearly 17’000 students and 5’000 collaborators, professors, and researchers work and study between the Dorigny campus and the CHUV, Epalinges and Sion sites. As an employer, it encourages excellence, recognition of individuals and responsibility.

Presentation

The Institute of Geography and Sustainability (IGD) seeks to fill a position of SNF Junior (without Doctoral Thesis) or Senior (with Doctoral Thesis) Researcher in Social Science. This position is linked to the research group of Prof. Emmanuel Reynard and the collective “Margins, Environment, Landscapes”, and will be part of the SNF project QUALISCAPE – Assessing tipping points in Baukultur qualities,  https://data.snf.ch/grants/grant/226182, within the National Research Program NRP81 Baukultur,  https://www.nfp81.ch/en.

The IGD is an interdisciplinary community of about 130 academics that work in the fields of Geography and Sustainability. With 27 professors and lecturers, and more than 60 PhD students and Post-docs, the department offers a vibrant, stimulating environment for cutting-edge research. It hosts regular lecture series and distinguished guest researchers from around the world.

Job information

Starting date:01.08.2025

Contract length: 12 to 18 months

Activity rate: 60-100%

Workplace: University of Lausanne, IGD, Sion UNIL Campus, Bramois, Switzerland

The position is organisationally positioned at the Sion Campus of University of Lausanne at the Institute of Geography and Sustainability (IGD), supervised by Prof. Emmanuel Reynard. A work place will be at the Sion campus of University of Lausanne and a close professional and scientific exchange will take place with Dr Roger Keller from the Department of Geography at University of Zurich. As member of the inter- and transdisciplinary research team QUALISCAPES, regular meetings will take place both online and physically (mostly in Bern).

Your responsibilities

Within the project QUALISCAPES, the successful candidate will undertake a research on the links between Baukultur and Sense of Place and Landscape Services. The main tasks will be: a) Reviewing ‘sense of place’ literature and the elements of the eight Baukultur quality criteria (https://www.bak.admin.ch/bak/en/home/baukultur/qualitaet/davos-qualitaetssystem-baukultur.html) that describe ‘sense of place’; b) Literature review of scientific and grey literature (including project reports on real-cases in Switzerland) on Baukultur/landscape qualities and ‘sense of place’, and identify and systematize links between Baukultur qualities in cultural landscapes and sense of place in a broad diversity of landscapes; c) Comparing sense of place Baukultur qualities with descriptions of landscape services (https://landscapeservices.ch) in the Swiss context for identifying similarities and differences; d) Plan and conduct focus group discussions with relevant stakeholders for each of the three demonstrators selected in the QUALISCAPES project; e) Develop landscape narratives to understand people’s different views, values and assumptions about changes (including future changes) in landscapes; these narratives will be used to understand people’s perceptions of changes and their relationship to sense of place in the three demonstrators.

Your qualifications

The successful candidate is expected to have earned a Master degree or a PhD degree in Social Science (geography, sociology, anthropology, (urban) planning, environmental sciences or similar).

Other expected skill are: a) Research experience and/or interest in concepts of ‘sense of place’ and/or landscape services; b) Methodological experiences in applying systematic literature reviews and (qualitative) content analysis of scientific and grey literature in English, and German, French or Italian; c) Knowledge or interest in applying the concept of “landscape narratives” to identify main perceptions of stakeholders regarding landscape qualities and its evolution through time; d) Fluent in English (oral and written), (at least) basic understanding of or openness towards French, German and Italian to interact with stakeholders in the study areas; e) Organizational skills to plan and (co-)lead focus group discussions in three study areas with 10-15 participants; f) Interest and willingness to work in an inter- and transdisciplinary team and to be part of a bigger National Research Programme community.

What the position offers you

We offer a stimulating work environment and atmosphere, with dedicated support for developing an academic career. Members of our research groups become part of international networks and benefit from opportunities to attend conferences and workshops around the world. Salary is based on the salary scale for post-doctoral researchers of the Swiss National Science Foundation (www.snf.ch) and additional funds for fieldwork and conferences are available. Different formation opportunities are possible at UNIL or in Swiss institutions that promote post-doctoral research.

Your application

Application deadline: 05.05.2025 (recruitment interviews will take place on May 19th, 2025)

Please submit the following documents in PDF format only via the career website of the University of Lausanne:

• Letter of motivation;
• Full CV;
• Scans of university degrees and course transcripts/marks;
• The Master or PhD Thesis (and research papers, if available).

Only applications submitted through the official website will be considered.

Contact for further information

Prof. Emmanuel Reynard (emmanuel.reynard@unil.ch)

Dr Roger Keller (roger.keller@geo.uzh.ch)

Additional information

UNIL is committed to:

– Equality, diversity and inclusion within its community;
– Ensuring an open and respectful environment that is conducive to personal development;
– Offering working conditions that facilitate work-life balance;
– Supporting early career researchers.

unil.ch/egalite
unil.ch/familles
unil.ch/graduatecampus

The University of Tübingen is looking for a PhD student (m/f/d, E13 TV-L, 75%) with a master degree in Meteorology, Physics, or Engineering working on Measuring turbulence using UAS in mountains.

The position is embedded in the project ‘HOTSPOT – Horizontal Shear Production Over complex Terrain – Uncrewed Aircraft Measurements of Turbulence for Model Parameterization’ funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) in cooperation with the University of Innsbruck. The overall aim of the project is to use novel uncrewed aircraft systems to measure wind, turbulence and air pollutants in a mountain valley in order to improve numerical weather models in complex terrain, as part of the international TEAMx research programme.

The Environmental Physics group at the University of Tübingen, Germany, studies turbulent atmospheric flows using small automatically operating uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS). Our main interests are the turbulent energy and momentum exchange between the earth surface and the lower atmosphere (boundary layer meteorology), the interaction of turbulent flows with wind turbines and orogra-phy, and aerosol particle transport in the lower atmosphere. We develop fast meteorological sensors (especially for our UAS), calibration methods and software for data analysis.

Currently, we are looking for a PhD student. The tasks for the position in the project include:

• performing flights with the UAS of type multi-rotary on meteorological field campaigns
• development and maintenance of the UAS (with focus on autopilot system, data acquisition, fast response turbulence sensors, aerosol particle samplers)
• analysis of experimental and numerical meteorological data

The position requires a university master degree in the field of atmospheric science, physics, electronics, or informatics with a strong experimental focus and hands-on experience in:

• environmental measurement technology and sensors
• Raspberry Pi, microcontroller
• data analysis and statistics in atmospheric science and fluid dynamics
• UAS / model aircraft operation and control
• machine learning

With its long tradition, the University of Tübingen is one of the most respected universities in Germany and one of Germany’s universities distinguished with the title of excellence. Tübingen has also proven its status as a leading research university in many national and international competitions. With its broad spectrum of subjects, the University of Tübingen provides a wealth of opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration. And such close cooperation on research extends beyond the University and around the world. The University of Tübingen has joint research projects at all levels with other  institutions of higher education, with research institutes and with industry.

The position is available from 1st June 2025 on and will be open until filled. Salary will be according to the German public service (75 % of E13 TV-L). The position is limited to 36 months. In case of equal qualification and experience, physically challenged applicants are given preference. The University of Tübingen aims at increasing the share of women in research and teaching and encourage female scientists to apply.

Please send your application (including application letter, motivation, a statement of research interests, CV, and certificates) in one single PDF file (!) referring to announcement code ‘umphy-2025-HotSpot ’, until 27th April, 2025, by e-mail to PD Dr. Andreas Platis: andreas.platis@uni-tuebingen.de

Click here to download the job description as a pdf file.

The Department of Atmospheric and Cryospheric Sciences (ACINN) at the University of Innsbruck (Austria) invites applications for a PhD position in the field of atmospheric modeling over mountainous terrain.

The PhD student will work in the project “Horizontal shear production over complex terrain – uncrewed aircraft measurements of turbulence for model parameterization (HOTSPOT)”, led by principal investigator Dr. Manuela Lehner. The project is a collaboration between the University of Innsbruck and the University of Tübingen, funded by the Austrian Science Fund FWF and the German Research Foundation DFG. The objectives are to determine (i) the magnitude of horizontal wind shear in the cross section of an Alpine valley compared to vertical wind shear, (ii) whether a state-of-the-art weather model can reproduce the observed horizontal wind shear correctly, (iii) the role of horizontal wind shear for the total turbulence production, and (iv) the importance of including turbulence production from horizontal wind shear in the model for representing the exchange of, for example, moisture and air pollutants in the boundary layer. The PhD student will implement horizontal shear production in the prognostic TKE equation of existing PBL parameterizations to address the above research goals, using data collected during the TEAMx observational campaign in the Austrian Inn Valley for model evaluation, including UAS measurements collected by our project partners from the University of Tübingen.

The project is embedded in the international TEAMx programme which focuses on transport and exchange processes in the atmosphere over mountainous terrain. The PhD student will work closely with the project partners at the University of Tübingen and with other members of the atmospheric turbulence and atmospheric dynamics research groups at ACINN (https://www.uibk.ac.at/en/acinn/).

The position is initially awarded for one year and will be extended to a total duration of 3 years after positive evaluation. The preferred starting date is 1 June 2025 or shortly thereafter. Remuneration will be based on the Austrian collective agreement for university employees (representative gross salary rates are provided by the Austrian Science Fund (https://www.fwf.ac.at/fileadmin/Website/Dokumente/Foerdern/6_Schritte/Weitere_Informationen/fwf_p ersonnel_costs.pdf).

Essential qualifications: Master (or equivalent) degree in Meteorology/Atmospheric Sciences or a related subject; demonstrated proficiency in Python or a similar programming language; excellent oral and written communication skills in English; strong motivation; ability to work independently and in a team.

Assets: Knowledge of the atmospheric boundary layer and of mountain meteorology; experience with numerical weather prediction codes; experience with high-performance computing.

Applications received before Thursday, 1 May 2025, will be given full consideration. The application package should be submitted via e-mail to Manuela Lehner (manuela.lehner@uibk.ac.at) and should include the following information:

• A curriculum vitae;
• A formal letter of motivation, stating your interest and qualifications for the position;
• Degree transcripts and master thesis abstract;
• Contact information for one to three referees.

The University of Innsbruck aims at increasing the proportion of women at all employment levels and therefore encourages applications by qualified women. Candidates who wish to receive further details about the position are welcome to contact Manuela Lehner by e-mail.