Stanford
Urban Resilience Initiative

SURI Postdoctoral Scholar position

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The Stanford Urban Resilience Initiative (SURI) seeks a Postdoctoral Scholar to join its community. SURI is working to tackle one of the major global challenges of this century: ensuring that our communities–increasingly urban, complex, and interconnected–cope with and even thrive in the face of natural perils. SURI has active research in urban and regional scale risk analysis, multi-hazard risk analysis, modeling human impacts and post-disaster recovery process, and utilization of novel technologies to enhance resilience. Additionally, SURI has established a network of stakeholders, including private firms, city governments, and international development institutions. The Postdoctoral Scholar will help extend these activities, partner with stakeholders, and support programming on campus.

Duties

  • 40% - Project management and coordination. Work with senior SURI members to develop strategic research direction and timelines. Identify potential funding opportunities and support grant application writing. Coordinate engagement efforts to promote collaborations and improve the uptake and impact of the work.
  • 40% - Research activities. Develop and refine science-based metrics and methodologies for urban resilience assessment. This work will involve collaboration with other SURI research students and personal research aligned with SURI’s areas of focus.
  • 20% - Coordination of other SURI outreach activities, including on-campus events, workshops, seminars, and other networking opportunities. The work will be based in the Blume Earthquake Engineering Research Center. Some travel to stakeholder meetings will be required. Additional travel to partners or for conferences is possible.

Minimum Requirements

  • Ph.D. in engineering, geosciences, urban planning, sustainability, or data science.
  • Experience with disaster risk reduction research or practice. 
  • Success working with collaborative teams.
  • Excellent written and oral communication skills. 
  • Interest in working with interdisciplinary research teams.
  • Interest in risk and resilience analysis.

 

Desired Qualifications

  • Experience supervising undergraduate or graduate researchers. 
  • Experience writing research grant applications. 
  • Experience with software such as R, Python, Matlab, and GIS tools 
  • Experience facilitating workshops and meetings.
  • Familiarity with urban resilience literature and current practices. 

  • Familiarity with risk analysis practice by catastrophe risk modeling firms and the insurance industry. 

     

The initial appointment will be for one year, with the possibility of renewal for up to three years, subject to performance and funding availability.

In addition to a competitive salary, the postdoc will have access to university benefits and Stanford University Postdoctoral Association resources.

Interested candidates should apply at Application Link by uploading their CV, a list of references, and a cover letter describing why they are interested in the position and how they envision contributing to SURI. Review of applicants will begin on January 22nd and continue until the position is filled.

 

Stanford is an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.