Professor in Remote Sensing and GIS for Atmospheric Emission Monitoring and Modelling

The Department of Environmental Science at Aarhus University, Roskilde, Denmark invites applications for a position as Professor in Remote Sensing and GIS for atmospheric emission monitoring and modelling. The position is to be filled by June 1, 2025, or as soon as possible thereafter. This is subject to negotiation.

Description of the position
The professor will be expected to expand and develop a high-quality research capacity within remote sensing and GIS to support atmospheric emission inventories and related research capacities in our Department. The candidate is expected to contribute with research within land use/land cover and vegetation monitoring in relation to the Land use, Land use change, and Forestry (LULUCF) and agricultural sector and/or air pollution monitoring on basis of ground based, airborne and/or satellite data.

The selected candidate is expected to:

• Conduct and publish internationally recognized research within remote sensing and GIS related to atmospheric emissions e.g. within LULUCF and agricultural sector and/or direct emission monitoring through remotely sensed data sources
• Take an active part in developing and enhancing interdisciplinary research collaboration within the department as well as national and international partners
• Contribute to consolidate and develop a group within remote sensing and GIS in the department
• Actively contribute to the project portfolio in the department by taking part in applications for externally funded research and advisory projects
• Contribute to talent development through externally funded projects
• Contribute to the department’s advisory activities of Danish authorities as well as private companies
• Opportunity to contribute to teaching (online and, when possible, teaching at other AU departments)
• The professor is expected to develop an extramural funded research group.

Qualifications/profile
Candidates should hold scientific qualifications at the professor level with at least 10 years of highly productive postgraduate research and be at least associated professor/senior researcher when applying. A proven research experience within remote sensing and GIS preferable with focus on land use/land cover monitoring and/or monitoring of atmospheric emissions is expected. A significant track record of successful external research funding, as well as a significant publication record in high-quality, international, peer-reviewed ISI journals are required.
Moreover, candidates are expected to have:

• Strong qualifications within remote sensing, including preferable experiences within e.g. machine learning, AI and convolutional neural networks
• Solid skills within GIS, including standard software, such as ArcGIS, QGIS, etc. and programming in R and python
• Experience in big data analysis and modelling and knowledge of spatial database programming and data handling in SQL, such as Microsoft SQL Server, PostgreSQL, etc.

Good communication skills and experience in cooperation with users and political decision makers are an advantage.
A demonstrated research leadership and ability to define and manage large research projects is required as well as a demonstrated ability to successfully supervise postdocs, PhD students and Master students. Experience in management of consultancy/advisory projects and public outreach is desirable as well as an interest in delivering high-quality undergraduate/graduate/lifelong teaching.

The successful applicant must have proven extensive international and national research collaboration (e.g. joint papers and proposals) and the ability to provide inspiration and guidance for fellow researchers and colleagues. Furthermore, the candidate is expected to be enthusiastic about working in an interdisciplinary academic environment with a strong focus on research-based public advisory project execution. In addition, the successful candidate will need to demonstrate the potential to be a strong role model for values of equality, diversity and inclusion. The position, therefore, requires a highly motivated scientist who is comfortable working in teams and believes in creating an attractive work/life balance in her/his research group.

If the native language of the candidate is not Danish, then the candidate is expected to learn Danish, among others, to be able to support advisory services.

Department of Environmental Science
The Department of Environmental Science (ENVS) is an interdisciplinary department under the Faculty of Technical Sciences at Aarhus University. The expertise of the department ranges from physics, chemistry, microbiology, social science, geography and environmental economics, to policy analysis. Basic as well as applied research activities are conducted on some of the major challenges facing society, such as pollution and pollution control mechanisms, management of land, soil, water, air and biodiversity, protection of biodiversity and ecosystem services, and climate change. Advisory services within these areas are offered to ministries and other authorities. Currently, about 140 staff, postdocs and PhD students are working in the department. The department has a very collaborative environment and all employers collaborate to attract the research and advisory projects that finance more than 70% of the department’s income. The department values equality, diversity and inclusion, and strives to create an attractive work/life balance. The department does not have the responsibility for organising a master's education programme within environmental science, and hence the teaching opportunities are limited.

At ENVS, spatial modelling and GIS are being applied in various fields, such as analyses of exposure to air pollution, noise modelling and assessment of land use dynamics. Current applications of Remote Sensing include:

• Mapping of albedo of the Greenland Ice Sheet
• Potential for detection of changes in Danish greenhouse gas emissions based on satellite data
• Vegetation and biomass monitoring based on LiDAR data
• Use of satellite data for data assimilation within air pollution.

The selected candidate will be affiliated with the Section for Atmospheric Emissions & Modelling. The section includes three groups: Atmospheric Emissions, Atmospheric Modelling, and Climate Modelling. The research in the section is targeted towards an understanding of the fundamental atmospheric processes: emissions, transport, chemical conversion, dispersion and deposition of air pollution. The section broadly develops, tests, and applies global and hemispheric to local-scale air pollution models, that integrate with environmental and health impacts, socio-economic impacts and climate change. It provides state-of-the-art capacity in Denmark for research, development, application, teaching and decision support within the area of air pollution and climate modelling, as well as integrated environmental and health assessment modelling. The work takes place in close collaboration with other sections in the department working with topics like atmospheric emissions, atmospheric measurements (routine monitoring as well as field studies), environmental economics, environmental social science, and environmental geography.
The position is affiliated with the Group of Atmospheric Emissions. The expertise within the Group of Atmospheric Emissions includes:

• Responsible for estimating and reporting the official emissions of air pollution and greenhouse gases from all Danish sources and sectors. The inventories include all pollutants covered by international reporting obligations most notably the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution (LRTAP) under the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe.
• The emission inventories follow agreed international guidelines and form the basis of compliance checking of Denmark’s international obligations related to emissions.
• Preparation of emission projections for Denmark’s official submissions to the above-mentioned conventions as well as relevant EU directives and regulations.
• Maintenance and refinement of a model for spatial distribution of emissions – the SPREAD model. The model is a high-resolution model designed to provide high-quality input to air quality modelling (SPREAD).
• Experts from the group participate in a range of other both research- and advisory-oriented projects.

Work location
The place of work will be at Aarhus University, Campus Roskilde (RISØ), Frederiksborgvej 399, 4000 Roskilde, Denmark, and the area of employment is Aarhus University with related departments. The city of Roskilde (www.roskilde.dk) is located approx. 30 km from Copenhagen. The area provides immediate access to a wealth of cultural and recreational pursuits.

International candidates may find information concerning living and working in Denmark at www.workindenmark.dk. Aarhus University offers a wide variety of services for international researchers and accompanying families, including a Relocation Service and an Expat Partner Programme

Further information
Further information may be obtained by contacting the Head of Section; Emission and Atmospheric Modelling, Senior Researcher Steen Solvang Jensen [email protected] +45 3018 3127 or Head of Department, Professor Carsten Suhr Jacobsen [email protected] +45 8715 8701.

Deadline
All applications must be made online and received by: January 19, 2025.

Application procedure
Shortlisting is used. This means that after the deadline for applications – and with the assistance from the assessment committee chairman, and the assessment committee if necessary, – the head of department selects the candidates to be evaluated. The selection is made on the basis of an assessment of who of the candidates are most relevant considering the requirements of the advertisement. All applicants will be notified within 6 weeks whether or not their applications have been sent to an expert assessment committee for evaluation. The selected applicants will be informed about the composition of the committee and will receive his/her assessment. Once the recruitment process is completed a final letter of rejection is sent to the deselected applicants.

Letter of reference
If you want a referee to upload a letter of reference on your behalf, please state the referee’s contact information when you submit your application. We strongly recommend that you make an agreement with the person in question before you enter the referee’s contact information, and that you ensure that the referee has enough time to write the letter of reference before the application deadline.
Unfortunately, it is not possible to ensure that letters of reference received after the application deadline will be taken into consideration.

Formalities and salary range
Technical Sciences refers to the Ministerial Order on the Appointment of Academic Staff at Danish Universities under the Danish Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation.

The application must be in English and include a curriculum vitae, degree certificate, a complete list of publications, a statement of future research plans and information about research activities, teaching portfolio and verified information on previous teaching experience (if any). Guidelines for applicants can be found here.

Appointment shall be in accordance with the collective labour agreement between the Danish Ministry of Taxation and the Danish Confederation of Professional Associations. Further information on qualification requirements and job content may be found in the Memorandum on Job Structure for Academic Staff at Danish Universities.

Salary depends on seniority as agreed between the Danish Ministry of Taxation and the Confederation of Professional Associations.

Aarhus University’s ambition is to be an attractive and inspiring workplace for all and to foster a culture in which each individual has opportunities to thrive, achieve and develop. We view equality and diversity as assets, and we welcome all applicants.

Research activities will be evaluated in relation to actual research time. Thus, we encourage applicants to specify periods of leave without research activities, in order to be able to subtract these periods from the span of the scientific career during the evaluation of scientific productivity.

Aarhus University offers a broad variety of services for international researchers and accompanying families, including relocation service and career counselling to expat partners. Read more here. Please find more information about entering and working in Denmark here.

The application must be submitted via Aarhus University’s recruitment system, which can be accessed under the job advertisement on Aarhus University's website.

Aarhus University
Aarhus University is an academically diverse and research-intensive university with a strong commitment to high-quality research and education and the development of society nationally and globally. The university offers an inspiring research and teaching environment to its 38,000 students (FTEs) and 8,300 employees, and has an annual revenues of EUR 935 million. Learn more at www.international.au.dk/

Department: Atmosfæriske Emissioner og Modelle/Atmospheric Emissions & Modelling

Deadline: 19 January 2025

Location: Roskilde Frederiksborgvej 399