Utrecht University, Faculty of Geosciences, Department of Earth Sciences

Utrecht University (UU) plays a prominent role in our society and contributes to finding the answers to topical and future societal issues. UU’s Faculty of Geosciences offers education and research concerning the geosphere, biosphere, atmosphere and hydrosphere. With a population of 3,400 students (BSc and MSc) and 720 staff, the Faculty is a strong and challenging organisation. The Faculty is organised in four Departments: Earth Sciences, Physical Geography, Sustainable Development, and Human Geography & Spatial Planning.

The Department of Earth Sciences is the largest academic earth sciences institute in the Netherlands and among the larger ones in Europe. The department conducts teaching and research across the full range of the solid Earth and environmental Earth sciences. The profile of the department is rooted in the core disciplines of geochemistry, mineralogy, geology, geophysics, (marine) biogeosciences and hydrogeology. Crossing these boundaries, the department’s main focus is on four major aspects of the natural Earth: Climate & Life, Earth’s Interior, Earth Materials, and Environmental Earth Sciences.

The department hosts a highly international tenured staff of over 50 scientists and more than 110 PhD students and postdoctoral researchers. We host or have access to advanced laboratory facilities. Utrecht’s Geolab houses a wide variety of analytical and experimental facilities, including well-equipped stable isotope and (organic) geochemistry laboratories, and a porous media lab. The micro-analytical facilities include, among others, a nano-SIMS, a laser-ablation ICP-MS system, electron microprobe, micro-XRF, AFM, Raman and IR spectroscopy instruments. The adjacent Earth Simulation Lab houses our High Pressure & Temperature and Tectonics laboratories, as well as several microscope facilities. Moreover, the department also has a world-class Paleomagnetic laboratory, several flume facilities, as well as excellent High-Performance Computing facilities.

About Utrecht
The department is located at the Utrecht Science Park. Utrecht is the fourth largest city in the Netherlands with a population of nearly 360,000 and forms a hub in the middle of the country. Its historical city centre and its modern central station can easily be reached from the Science Park by public transport or by a 15-minute bicycle ride. Utrecht boasts beautiful canals with extraordinary wharf cellars housing cafés and terraces by the water, as well as a broad variety of shops and boutiques.

Homepage: https://www.uu.nl/geo/aw

The department of Earth Sciences at UU is looking for an enthusiastic and ambitious colleague in the field of Integrated Stratigraphy to further strengthen our Earth Science programme in terms of research and teaching. As our new assistant professor you are expected to develop your own, collaborative, research line within our broad research theme on Climate & Life.

This theme focuses primarily on sediments and biological remains both on land and in the oceans to reconstruct past climate and environmental changes. From these, we learn that Earth’s climate shows strong varying conditions with sometimes catastrophic events that impacted on Earth’s life and ecosystems. Special emphasis is on improving geological time scales using an integrated stratigraphic approach, so that we can determine more precisely how fast these global changes occurred. For your research and your contribution to our educational programmes you can make use of state-of-the-art (analytical) facilities, including mass spectrometers, XRF, XRD, SEMs, NanoSIMS, Microprobe, and paleomagnetic laboratories.

You will play an essential role in education by inspiring students and developing innovative courses in the BSc programme and MSc programmes of the department, whereby the ability to contribute to fieldwork teaching, and the supervision of early career scientists such as PhD candidates and postdocs. On average, the department targets at equal contributions to educational activities and research for all its tenured academic staff, ideally resulting in about 40% teaching duties, 40% research and 20% of other activities (management tasks, committee work, etc.).

Qualifications
You have a strong record of original research within the fields of Integrated Stratigraphy, or you apply stratigraphic principles to other areas within the Earth Sciences. You show evidence of academic independence, creativity, and scientific rigor. You have successfully applied for or have a strong potential to generate research funds. Experience of two to three years, or more, as a postdoctoral researcher is desirable, and we specifically encourage early career researchers to apply.

You are an inspiring teacher to BSc and MSc students and hold a basic teaching qualification or will obtain one in the near future. You will participate in teaching in both our undergraduate (e.g. integrated stratigraphy and absolute dating techniques, Geological fieldwork) and our graduate programmes (e.g. Astronomical Climate Forcing and Time Scales, Geological fieldwork).

We are especially looking for a strong team player with good communication and networking skills. You thrive in a dynamic department and enjoy collaborating with people with different (academic) backgrounds. You easily collaborate with other members of the department of Earth Sciences, both in terms of science, teaching, and organisation.

A prerequisite for this position is that you have a PhD degree in the natural sciences, preferably in Earth Sciences or Biogeosciences. Our selection criteria will include:

• your (teaching) experience in the field of stratigraphy/paleontology/sedimentology;
• your track record of academic research reflected in the quality of your publications;
• your success rate in applying for research grants;
• your communication, presentation, networking and organizational skills;
• your mentorship experience regarding BSc and MSc students and PhD candidates;
• your public outreach activities.

These elements will be weighed against the number of years of academic experience, also considering (parental) leave and part-time appointments.

You are expected to have a very good level of English, both spoken and written. We require a qualification English at C1 level (CEFR or comparable to level 3 of the Lecturer Assessment Grid) or to be prepared to obtain this level by training. As a non-Dutch speaker, you are willing to acquire Dutch language skills. We believe that understanding and speaking Dutch makes it easier to connect with colleagues. Therefore, we offer free Dutch language courses.

Terms of employment
We offer a position (0.8 – 1.0 FTE) as an Assistant Professor for a period of 18 months. After a positive evaluation the position will be made permanent. You will work in a collaborative, social and dedicated team and you will receive guidance. The Faculty of Geosciences has an excellent merit-based career and promotion policy. As part thereof, career development up to Associate Professor (level 2) is possible without a so called ‘formation principle’, yet based on performance.

The gross monthly salary – depending on previous qualifications and experience – ranges between €4,322 and €5,929 (scale 11 according to the Collective Labour Agreement Dutch Universities) for full-time employment. Filling the position 0.8 FTE is optional. Salaries are supplemented with a holiday bonus of 8% and an end-of-year bonus of 8,3% per year. Utrecht University offers excellent secondary conditions, including an attractive retirement scheme, (partly paid) parental leave and flexible employment conditions (multiple choice model). For more information, please visit working at Utrecht University. Facilities for childcare and sports are available on campus.

For informal questions about this position, please contact Professor Dr Lucas Lourens (professor of paleoclimatology), via l.j.lourens@uu.nl.

To apply, please follow this link to go the advertisement on UU’s own website and follow the guidelines mentioned there. The application deadline is January 29th, 2024.

Everyone deserves to feel at home at our university. We welcome employees with a wide variety of backgrounds and perspectives. In the selection process, we will be guided by the quality of the applicants, as well as the diversity of our staff population. Your vision on teaching, research vision and funding potential, as well as your connection to existing activities in the department will specifically be considered by the evaluation committee.

Shortlisted candidates will be invited for an interview with the committee, and also to present their views on research and teaching to the broader department. We intend to organise these interviews in March, perhaps April. The starting date can be as soon as possible after selection, but preferably September 2024 at the latest.

Note that international candidates that need a visa/work permit for the Netherlands require at least four months processing time after selection and acceptance. This will be arranged with help of the International Service Desk of our university. Finding appropriate housing in or near Utrecht is your own responsibility, but the ISD may be able to advise you therewith. The ISD can answer many other questions about living in the Netherlands as international staff. For general questions about working and living in The Netherlands, you can also consult the Dutch Mobility Portal.

Online screening may be part of the selection. Commercial response to this ad is not appreciated.