BRGM (French Geological Survey)

BRGM, the French geological survey, is France’s leading public institution for Earth Science applications for the management of surface and sub-surface resources with a view to sustainable development.

Its work contributes to the sustainable development of territories, taking into account all associated risks, and to the optimal use of subsurface resources and properties.

As a partner to a wide range of public and private stakeholders, BRGM combines scientific research, support for public policy and international cooperation.

Its activity meets 4 objectives:

• understanding geological phenomena and related risks,
• developing new techniques and methodologies,
• producing and distributing data for surface, subsurface and resource management,
• providing the tools required to manage the surface, subsurface and resources, prevent risks and pollution, and manage policies in response to climate change.

Homepage: https://www.brgm.fr

A 1-year postdoc position is now available at the Energy Direction of BRGM (French Geological Survey) in Orléans, France. The position contributes to the ANR project IM-SURF (Impact et Mitigation des ondes sismiques de SURFace sur les structures 3D de grandes dimensions, 2024-2028), focusing on the seismic data collection and synthetic seismograms for the engineering study from the recent earthquakes (e.g. 2023 Turkey, 2024 Noto-Japan earthquakes).

Job description

It is important to learn the ground motion behaviors including both body waves and surface waves on a large band of frequency. The purpose of this postdoc is to enrich the database of surface waves from the recent earthquakes as well as to provide broad-band synthetic seismograms. The broad-band seismograms are usually generated by a combination of a deterministic low frequency part and a stochastic high frequency component. We target principally two recent earthquakes; 2023 Turkish sequences and 2024 Noto, Japan, earthquake, for which ground motion data are abundantly available. The postdoc will contribute to the project from the seismological analysis and numerical simulations for providing input ground motions for the other tasks brought by GDS (Géodynamique & Structure), CentraleSupélec and ENSTA. The position also includes the following: Construction of database from the observation and synthetics, processing the time-series data for the partners and the redaction of a scientific paper.

The application must include a letter of motivation, a CV, a list of publications, copies of any individual publications relevant to the position. A summary of the PhD work and an individual research plan might be enclosed to judge the candidate’s qualification and adaptability.

Please send your application via BRGM’s website www.brgm.fr under Jobs and Education. In advance, the candidates are invited to contact directly Hideo Aochi by email. We will begin reviewing the applications from 14th October 2025 until the position is fulfilled.