Lancaster University

Lancaster University is a high-ranked, research-led university on the outskirts of the historic city of Lancaster. The Northwest of England offers high standards of living, beautiful countryside, and excellent national and international transport connections.

Lancaster Environment Centre is the largest department at Lancaster University and is a friendly community of world-class researchers addressing today’s biggest environmental challenges.

Homepage: https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/lec/

Lancaster Environment Centre is seeking to appoint a Senior Research Associate for the project Determination of Tropical Oxidising Capacity through model calibration (DeTOX). This is a full-time post with funding for up to 42 months. We would like someone to start in January 2026 or as soon as possible thereafter.

The DeTOX project aims to advance our understanding of atmospheric oxidation in the tropics to improve projections of future atmospheric composition in response to climate change and tropical development. The project will provide the first rigorous constraints on oxidation by bringing together observations and global atmospheric models using innovative statistical and machine-learning approaches. It aims for the first clear attribution of how uncertainty in different physical, chemical and meteorological processes influences our understanding of atmospheric oxidation, and fresh insight into how oxidation may change in future. The project is led from Lancaster, drawing on expertise in atmospheric modelling and data science, and involves partners at six UK institutions and collaborators in the US.

The successful candidate will develop and apply the FRSGC/UCI chemistry transport model to quantify the impacts of key processes on oxidants in the tropics. They will collate a comprehensive suite of observations to constrain models and will run perturbed parameter ensembles with the model to inform calibration. The calibrated model will be used to investigate how tropospheric composition is likely to change in future.

We are keen to hear from candidates who have a PhD in atmospheric science or a closely related discipline, experience in developing and applying atmospheric models, and strong skills in programming and data analysis using R, Python or similar languages.

This position is based in the Atmospheric Science research group at the Lancaster Environment Centre. The group has a strong national and international track record in measurements and modelling, with expertise in air quality, biogenic emissions, halocarbons, atmospheric oxidation and climate change.

Please visit: https://hr-jobs.lancs.ac.uk/Vacancy.aspx?ref=0801-25