Postdoctoral Research Associate in Hazards and Disaster Research

Position description

The Natural Hazards Center in the Institute of Behavioral Science at the University of Colorado Boulder seeks a Postdoctoral Research Associate for a full-time, 12-month position, with benefits, that can begin as early as January 1, 2018. The initial appointment will be for one year, with the possibility of renewal for a second year, contingent on satisfactory performance.

The person who is hired for this position will assist in the development of two new platforms and corresponding networks—Social Science Extreme Events Reconnaissance (SSEER) and Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Extreme Events Reconnaissance (ISEEER). SSEER and ISEEER will be designed to help researchers respond to and overcome long-standing challenges to rapid research and identify new opportunities for the advancement of the hazards and disaster field. The ultimate vision for the work is to prepare individual researchers and interdisciplinary teams to carry out extreme events rapid reconnaissance research that is coordinated, comprehensive, coherent, ethical, and scientifically rigorous. The Postdoctoral Research Associate will work under the direct supervision of Professor Lori Peek, who is the Principal Investigator for this National Science Foundation-funded project.

Qualifications

The successful candidate will contribute to the development of the SSEER and ISEEER platforms by drawing upon insights from the science of team science (SciTS) and leveraging databases and information resources available through the Natural Hazards Center at the University of Colorado Boulder to build the capacity of the social science, engineering, and interdisciplinary hazards and disaster research communities. Specifically, the candidate will be expected to contribute by assisting with the following activities: (1) identifying, cataloguing, and mapping researchers from a range of disciplines engaged in hazards and disaster research; (2) coordinating those researchers in the event of a major disaster; (3) developing research frameworks and ethical guidance for social science and interdisciplinary disaster research; (4) cataloging existing research protocols, instruments, validated scales and measures, and secondary data sets; and (5) convening social scientists, engineers, and scholars working in the science of team science to inform the project and advance the science and practice of rapid reconnaissance research.

Ideally, the successful candidate will have demonstrated quantitative and qualitative methodological skills; data visualization expertise; experience working with large data sets; a strong interest in natural hazards research and/or the science of team science; and experience with disaster reconnaissance field studies. A Ph.D. in a related social science, engineering, or interdisciplinary area of study is required at time of appointment.