Postdoctoral Researcher, Data Assimilation, Faculty of Water, Energy, and Environmental Engineering

Postdoctoral Researcher, Data Assimilation, Faculty of Water, Energy, and Environmental Engineering Faculty of Technology, Water, Energy and Environmental Engineering

The University of Oulu is a multidisciplinary, international research university, with about 4000 employees who produce new knowledge based on high-standards research and provide research based education to build a more sustainable, smarter, and more humane world. The University of Oulu community has about 17,000 people in total. Our northern scientific community operates globally and creates conditions for the emergence of innovations.

We are now looking for

to join us in the Research unit at the Faculty of Water, Energy, and Environmental Engineering (WE3)

The Water, Energy and Environmental Engineering research unit carries out research on land, water and energy resources, systems and their interaction. Our research team has 120 members in 5 research groups with a strong focus on various aspects of water engineering, including hydrological modelling, cold climate hydrology, hydrological process studies, groundwater research, water quality, water management, water supply, treatment, and protection. In hydrology, the research includes studies at our research stations and super sites in Finland with a unique and developing infrastructure.

We are active in interdisciplinary studies in Finland and different regions abroad, with studies on climate, land, energy and water analysis, modelling and management. We lead a large scale and long-term Finnish research and impact Flagship on Digital Waters to which this position is linked. In the flagship, we also include expert teams in ICT technologies and teams working on water, land and environmental digital applications.

Our research is highly ranked in an international comparison.

You will work in the Digital Waters (DIWA) Flagship research area, developing its research and innovation actions in collaboration with various international and national research projects and partners. The work involves the development of digital solutions with focus on data assimilation combining monitoring, modelling and data management in the process of creating digital twins. You will also collaborate and assist in doctoral education and research alongside other senior staff and professors.

Some teaching and supervision of graduate students may also be considered.

The primary objectives at DIWA are to develop a digital twin platform for water management systems, to explore various use cases related to water, employing physics-based and data-driven approaches to create models for detection, prediction, prescription, and proactive maintenance, and to integrate additional analyses and models into our digital twin services (such as what-if analysis) in the future. The Digital Twin Platform objectives are to allow researchers to share their data and developed models for water resource related use cases in a systematic and accessible manner, and to provide digital twin services for showcasing and technical pilot purposes.

We are looking for a talented researcher with a strong background in earth system science (e.g. hydrology, geosciences, environmental engineering, or a closely related field) with demonstrated expertise in data assimilation methods and their application to hydrologic or Earth system models. You should have experience integrating process-based models with AI or machine learning approaches, proficiency in scientific programming (e.g., Python), geoscientific computing workflows and workflow automation, large data handling, and high-performance computing (HPC).

Familiarity with remote sensing products, novel sensor networks, and the development of operational or near-real-time environmental forecasting systems is highly desirable. Ideally you are a clear communicator who can work across disciplinary boundaries, contributing to the design and implementation of scalable, operational data assimilation systems that integrate diverse observational data streams into large-scale hydrosphere models.

Core responsibilities:

• Work in a strong team of geoscientists and programmers focused on digitalization in water resources research and management.
• Develop and manage different types of interrelated solutions for environmental monitoring, data handling, data fusion, and modeling, within a single interoperable digital platform.
• Broader project management duties including collaboration and communication with international and national partner research projects and entities.

Optional responsibilities:

• Teach, supervise, and otherwise participate in the research and education of graduate students.

We offer you an interesting and versatile position being part of a large digital water research cluster(digitalwaters.fi),comprised of over 200 experts in information technology, water and hydrological research. You will have the opportunity to develop professionally…