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Postdoctoral Scholar - Climate Change and Health Adaptation

Position Overview

Organization: Global Health- SOM

Title: Postdoctoral Scholar - Climate Change and Health Adaptation

Position Details

Position Description

Researchers and practitioners at the University of Washington (UW) Center for Health and the Global Environment (CHanGE) seek a postdoctoral researcher to support research tracking progress on adaptation to climate change in the health sector in the US and globally. CHanGE is an interdisciplinary center in the UW Schools of Medicine and Public Health with the mission of prioritizing health in climate change mitigation and adaptation and incorporating climate resilience into all health sector activities. CHanGE collaborates with a wide range of partners domestically and globally in pursuit of its mission, and the postdoctoral scholar will support CHanGE activities focused on adaptation in the health sector.

Specifically, CHanGE seeks a scholar who will support research on metrics, indicators, evaluation, and implementation in climate change and health adaptation through two efforts: an assessment of domestic health adaptation activities through the Climate Measurements Center of Excellence, and tracking and evaluation of global health adaptation efforts through Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change.

The Climate Measurements Center of Excellence is a new center, sponsored by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology, housed at the University of Vermont, with which CHanGE is partnered. The Center's aims are to develop standardized methods and measurements for climate impacts and adaptation in the food, health, and water sectors; create climate impact assessment frameworks, toolkits, and best practices that can be used by communities and other sub-national jurisdictions to inform local policies and decision-making; and to serve as an information and expertise hub for subnational climate assessments in the US. The postdoctoral scholar will assist with the Center's activities focused on the health sector, including engagement with the public health community to develop and track indicators of climate change adaptation at the state and local levels.

The Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change is an independent, international research collaboration that tracks the evolving links between health and climate change globally, regionally, and nationally, in partnership with The Lancet and the World Health Organization. Its aim is to inform a robust response to climate change that protects and promotes human health. The Countdown brings together almost 300 researchers from nearly 100 universities, research institutions, and UN agencies world-wide within its global and its six regional centers. CHanGE is leading the Countdown's Working Group on Adaptation, Planning, and Resilience. The postdoctoral scholar will support this Working Group, one of five, working on the group's identification, development, evaluation, and reporting of indicators. The scholar will lead efforts to refine and improve the Working Group's indicator framework through a comprehensive scan of the literature and solicitation of expert input. The Postdoctoral Scholar will also lead the development of novel indicators and expansion of existing ones, coordinate academic contributions from other Working Group members, and ensure the delivery of the Working Group's section for the annual global indicator report.

The post will play a critical role in researching and evaluating the rapidly growing area of climate change adaptation in the health sector domestically and globally and inform ongoing national and international assessments of health sector adaptation activities through the development and tracking of robust indicators of intervention activities, their evaluation, implementation, and related inputs and supports.

We are interested in a researcher that will support these projects and support critical new lines of inquiry regarding indicators of climate change adaptation in the health sector; metrics describing adaptation activities and their impacts; strategies for evaluating adaptation policies and programs and their impacts at various scales; and linkage of these activities with ongoing domestic and global assessments and support activities such as the US National Climate Assessment; the Lancet Countdown annual global, regional, and country reports; and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessment reports. The ideal candidate is analytical, organized, and collaborative with expert knowledge related to climate change adaptation in the health sector, its indicators and metrics, implementation science, policy, or related areas. A passion for research, a demonstrable capacity to work in highly interdisciplinary environments, creativity, and collegiality are essential.

The successful candidate for this position will be expected to demonstrate:

• Excellent analytic, critical thinking, and quantitative skills
• Understanding of multi-sectoral drivers of climate change and varied impacts of climate changes on people
• Experience of processing, integrating and analyzing large quantitative or qualitative data sets
• Ability to think laterally and integrate knowledge from different disciplines
• Articulate, quick learner and problem-solving
• Commitment to fostering an inclusive, respectful and welcoming community
• Good interpersonal skills and ability to work as part of a team and to work independently with minimal direction when required
• Record of devising and executing research projects
• Excellent written and oral communication skills, including track record of success in co-authorship on multiple scientific papers, presenting results, and representing research at meetings
• A long-term interest in contributing to the overall mission of our research

Additional qualities for this position include:

• Expertise with optimization, data science, and analytic techniques, including time series analysis
• Record of mentoring or developing junior employees on soft and technical skills
• Advanced experience developing code in Python and R, and familiarity modeling with multi-dimensional arrays
• Demonstrated expertise with project management methods
• Peer-reviewed publication record
• Successful completion of several high-quality research papers

Responsibilities

• Work closely with the PI and collaborators as an academic leader, including the provision of support and structure through coordination of periodic meetings, agenda setting, note taking, and dissemination for productive intellectual engagement; identifying areas for alignment across activities within CHanGE and across the efforts of its collaborators domestically and globally; and enabling equality in the contribution of CHanGE partners in all activities
• Support the development of a research platform to develop metrics and indicators of climate change adaptation in the health sector in the US; develop and implement methods for tracking selected indicators with public health practice partners at federal, state, county, city, and Tribal levels; support the integration of these research activities into the broader efforts of the Climate Measurements Center of Excellence
• Support the contribution of the Countdown's Adaptation Working Group to the annual global Lancet Countdown reports by drafting the Working Group section of the report; acting as a core contributor to the reports' introduction, conclusion, and section panels; informing collaborators of relevant processes and deadlines; and supporting Working Group convenings, meetings, and reporting requirements
• Support and co-lead the review of the Lancet Countdown's indicator framework for the Adaptation Working Group, by working with collaborators to review the latest literature on climate change and health adaptation; liaise with the Countdown's policy and stakeholder engagement team to incorporate stakeholder priorities in indicator frameworks; and identify key gaps and priorities for indicator development to help inform funding priorities.
• Working with Countdown collaborators to improve the consistency between indicators, providing for common baselines and data sets where possible, identifying common assumptions, and promoting common reporting; supporting the collection of indicator data, following guidelines from the Countdown's Executive Team, and undertaking quality assurance and data checking tasks
• Develop and refine global indicators for the Adaptation Working Group's section of the Countdown's annual report by implementing the Working Group's research strategy, including development of a robust intellectual framework, open calls for indicators, and continued indicator quality improvement and quality control; supporting the development of indicators through white papers and independent indicator review; and drafting and publishing academic pieces providing quantitative analyses relevant to the Adaptation Working Group's activities
• Support regional Adaptation Working Group teams in the incorporation of global indicators to regional reports by providing editorial support to regional reports and supporting cohesiveness across regional reports
• Lead further academic outputs of the Adaptation Working Group, including by undertaking research and related activities within, and in support of, the overall adaptation research program at CHanGE, the Countdown, and the Climate Measurements Center of Excellence, among other potential collaborative efforts, and according to the candidate's own career progression trajectory, and supporting grant writing and other fundraising efforts related to these activities
• Interact with and support the wider Lancet Countdown on Climate Change and Health project by supporting development of indicators that interact across several themes, liaise with other Working Groups to support alignment across the enterprise and enable cross-Working Group analyses; working with the collaboration's communications and policy engagement teams to ensure global indicators can be translated to the national level in the form of country policy briefs, national communications assets, and data visualizations; and leading the development of specific tools and products, including slides, website text, and curation and sharing of data files
• Carry out any other duties as are within the scope, spirit, and purpose of the job as requested

Conditions of employment:

This position is eligible for visa sponsorship through the UW.

Postdoctoral Scholar appointments are initially for 12-months with opportunities