Jobs:Job-01856
Apply before: 18 August 2025
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Posting:
Position: Postdoctoral Researcher
Apply before: 18 August 2025
|
Along subduction zones, ground motions from megathrust earthquakes pose hazards to lives and infrastructure and are also responsible for a host of secondary hazards, including landslides and liquefaction. Preliminary field experiments and modeling suggest that trees and forests may act as seismic metamaterials, damping seismic waves at particular frequencies. How this process affects and interacts with the Critical Zone and impacts the triggering of coseismic landslides, remains an unexplored question.
We are seeking a postdoctoral seismologist, geomorphologist, or engineer with experience in environmental seismology and seismic data processing to investigate the seismic damping properties of trees and forests. This position is part of an interdisciplinary effort to understand how forest structure affects seismic wave propagation and coseismic landslide triggering, with an initial focus on mountainous landscapes along the Cascadia Subduction Zone. The project will produce data and toolkits relevant to the environmental seismology community as well as related projects with applications for geomorphology, Critical Zone Science, forest management, seismic hazard modeling, and landscape evolution in seismically active regions.
The selected candidate will collaborate with a multidisciplinary team of geomorphologists, seismologists, Critical Zone scientists and engineers across institutions and will lead field deployment of seismic instrumentation, seismic data processing, geospatial and topographic analysis, and numerical modeling. They will additionally engage in proposal development and scientific writing and dissemination of results in peer reviewed journals and at conferences.
Interested candidates should have:
- A Ph.D. in Earth Sciences or Geophysics or a related physical science or engineering field.
- Strong quantitative skills, including coding, signal processing, and numerical modeling.
- Experience processing seismic data.
- Experiences with field data collection (preferred).
To apply, candidates should include a copy of their latest CV, a brief summary of their research background and interests (<1 page), and contact information for 2-3 references here. Review of applications will begin on August 18, 2025. Questions can be directed to Will Struble at wstruble@uh.edu.
Anticipated start-date is flexible, but we seek a candidate who would be able to commence work no later than the end of the Fall 2025 semester. The anticipated project timeline is two years, with possibilities for additional support depending on funding availability. Compensation amounts to an annual salary of $53,900 per year, as well as a benefits package that includes medical, dental, and vision insurance (total compensation of $65,000 per year). The primary duty station for this project is at the University of Houston, with opportunities for laboratory visits with collaborators and field-data collection at and near Oregon State University, University of Oregon, and Portland State University, in addition to future collaborator institutions.
The department of Earth & Atmospheric Sciences (EAS) at the University of Houston is a large (>30 tenured and tenure-track faculty), well-funded department within an R1 institution. Students and postdocs have impressive access to internships, networking events, and ultimately have a high rate of job placement. Houston is a large, metropolitan city that boasts significant attractions in food, museums, and art, and is one of the most diverse cities in the United States. Despite rapid growth, Houston remains one of the most affordable major cities in the U.S., offering a high quality of life.
https://www.uh.edu/nsm/earth-atmospheric/
Best regards,
Will Struble, University of Houston
Valerie Sahakian, University of Oregon
Ben Leshchinsky, Oregon State University
Jill Marshall, Portland State University
Josh Roering, University of Oregon
Andrea Wolter, GNS Science
Will T. Struble, Ph.D. (he/him)
Assistant Professor
Department of Earth & Atmospheric Sciences
University of Houston
wstruble@uh.edu
willstruble.com
