Assistant Professor (School for the Environment)

Job Description

Society is rapidly transitioning away from fossil fuels to carbon-free sources of energy such as offshore wind and solar. Research regarding relevant technologies, policies, workforce development needs, and economics of energy sources and systems is critical to ensuring a sustainable and equitable energy future. Renewable energy resources, including offshore wind, will become increasingly important as society drives towards net zero over the next two decades. Developing those resources sustainably will require Interaction with the fishing industry, historically marginalized coastal communities, ocean conservationists, and grid designers. Current economic and policy interests create possible barriers to embracing and accelerating this transition, but converging interests also create an opportunity to bridge perceived differences with multilaterally beneficial approaches.

Working within the transdisciplinary School for the Environment and with other UMass colleagues as well as collaborators across the City of Boston and Commonwealth of Massachusetts, this new faculty member is expected to build a strong research group, teach and advise undergraduate and graduate students, and make substantive impacts on the green transition to renewable energy sources including offshore wind. Strong opportunities exist to work with the Stone Living Lab, the Mass Bays National Estuary Partnership, the Urban Harbors Institute, the Sustainable Solutions Lab, and the BEACON BlueTech lab, all within the School for the Environment. The School for the Environment seeks a colleague who will leverage existing relationships, organizations, movements, and our nationally recognized academic programs in the environmental and marine sciences, to advance clean energy at the local and global level.

The successful candidate will possess a record of demonstrated experience in areas related to renewable energy transition issues with familiarity regarding offshore wind matters. Fields of particular interest include clean energy technology and policy; economics of clean energy transitions; and energy system impacts and sustainability. Ability to work across disciplines with physical scientists, ecologists, economists, engineers, developers, regulators, and planners is required, along with a desire to work with communities at the interface among the natural, human, and built systems, along with our diverse student body, to promote climate equity.

We also have a particular interest in candidates who can support ongoing initiatives in developing a robust clean energy (with emphasis on offshore wind) workforce. The ideal candidate will conduct rigorous research and have a desire to teach undergraduate and graduate students, and mentor graduate students through advanced degrees in marine and environmental earth systems. The successful candidate must show potential to build a strong program of externally funded, transdisciplinary research and to promote diversity at all levels within the environmental sciences.

For more information about the School for the Environment, please visit www.umb.edu/environment.

Minimum Qualifications: A Ph.D. is required with post-doctoral experience preferred. The applicant will have the potential (or a demonstrated capability) to carry on an active, externally funded research program of international caliber and to supervise graduate and undergraduate students. The applicant should demonstrate the capacity to contribute to the undergraduate and graduate teaching needs in environmental and marine sciences offered by the School for the Environment, and a willingness to engage in collaborative research with School and University colleagues. Experience and a strong interest in encouraging and promoting increasing diversity within the School, the University, and ocean and environmental science fields generally are criteria for selection. The School for the Environment comprises a diverse and dynamic core and affiliate faculty with research expertise in coastal sensor networks, coastal zone management, urban planning, hydrology, coastal planning law, oceans and human health, climate adaptation, hydrogeology and geochemistry, and coastal ecology. For more information about the School for the Environment and its research and teaching programs, please visit our website at: https://www.umb.edu/environment/.

Application instructions:

upload a curriculum vitae, a letter describing research and teaching interests, up to five publications, and the names and contact information (including email address) of three references. Application review will begin December 1 and continue until the position is filled. Interested applicants are encouraged to contact us regarding the review timeline. For more information contact John Duff, Professor of Environmental Law & Policy, School for the Environment, University of Massachusetts Boston via John.Duff@umb.edu .

UMass Boston is an urban public research university with a teaching soul, whose impact is both local and global. We are the third most diverse university in the country - more than 60% of our undergraduate students come from minoritized communities and groups and more than half of our students are the first in their families to attend a college or university. Thus, our students come to us from richly diverse life experiences and backgrounds; they bring to our classrooms and research settings the robust range of perspectives growing out of the socio-cultural, economic, and historical contexts in which they have lived, along with the challenges they encounter, engage, and strive to overcome. We invite applications from candidates who engage the diverse life experiences of our student body, who appreciate that students bring their holistic selves into the academic setting, and who recognize and articulate how their own life experiences and backgrounds have shaped their journeys, practices, and commitments as researchers, scholars, and educators.

UMass Boston is committed to the full inclusion of all qualified individuals. As part of this commitment, we will ensure that persons with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodations for the hiring process. If reasonable accommodation is needed, please contact HRDirect@umb.edu or 617-287-5150.