Application closing date 09/12/2019
Salary £33,797 per annum.  
Job category/type Research
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Job description

Queen's University Belfast is a driver of innovation based on our talented, multinational workforce. Throughout the University, our academics are collaborating across disciplines to develop new discoveries and insights, working with outside agencies and institutions on projects of international significance. We are connected and networked with strategic partnerships across the world, helping us to expand our impact on wider society locally, nationally and globally. The University is committed to attracting, retaining and developing the best global talent within an environment that enables them to realise their full potential.

We are a leader in gender equality and diversity, and are one of the UK's most successful universities in the Athena SWAN initiative which promotes gender equality and career progression. We are ranked 1st in the UK for knowledge transfer partnerships, (Innovate UK) 9th in the UK for University facilities (Times Higher Education Student Experience Survey 2018) and 14th in the UK for research quality (Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2019).

Based in Belfast, a modern capital city, our beautiful campus is surrounded by abundant acres of parkland and is renowned as one of the safest and affordable cities in the UK. The choice of local Schools from pre-nursery upwards are some of the best available, and lovers of the outdoors can enjoy any number of activities from rowing and kayaking to top class golf among many others. We are immensely proud of what our city and our University will offer you.

Outstanding applicant is sought for the post of Postdoctoral Research Associate, to be employed by the School of Built and Natural Environment, Queen's University Belfast, who will carry out high-quality laboratory-based research. The task is to investigate novel composite barrier systems that use the subsurface soil in a sustainable way to provide enhanced water holding capacity and act as a barrier to water ingress and egress, while supporting vegetation growth. The post is funded by a Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council grant (EP/R005834/1) "Climate Adaptation Control Technologies for Urban Spaces (CACTUS)", which is a collaborative project led by Durham University, with University of Cardiff, University of Dundee, Imperial College London, Queen's University Belfast and Newcastle University. The project as a whole aims to develop climate adaptation composite barriers to protect our infrastructure in urban spaces (towns and cities), by combining water holding layers and a capillary barrier. Such barriers can provide resilient solutions to protect geo-infrastructure from more intense precipitation events and more extremes of wetting and drying that are expected to result from climate change. The technologies proposed are intended to protect geo-infrastructure such as shallow foundations, retaining walls and buried utilities.

This post is a 24-month project running from 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2021

The successful candidate must have: 

• 3 years' demonstrable Knowledge of laboratory test methods in geotechnical engineering (unsaturated soils).
• A track record of authoring high quality academic publications.

Candidate Information
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