Computational Electromagnetic Modeller

Are you a motivated and ambitious physicist or mathematician? Do you have experience in 3D modelling and computer programming? Are you enthusiastic and ambitious with a desire to be part of an interdisciplinary team delivering world-leading research that aims to help improve our understanding of the planet and help the public?

An exciting opportunity exists for someone with a physics or mathematical background to work within the National Centre for Atmospheric Science’s (NCAS) Weather Radar Group at the University of Leeds. Our group makes extensive use of weather radars (which measure rain and clouds as well as insects and birds) to help improve our understanding of the environment. 

Weather radar scan the entirety of the UK every 5 minutes, and similar types of radar are used around the world for the same purpose. Such radar routinely observes insects and other animal life in the atmosphere, but since animals are not of interest to meteorologists, they are discarded as unwanted “noise”. That “noise” is a veritable treasure trove of information on insect diversity and abundance, but what is required is a way to link what a radar sees to the insects that we wish to monitor. This interdisciplinary post is designed to assess to what extent weather radar data can generate useful biological information that can be applied to solve contemporary ecological problems. To do this, you will characterise the electromagnetic properties of key invertebrate morphotypes by conducting a series of electromagnetic simulations on insect samples that have been scanned with a micro-CT. 

You will need to have some knowledge of radar or atmospheric science; more importantly, you will need to be comfortable working with high-performance computing facilities and 3D modelling. You will work collaboratively with current team members who have extensive scientific knowledge but need your advanced technical skills to accomplish the team’s goals efficiently. Specifically, the work will include the use of 3D modelling software, state-of-the-art set of computational electromagnetic modelling techniques and radar simulation algorithms on a local high-performance GPU driven workstation to create a world-leading dataset of the electromagnetic scattering properties of insects.

To explore the post further or for any queries you may have, please contact:

Dr Ryan Neely

Email: ryan.neely@ncas.ac.uk

Location:     Leeds - Main Campus
Faculty/Service:     Faculty of Environment
School/Institute:     School of Earth and Environment
Category:     Technical Support
Grade:     Grade 6
Salary:     £27,511 to £32,817 p.a. pro rata
Working Time:     90% FTE
Post Type:     Part Time
Contract Type:     Fixed Term (fixed term for 6 months, to start on 1 January 2020)
Release Date:     Wednesday 04 December 2019
Closing Date:     Wednesday 11 December 2019
Downloads:     Candidate Brief