Department Of Earth Sciences

Research
Grade 7 (£33,199)

Applications are invited for a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Statistical Chronostratigraphy with a particular emphasis on Bayesian approaches to correlation on geological time scales.

The Research Associate will join a research programme led by Martin Smith (PI, Earth Sciences), Andrew Millard (Archaeology) and Tom Nye (Statistics, Newcastle University). Funded by the Leverhulme Trust, this research project will develop new quantitative tools to infer evolutionary processes from the geological record, with a particular focus on the origin of complex animal ecosystems in the ‘Cambrian explosion’.

The successful applicant will develop, implement and test an objective Bayesian model for chronostratigraphic correlation, to be applied to geological and palaeontological datasets.

A coherent statistical technique for synthesizing all available data will generate precise stratigraphic correlations between independent geological sections, allowing simultaneous analysis of geochemical, ichnological, biostratigraphic and sequence stratigraphic information, and the integration of absolute radiometric age estimates. A Bayesian approach will allow uncertainties to propagate between data types, giving accurate age estimates with well-constrained error margins.

This post is full time & fixed term for 36 months.

Closes midday on :     30-Aug-2019