Assistant Professor in Forensic Sciences

ABOUT THE ROLE

Working within the Department of Applied Sciences, this role involves both teaching and research. The successful candidate will be part of a multidisciplinary team that teaches undergraduate and postgraduate forensic science students, on programmes accredited by the Chartered Society of Forensic Sciences. This post will involve designing, developing, and delivering innovative and research-informed teaching and supporting our students to achieve their future career aspirations. In parallel, you will be part of the Department’s research future, through your own academic excellence through high quality publications and income generation from funding applications to external bodies such as UKRI, charities and commercial partners.

Further information is available in the job description.  

ABOUT THE TEAM

The Department of Applied Sciences, which specialises in biological and chemical sciences, teaching undergraduate and postgraduate students on professionally accredited degrees in the disciplines of Biology, Biochemistry, Biomedical Science, Biotechnology, Chemistry, Food Science & Nutrition and Forensic Science.  We have over 80 academics researching in these areas, working with 60 PDRAs, research fellows and PhD students, and a thriving undergraduate population of approximately 1,500 students.  The Department has a history of impactful inter-disciplinary subject research, often in collaboration with industry and supported through UKRI funding. With 86% of our staff submitted to REF2021, we were delighted to say that 82% of the Department’s publications were rated as internationally excellent and world-leading.  More than 60 colleagues in the Department were part of our REF2021 submission to the Allied Health Unit of Assessment 3 which was ranked 8th (out of 91) in the UK for Research Power.  In addition, our Research Environment was given the highest possible rating of 100% 4* - acknowledging our excellence in this area and state of the art facilities for performing research. Due to the multi-disciplinary nature of our Department, academics were also returned in Units of Assessment for Engineering, Geography & Environmental Studies, and Law, thus illustrating the breadth of collaborative opportunities within the Department and wider university.

The Department’s laboratory estate spans four floors of interdisciplinary activity providing research laboratory space for analytical and synthetic chemistry, molecular biology, genetics, and microbiology. This includes specific laboratories for genetics, genomics, mass spectrometry, chromatography and materials analysis, and a microscopy suite which is currently undergoing a multi-million pound expansion. The forensic science programmes specifically benefit from a bespoke, multi-level, crime scene facility that includes a separate laboratory and a wet room for blood pattern analysis. The Department’s laboratories are complemented by dedicated high performance computing for bioinformatics and modelling and dedicated, state-of-the-art, inhouse facilities for metabolomics, proteomics, and genomics (including MiSeq, NextSeq and PacBio sequencing platforms), which enabled this department to be the North of England representative undertaking analysis and surveillance for the Covid-19 Genomics UK consortium (COG-UK) through the Pandemic. The Department also hosts Research England funded Hub for Biotechnology in the Built Environment (HBBE) which seeks to create a trans-disciplinary working space for bringing together the latest research and thinking in biotechnology, architecture, and sustainability.

Details of our research groups, innovation units and themes can be found here

The Department is proud to hold an Athena SWAN Bronze award and actively works to support diversity especially in terms of career progression and leadership opportunities. We provide a range of facilities to support your career development such as on-site nursery, funded leadership training courses, action learning support for promotion application, EDI networks, HEA fellowship application training, research mentoring and grant application support.

ABOUT YOU

Applicants should hold a doctoral and have demonstrable specialist expert knowledge and subject expertise in a relevant subject discipline.

Experience of designing, delivering, and assessing high quality teaching and learning practice as well as evidence of high-quality research outputs are essential.

Whilst we are very keen to hear from applicants experienced in the traditional areas of forensic science, such as body fluids, trace, or criminalistics, we are equally open to applicants with expertise in areas such as analytical chemistry, biosciences, data science or machine learning whose expertise is suitable to progress our teaching in forensic science and increase our research profile in forensic science and more broadly. 

For an informal discussion about the post, particularly on whether your subject or experience would be a good fit for us, please contact Dr Sophie Carr, Head of Department: Applied Science; email: sophie.carr@northumbria.ac.uk

Further information about the requirements of the role is available in the person specification. 

We welcome applications from the UK and across the world. Visit our web pages for details about Relocation Assistance. 

To apply for this vacancy please click 'Apply Now'.  Your application should include a covering letter and a CV.  Please ensure your CV includes research / education statements, and grants and publications list highlighting your highest quality research outputs up to a maximum of four.  For your most recent grants please include the grant title, funder reference, funder, amount, and your role.  In addition, you are asked to provide copies of the top two research outputs (Journal / book chapter / practice-based portfolio).

ABOUT US

At Northumbria, we embrace tomorrow. We pursue new thinking, forge new partnerships, create, and exchange new knowledge, and find new solutions. Our inspirational academics, partners and students work together to tackle tomorrow’s challenges head on. We are ready for the future whatever it may hold. 

Awarded the title of University of the Year in the 2022 Times Higher Education Awards, Northumbria University is a research-intensive modern university with a global reputation for academic excellence. 

Northumbria recorded the biggest rise of any UK university for research power in the Research Excellence Framework for the second time in 2021 and is now ranked top 25 for this measure.

One of the largest universities in the UK with over 37,000 students from 137 countries, filled with world-leading research, award-winning partnerships, and students at the heart of an outstanding experience, Northumbria is a new kind of excellent university. Discover more about us.

Northumbria University is a great place to work.  We empower our exceptional people to achieve shared ambitions and promote a positive work life balance. To say thank you, we offer a wide range of benefits including excellent pension schemes, flexible working, a generous holiday entitlement, continued commitment to your learning and development and more. 

Our Northumbria Values are guiding principles that define who we are, what we do and what is important to us. Our Values are: Academic Excellence; Innovation; Inclusivity; Collaboration; and Ambition.

Our Behaviours describe how we do things and how we work together at Northumbria, reflecting our culture and our decision-making. Our Behaviours are: We listen and learn, we support one another to success, we respect everyone and their contributions, we trust in ourselves and each other and we are bold.

Our Behaviours were co-created by colleagues from a range of roles across the University, who worked collaboratively to consider what it feels like to work for Northumbria, and where we need to continue to transform together to achieve what’s important to us. 

Please visit Our Values and Behaviours page to find out more.

We are an on-campus organisation where colleagues work regular patterns of hours and on campus, with some flexibility on the timing of their hours and the location of their work in discussion with their manager. 

Northumbria University is committed to creating an inclusive culture where we take pride in, and value, the diversity of our staff.  We encourage and welcome applications from all members of the community.  The University holds a bronze Athena Swan award in recognition of our commitment to advancing gender equality, we are a Disability Confident Employer, a member of the Race Equality Charter and are participating in the Stonewall Diversity Champion Programme.  

The University has implemented a range of flexible working arrangements, and we are happy to explore candidate requirements as part of the recruitment process.  

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