The research group „Global Resource Use“ at the Institute for Ecological Economics at WU Vienna announces the following position:
Data Scientist: Global material flow analysis / Metal supply chains (pre-doc position)
Extent of employment: 30 hours/week
Start of employment: September 2020
Duration: 1.5 years (possible extension depending on financing situation)
Monthly gross salary: ~2.175 € (14 salaries/year)
Background
The research group “Global Resource Use” (GRU) at the Institute for Ecological Economics at WU Vienna is one of the leading groups worldwide in the area of quantifying society’s use of natural resources and its consequences. GRU is working at the cutting edge of ongoing sustainability debates to better inform policy makers in their design of policy options for a sustainable future. We develop methods for the spatially explicit assessment of resource flows along international supply chains - especially for materials, water and land – to trace commodities and related environmental and social impacts from the location of production to distant consumers.
As part of the FINEPRINT project (www.fineprint.global) funded by European Research Council (ERC), novel methodologies and databases are developed for assessing global material flows on an unprecedented level of geographical detail. With this new approach, we perform spatially explicit analyses of raw material flows embodied in internationally traded products and services and assess the associated environmental and social impacts around the globe. For this purpose, and in order to reconcile various information from different data sources, linear optimization models and high-performance computers are used for the modeling of metal flows.
Area of responsibility
As a data scientist, you support the FINEPRINT team in screening and processing raw data that can be used as an input for the optimization model. Under the guidance of an expert, you will collect and organize quantifiable information and learn to assess its quality. The focus of your work is on the global supply chains of iron, copper and aluminum; the various processing steps (from the blast furnace to manufacturing and international trade to final consumption); for a large number of countries (especially in Asia and Latin America); as well as at national and subnational/regional level. Knowledge or experience about or with optimization algorithms or high-performance computers is not a requirement.
Your profile
- Completed master’s degree in industrial ecology, environmental or resource management, social ecology / human ecology, or comparable education.
- Experiences in material flow analysis, life cycle assessments or environmental-economic accounting (e.g. environmental input-output analysis).
- Several years of programming experience, preferably in R or comparable programming languages (Matlab / Python)
- General knowledge of linear algebra
- Excellent English skills
- Willingness to face challenges and enjoy learning new approaches and ways of thinking
Our research group aims to increase the proportion of female researchers in the team and therefore explicitly encourages qualified women to apply.
End of the application period: 28/06/2020
Please send your application documents (letter of motivation including a description of the relevant expertise, as well as a CV in tabular form) to Dr. Stefan Giljum (stefan.giljum@wu.ac.at).