[ES_JOBS_NET] Fwd: [scisip] Doctoral studies in policy-relevant science

[Lisa Dilling]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Vanessa Schweizer <vschweizer at GMAIL.COM<mailto:vschweizer at GMAIL.COM>>
Subject: [scisip] Doctoral studies in policy-relevant science
Date: November 30, 2017 at 3:43:33 PM MST
To: <SCISIP at LISTSERV.NSF.GOV<mailto:SCISIP at LISTSERV.NSF.GOV>>
Reply-To: Vanessa Schweizer <vschweizer at GMAIL.COM<mailto:vschweizer at GMAIL.COM>>

Up to 3 PhD students are sought to work in the areas of climate and environmental policy, decision making under (deep) uncertainty, and/or complex socio-technical (or socio-ecological) systems at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. This work is in support of methodological research on anticipating low-probability, high-impact events supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council. There is flexibility on the home department depending on interests and experience (students can earn their PhD in Systems Design Engineering or an appropriate department in the Faculty of Environment). Canadian citizens and permanent residents, as well as women, are especially encouraged to apply.

Complex systems, whether engineered or natural, function at multiple levels and have many moving parts. Within such systems, there are multiple opportunities for things to ‘go wrong’ – potentially simultaneously. Such scenarios of ‘perfect storms’ have low likelihood according to probability theory; however, internal feedback mechanisms in complex systems may encourage cascading failures, making perfect storms more frequent than probabilities suggest. In this methodological research program, system theoretic approaches will be developed and applied to anticipate responses of socio-technical or socio-ecological systems to environmental and socio-economic stressors. Potential application areas include energy planning, environmental management, water management, and related topics.

Students will use methods for quantitative policy analysis (e.g. benefit-cost analysis, multi-criteria decision analysis) and complex systems (e.g. Bayesian networks, cross-impact balances) to advance analytical techniques for risk and policy analysis. The Faculty of Environment, as well as the Department of Systems Design Engineering, provide vibrant environments for interdisciplinary learning, teaching, and research.

Students with quantitative backgrounds (mathematics, physics, engineering, information science, computational social science) are especially desired. Desirable backgrounds also include environmental studies or geography. Students should have an interest in interdisciplinary research with strong analytical skills (quantitative and/or qualitative, depending on the position) and an interest in mixed methods. Students should have strong writing skills and the ability to work independently or collaboratively.

Students would be expected to start in the fall of 2018. Before completing an application for PhD study at the University of Waterloo, expressions of interest should be sent to Dr. Vanessa Schweizer (vschweiz at uwaterloo.ca<mailto:vschweiz at uwaterloo.ca>).

Vanessa

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Vanessa Schweizer
Assistant Professor
Department of Knowledge Integration, Faculty of Environment
University of Waterloo
200 University Ave W | Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1 | Canada

P 519-888-4567<tel:519-888-4567> x 35106
F 519-888-4380<tel:519-888-4380>
uwaterloo.ca/knowledge-integration<http://uwaterloo.ca/knowledge-integration>

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