The Research Center for integrated Disaster Risk Management, CIGIDEN (www.cigiden.cl) is a multidisciplinary research center funded by the Chilean National Agency for Research and Development (ANID) with research teams located in Santiago, Valparaíso, and Antofagasta. CIGIDEN brings together researchers from various fields (e.g., sociology, Urban Studies, Urban Planning, Geography, Psychology, Engineering, Geosciences, and Economics) and is supported by Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (www.uc.cl), the Universidad Nacional Andrés Bello (www.unab.cl), Universidad Católica del Norte (www.ucn.cl) and Universidad Santa María (www.usm.cl).
The Center is hosted by Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (www.uc.cl), ranked first in Latin America by the 2019 QS international ranking and third by the Times Higher Education Latin America University Ranking 2017.
The position
CIGIDEN is offering a 1-year postdoctoral research position in the research cluster of Risk and Resilience Analysis, focusing on the Socio-Economic Assessment of Natural Disaster Consequences and their effects in Resilience. The successful candidate will collaborate closely with Dr. Felipe Zurita at Research Line 5 “Socio-Economic Assessment of Disasters and Mitigation Strategies for Resilient Critical Infrastructure Systems” and it is expected collaboration with other researchers in the cluster (e.g. María Molinos drinking water systems and Alondra Chamorro road networks). Candidates should work along the objectives of the Risk and Resilience Analysis cluster, which covers different topics dealing with the economic evaluation of socionatural disasters, risk modeling, water and energy security, socioeconomic assessment of disaster consequences, mitigation strategies, and resilience strategies. Candidates will become part of the team working in different projects within the research cluster, contributing to the interaction and productivity in collaboration with the other research clusters of CIGIDEN, Natural Systems and Processes, and Social Practices. Also, candidates will be encouraged to participate in the different outreach activities and programs of CIGIDEN with the objective of transferring the scientific knowledge to different communities in the country, such as professionals and practitioners, and K-12 education.
The researcher is expected to have expertise in methodological approaches related to socio-economic data assessment and analysis, as well as economic modeling, so to foster and complement CIGIDEN’s existing strengths in the assessment of risk and resilience of critical infrastructure systems. In particular, the applicant is expected to have research knowledge in Economics, Data Sciences or Engineering complemented with expertise in Social Sciences, Statistics or Applied Mathematics. Expertise and experience in management of large quantities of data, programming (especially in Python) and relational databases are desired. The position is oriented to understand the socio-economic consequences of socionatural disasters (e.g., earthquakes, tsunamis, landslides, floods and draughts, volcanic eruptions) and their effects in resilience, by accounting for impacts in the economy, environment, specific communities, general population, built environment, and their interactions and interrelations.
Research topics may include two or more of the following: (i) study the water management problem in the face of increasing frequency of droughts and floods, and dams as a mitigation policy (ii) studying possible relations and consequences of socionatural disasters within socio-economic data; (iii) thinking of the impact of cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness analysis methodologies on investment patterns and resilience to socionatural disasters; (iv) rethinking the public and private loss from socionatural disasters assessment methodologies; (v) assessing the welfare consequences of historical disaster episodes; (vi) developing methodologies to assess the cost of risk-mitigation strategies and investment projects.
Required qualifications
The candidate must hold a PhD degree obtained during the last four years in an area related to the description above, with previous demonstrated experience in publishing in international indexed journals. The candidate should also be fluent in English. Conference publications and presentations, and programing skills will also be considered in the evaluation of the applicants.
Experience in teaching, supervising of undergraduate and graduate students, engaging in outreach and transfer activities, participation in research projects, and other professional industry and research working experience are a plus.
Minimum expected achievements
The researcher should submit within the year one WOS-indexed paper to a scientific journal and apply a research proposal to the ANID Postdoctoral program are required.
Application
The call is open between August 23 and September 23, and the starting date should ideally be November 2021. Late applications may be considered until the position is filled, and special conditions may apply for the starting date. The duration of the position is for one year.
Successful applicants will be appointed by CIGIDEN at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and will reside in Santiago, Chile, where they will receive a gross stipend of 1.800.000 CLP (~2.300 USD) per month, as well as travel expenses for those living overseas. To apply, please send your letter of intent/motivation, a research proposal, an extended CV with a full digital archive of published ISI papers, and two letters of recommendation to Alondra Chamorro (achamorro@ing.puc.cl), Nicolás Bronfman (nbronfman@unab.cl) and Juan Carlos de la Llera (jcllera@ing.puc.cl) with the entitled subject “CIGIDEN R&R Cluster Postdoctoral Application”.
