Faculty Position in Environmental Sensing Technologies at Empa and at the EPFL

EPFL’s School of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering (ENAC) and the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa) invite applications for a tenured (Associate or Full) Professor in the Institute of Environmental Engineering. The appointee will participate in Empa’s Functional Materials Department, and contribute to research and teaching activities within the EPFL Institute of Environmental Engineering.

The Institute of Environmental Engineering (IIE) in ENAC carries out basic and translational research spanning fundamental understanding of environmental systems and their resilience to design of adaption strategies. It covers a diverse portfolio in research, teaching and innovative technology development across transversal themes: understanding and adapting to climate change, distributed and dynamic environmental sensing, resource quality and its effects on ecosystem health, and human-environment interactions.

Empa’s Functional Materials Department develops in highly interdisciplinary teams sustainable material and technology solutions for a climate-neutral society, as well as novel soft robotic systems for infrastructure maintenance and environmental monitoring.

The joint Empa/EPFL professor in Environmental Sensing Technologies will have acknowledged strengths in research and innovation related to sensing of relevant variables in water, soil or the atmosphere, as well as leveraging the resulting data for improved environmental sustainability and adaptation. We welcome a range of applications, from environmental specialists who leverage sensing technologies to mobile sensing specialists with interests in environmental questions. Areas of interest within these domains include, but are not limited to:

•             Distributed and local sensing of (new) environmental variables via novel methodologies/technologies

•             Multi-environment sensing of spatially and/or temporally varying phenomena using mobile platforms

•             Integration of sensing with localization, estimation and optimization across multiple scales and terrains  (air/soil/water)

•             Unconventional sensing (e.g., combining living organisms and mechatronics)     

The Empa/EPFL professor will lead an internationally recognized research program that leverages the opportunities offered by Empa and EPFL in cross-institutional, complementary research groups. The appointee will promoteexcellence in research and in undergraduate and graduate level teaching.

EPFL is a growing and well-funded institution with excellent experimental and computational infrastructure. Teaching and research at EPFL covers essentially the entire palette of engineering and science, and offers a fertile environment for research collaboration between different disciplines. Empa conducts cutting-edge research for the benefit of industry and the well-being of society. The EPFL and Empa environments are multilingual and multicultural, with English serving as a common interface.

The following documents are requested in PDF format: cover letter including a statement of motivation, curriculum vitae, publications list, concise statements of research and teaching interests, as well as the contact information of at least five references who are ready to supply their letter upon request.

To apply, please follow the application procedure at:

https://facultyrecruiting.epfl.ch/position/35848192

Formal evaluation of the applications will begin on 15 January 2022 and the search will continue until the position is filled.

Further enquiries should be made to:

Prof. Athanasios Nenes

Chair of the Search Committee

E-mail: SearchEnvSensingTech@epfl.ch

Additional information on Empa:

Dr. Tanja Zimmerman (tanja.zimmermann@empa.ch)

Head of Department Functional Materials

Additional information on Empa and EPFL: https://empa.ch, https://www.epfl.ch

EPFL and Empa are equal opportunity and family friendly employers. We are committed to increasing the diversity of their faculty, and strongly encourage women to apply.