Infrastructure Equity Faculty Cluster Hire – Assistant or Associate of Earth System Science

The Department of Earth System Science (ESS) at The University of California, Irvine is recruiting an Assistant Professor (tenure track) or an Associate Professor (tenured) whose research, teaching, and service contribute to UCI’s Black Thriving Initiative (BTI) and the Infrastructure Equity Cluster Hiring Initiative. The successful candidate will have a fundamental grounding in Earth system science. Their research should be directed at quantitative understanding of human-driven environmental change over local to global scales and the disproportionate impacts it may have on historically marginalized communities. We seek a faculty member with a clear vision to expand scientific knowledge that can facilitate mitigation/adaptation measures to increase resilience within economically disadvantaged communities and communities of color. Research areas of interest to this call include but are not limited to: air quality; extreme heat; land use issues, including urban heat islands and green space management; decarbonization of energy systems and infrastructure; equitable pathways for attaining net zero emissions; flooding from sea level rise, tropical cyclones (e.g., hurricanes), and extreme precipitation.

This position is part of a campus-wide Infrastructure Equity faculty cluster hiring program, which amplifies UCI’s Black Thriving Initiative by recruiting engaged scholars across the fields of planning, policy, engineering, environmental science, and law to address social, environmental, and racial disparities in infrastructure planning, design, and implementation. The initiative includes the Department of Urban Planning and Public Policy in the School of Social Ecology; the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering in the Henry Samueli School of Engineering; the Department of Earth System Science in the School of Physical Sciences; and the School of Law. The cluster’s curriculum and programming components foster cross-campus collaborations, build a community of scholars trained in community-based research, and engage with community organizations and governmental agencies in Black communities in Southern California and beyond. For more information, consult the cluster website: https://sites.uci.edu/iecluster/.

Launched in 2020 during the racial reckoning, the UCI Black Thriving Initiative mobilizes the entire university to transform UCI into the nation's foremost destination for Black people to thrive as students, faculty, staff, and communities served by the university. To this end, it consists of three action platforms that seek to inform choices, decisions, and priorities as a great public research university. These are: change the culture, leverage the mission, and engage with communities. A major feature of BTI involves advancing understanding about the multifaceted Black experience and drivers of well-being in support of Black communities. The associated faculty cluster hiring program builds on and expands our shared values of diversity, equity and inclusion and commitment to social justice. Selected from a multi-year competition, the three BTI hiring clusters reflect the power and promise of interdisciplinary collaboration. They are: Environmental Health Disparities, Infrastructure Equity, and Poetic Justice. To accelerate and elevate the impact of the research, teaching, and service of participating and affiliated faculty, each cluster will receive dedicated programming support for three years. For more information, consult the BTI website: https://inclusion.uci.edu/action-plan/msi/uci-black-thriving-initiative/.

The University of California is committed to creating and maintaining a community dedicated to the advancement, application, and transmission of knowledge and creative endeavors through academic excellence, where all individuals who participate in University programs and activities can work and learn together in a safe and secure environment, free of violence, harassment, discrimination, exploitation, or intimidation. With this commitment as well as a commitment to addressing all forms of academic misconduct, UC Irvine conducts institutional reference checks for finalists to whom the department or other hiring unit would like to extend a formal offer of appointment into Ladder Rank Professor or Professor of Teaching series, at all ranks (i.e., assistant, associate, and full). The institutional reference checks involve contacting the administration of the applicant’s previous institution(s) to ask whether there have been substantiated findings of misconduct that would violate the University’s Faculty Code of Conduct. To implement this process, UC Irvine requires all candidates of Ladder Rank Professor or Professor of Teaching series, at all ranks (i.e., assistant, associate, and full) to complete, sign, and upload the form entitled “Authorization to Release Information” into AP RECRUIT as part of their application. If the candidate does not include the signed authorization to release information with the application materials, the application will be considered incomplete. As with any incomplete application, the application will not receive further consideration. Although all applicants for faculty recruitments must complete the entire application, only finalists (i.e., those to whom the department or other hiring unit would like to extend a formal offer) considered for Ladder Rank Professor or Professor of Teaching series, at all ranks (i.e., assistant, associate, and full) positions will be subject to institutional reference checks.

The University of California, Irvine is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer advancing inclusive excellence. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, age, protected veteran status, or other protected categories covered by the UC nondiscrimination policy. UCI is a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) and an Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institution (AANAPISI). We seek faculty who are committed to diversity as well as diverse faculty who will be role models for our students. A recipient of an NSF ADVANCE award for gender equity, UCI is responsive to the needs of dual career couples, supports work-life balance through an array of family-friendly policies, and is dedicated to broadening participation in higher education. Compensation is competitive, and includes priority access to purchase on-campus faculty housing at below-market prices. The area offers numerous recreational and cultural opportunities, and one of the highest-ranked public school systems in the nation.
If you have questions, please contact facultysearch@ess.uci.edu. Review of applications will begin November 28, 2022. You can apply here: https://recruit.ap.uci.edu/JPF07874