Geograf/in

The Climate Service Center Germany (GERICS), a scientific organizational entity of the Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon, invites applications for a PhD Position (75%), starting August 1st, 2025 (or as soon as possible thereafter), in the Helmholtz Institute for Climate Service Science (HICSS) Project Map4Risk. The position is limited to 3 years and is intended to be completed with a PhD. The employment location is Hamburg, Germany. The planned starting date is 01.08.2025 (flexible, upon agreement).

GERICS develops science-based prototype products and services in support to government, administration and business in their efforts to adapt to climate change. It builds up a national and international network structure in order to integrate existing competences and knowledge, and to link various actors within the complex area of climate change.

The PhD position is also supervised by Prof. Dr. Jana Sillmann, who is co-leading the Research Unit for Sustainability and Climate Risks (FNK). This Research Unit is devoted to inter- and transdisciplinary research and education on human-induced environmental change.

The successful candidate will work in the project “Map4Risk – Mapping of heat-related systemic risk in cities”, which is part of the “Trans4Heat – Paths for sustainable transformation to reduce heat-induced systemic risk to critical infrastructure” cluster. HICSS is a cooperation between the Climate Service Center Germany (GERICS) and Universität Hamburg. Within the Map4Risk project scientists from the group of Prof. Jana Sillmann and GERICS scientists work jointly to i) create high-resolution maps identifying hotspots of current and future heat- related risk in Hamburg, ii) evaluate the risk of critical infrastructure to heat stress and the associated influence of transformative climate actions by local communities and stakeholders, iii) investigate the effectiveness of proposed climate actions in reducing the heat- related risks, which in-turn supports their implementation.

The PhD candidate will analyze existing urban climate data for Hamburg from different sources and link this data to quantitative and qualitative data on social risk factors to generate the risk map.

Equal opportunity is an important part of our personnel policy.

Your tasks

• process and analyze present and future urban climate data from different sources
• preparation of social data, exposure data, and critical infrastructure data
• conduct surveys and interviews with stakeholders and local communities
• use GIS tools to integrate urban climate and social data
• conduct simulations with PALM-4U for small domains including climate actions
• support project and cluster workshops
• deliver data and model code in accordance with the FAIR criteria
• present research findings at national and international conferences
• write scientific publications

Your profile

• M.Sc. degree in geography, environmental science, meteorology or related discipline
• experience in handling of geographic- and/or climate data
• experience with GIS tools
• experience with numerical atmospheric models, including urban climate models such as PALM-4U, MITRAS, ENVI-Met etc. is beneficial
• interest in working in an interdisciplinary project
• fluency in English (spoken and written)
• fluency in German (spoken and written) would be desirable
• interest in teamwork in an interdisciplinary and international environment

Informal enquiries can be directed to Dr. Peter Hoffmann (peter.hoffmann@hereon.de) and Dr. Malte von Szombathely (malte.szombathely@uni-hamburg.de.

We offer you

• an exciting and varied job in a research centre with around 1,000 employees from more than 60 nations
• a well-connected research campus (public transport bus) and best networking opportunities
• individual opportunities for further training
• social benefits according to the collective agreement of the public service and remuneration up to pay group 13 (according to EntgO Bund)
• an excellent technical infrastructure and modern workplace equipment
• 6 weeks holiday per year; company holidays between Christmas and New Year's Day
• very good compatibility private and professional life; offers of mobile and flexible work
• PhD Buddy Program
• free assistance program for employees (EAP)
• corporate Benefits
• office location in the heart of the city of Hamburg in the historic Chilehaus

Severely disabled persons and those equaling severely disabled persons who are equally suitable for the position will be considered preferentially within the framework of legal requirements.

Interested?

Then we are looking forward to receiving your comprehensive application documents (cover letter, CV, transcripts, certificates etc.) indicating the reference number code no. 2025/KG 2 until 08.06.2025.

Unsere Stellenausschreibungen richten sich stets an alle berufsfähigen Menschen, unabhängig von Alter, Geschlecht, Herkunft, sexueller Orientierung, Behinderung, Religion und Weltanschauung etc. Die Bewerberauswahl erfolgt ausschließlich qualifikationsorientiert. Irrtümer in den Angaben und der Schreibweise vorbehalten.