Salary: €41,025 - €60,814 (+ pension) per annum, depending on experience.
Commencement before October 2021 (but negotiable).
A four-year Postdoctoral Research position is available in the research team of Prof. Stephen Dooley at the School of Physics, Trinity College Dublin, home of the Ryanair Sustainable Aviation Research Center. Ryanair is Europe’s largest airline and are committed to advancing the environmental sustainability of aviation. Ryanair have made a significant commitment to Trinity College Dublin to seed a program of scale in Research of Sustainable Aviation Fuels (aka, SAF). Led by ERC award holder Professor Stephen Dooley, this commitment enables the School of Physics to recruit an expert team of an Assistant Professor, two Experienced Postdoctoral Researchers and several PhD Students devoted to the task of making aviation sustainable.
Background: Prior to COVID-19, the contribution of global aviation to anthropogenic carbon emissions was 3.5% annually. Though this share is smaller than other sectors, it is a meaningful contribution, highly visible, and emitted by fleets of privately owned aircraft. However, unlike other sectors, aviation is highly constrained in measures that can lower this contribution. Due to technical, logistical and safety reasons, it is not expected that an alternative prime energy source other than liquid hydrocarbon fuels will be a viable technological or economic option for the reduction of aviation carbon emission even in the far, thirty year plus term. Thus, it is essential that the at-scale deployment of so-called “Sustainable” Aviation Fuels (SAFs) be dramatically accelerated from the 2018 base of < 0.04% of total aviation fuel utilisation.
Even if an economy of scale is achieved, it is very likely that SAFs will have a higher economic cost than petroleum or other fossil aviation fuels. It is thus essential that SAFs provide a greenhouse gas saving that is knowable within defined uncertainties, certifiable, and specific to the precise details of the entire production process of specific SAF production supply chains. For this, advanced life-cycle analysis calculation and supply-chain design methodologies are needed.
Project: Numerical models will be built that evaluate the greenhouse gas and economic intensity of the production supply chains of several specific SAFs currently available to market and possibly available in the future. To provide specific and known-confidence inputs to the models, close collaboration with the Ryanair SAF supply chain will be performed. Detailed characterisation of each component of the supply chain from “field-to-wake” for each specific SAF in the Ryanair fuel supply will be performed and fed into the LCA model producing the most rigorous analysis of SAF embodied greenhouse gas to date.
Role: working in a friendly and collaborative team, a postdoctoral researcher is sought to:
• Perform LCA for Sustainable Aviation Fuel candidates.
• Generate and implement uncertainty propagation methodologies for SAF LCA.
• Engage with Ryanair, the Ryanair SAF supply chain (Shell, BP, others), other airlines, academic collaborators and aviation stakeholders to generate the needed LCA inputs.
• Lead the writing of research outputs including peer-reviewed publications, contributions to collaborative book chapters.
• Lead the presentation of the team’s findings at international conferences and stakeholder events.
• Manage outward facing media interactions on SAF.
• Contribute to the engagement and organisation of a collection of SAF stakeholders from The Energy & Aviation Industries, Academia, Government, and Standardisation Bodies.
• Contribute to the preparation of research proposals.
Research Environment: You will join the research group of Prof. Stephen Dooley who work on various science aspects of the low-carbon energy transition. Established in 2014, and hosted in the School of Physics, the group will grow to approximately twenty researchers in 2021 and is funded by a portfolio of government and industry actors including the European Research Council, Science Foundation Ireland, the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, Siemens Gas Turbines and Ryanair. You will have opportunities to interact with other research groups within Trinity, where Sustainable Aviation is an identified thrust of the new E3 Research Institute (
https://www.tcd.ie/e3/), and you will have the opportunity to travel to the laboratories of several collaborating institutions in the United States and Europe.
Working in a very supportive research environment, you will be mentored, encouraged and trained in the skills needed to achieve your career objectives. Multiple mentors will be available to help you navigate a career path and coach you in this.
Essential Requirements: The successful candidate will have:
• A PhD in a science, technology, engineering or mathematics area. Candidates without a PhD but with an exceptional record of relevant experience are also welcome.
• Demonstrated competence in Life Cycle Analysis or the capacity to learn numerical analysis methods.
• Excellent communication skills.
• Demonstrated ability to manage time independently and to manage project delivery.
• Ability to learn new skills and to teach others.
Advantaged Requirements: knowledge or interest in some of the following will be a definite advantage:
• A good record of high quality peer-reviewed publications.
• Experience or knowledge of LCA methods and data sources (e.g. GREET, GHGenius, BioGrace, GaBi, other).
• A track-record in liaising with external stakeholders.
• Experience in report writing, presentation writing and delivery, or proposal writing.
• A passion for sustainability or other scientific or enterprise pursuit.
Application: Prospective candidates should send a two page CV containing names and contact details of two referees and a 1-page letter outlining your interest in the position to Prof. Stephen Dooley at
[email protected]. Please quote the entire job title in the subject line of your email. Applications will be evaluated as received and candidates of all demographics, educational backgrounds and genders that show a good record of academic achievements will be considered.
