15 Postdoctoral Fellowship at University of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England

This post will be based in the Sustainability Research Institute, School of Earth and Environment and work with Co-Investigators Professor William Young and Professor Anne Tallontire along with Dr Gϋlbanu Kaptan and Dr Romain Crastes dit Sourd from Leeds University Business School. The Research Fellow will focus on deliverables for Work Package 6 on Resilience in Supply Chains which seeks to increase food system resilience in supply chains to economic, health and environmental shocks through collaborative research with retailers and consumers. The research will answer research questions on how can consumer food behaviours and retailer practices become more resilient and sustainable to disrupted food supplies. Could resilient approaches help alleviate the ‘business as usual’ reactions by retailers in resource stretched regions and consumer health? Which behaviour change ‘levers’ could help transition consumer food behaviours and retailer practices to more resilient approaches?

As the Research Fellow you will lead experiments to investigate how simulated heatwaves impact: 1) the gross morphological changes to testes, 2) DNA damage in sperm and 3) gene expression. You will use a combination of molecular/ cellular techniques (RNA-seq and RT-qPCR, confocal microscopy, TUNEL assays) across multiple species of Drosophila fruit fly to discover why sperm in some species is more temperature sensitive than others. Having identified candidate genes across species, you will then test these functionally in D. melanogaster by using transgenics and chemical inhibitors. You will work with a project-dedicated technician as part of our project team, based in Leeds in the lab of Dr Amanda Bretman in collaboration with Dr Tom Price (Liverpool), Dr Elizabeth Duncan (Leeds) and Prof Rhonda Snook (Stockholm). You will join our network on Thermal Fertility Limits funded by the European Society for Evolutionary Biology. This knowledge will be invaluable in efforts to conserve biodiversity and improve food security as the climate heats up globally. 

Are you an ambitious researcher looking for your next challenge? Do you have a research background in digitalization and the future of work, or the warehousing sector? Are you interested in a project to better understand and improve conditions the quality of warehousing work in a context of digital transformation? Do you want to further your career in one of the UK’s leading research intensive Universities?

We are looking for a postdoctoral research fellow to join our well-established interdisciplinary team that is investigating how proteins aggregate into amyloid fibrils and cause disease. This Royal Society-funded post-doctoral fellowship aims to determine the mechanisms of amyloid formation in vitro and its effect on cellular homoestasis. You will focus on a range of contrasting proteins, one involved in neurodegeneration (a-synuclein (aSyn) associated with Parkinson’s disease), a functional amyloid (CPEB/Orb2, involved in the formation and storage of long-term memories), and a protein involved in systemic amyloid disease (IAPP, associated with type II diabetes). Specifically, you will use biochemical approaches to modify the structures of the protein aggregates and determine their effect on cellular function, using primary cells, cell lines and relevant tissues. In addition, you will investigate how small molecule modulators of amyloid formation that we have recently discovered affect the cellular consequences of amyloid formation. The outcome will be a transformation in our understanding of how amyloid fibrils create or destroy memory, and new opportunities to target the dynamic interactome of amyloid fibril assemblies for human benefit.

The DynAIRx project aims to develop new, easy to use, artificial intelligence (AI) and data visualization tools that help GPs & pharmacists treat patients who are living with multimorbidity (two or more long-term health conditions). The project is large (consisting of the Universities of Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester and Glasgow, and three NHS organisations), cross-disciplinary (clinicians, computer scientists, statisticians), and is funded by the National Institute for Health Research.

Are you an ambitious researcher looking for your next challenge? Do you have an established background in (sub) millimetre or radio observations of star- and/or planet-forming regions and an interest in the field of astrochemistry? Do you want to further your career in one of the UK’s leading research-intensive universities?

Are you an ambitious researcher looking for your next challenge? Do you have a PhD in data science, epidemiology, statistics or mathematics and domain expertise in healthy and sustainable diets? Do you want to further your career in one of the UK’s leading research intensive Universities?

A Research Fellow is required to work on a major project, funded by the UKRI, as part of the Transforming Food Systems Call. Our project “FIO-food, food insecurity in people living with obesity: improving sustainable and healthier food choices in the retail food environment”, is a collaboration with the University of Aberdeen, University of Liverpool, Leeds Beckett University, Robert Gordon University, and University College London. The Research Fellow will analyse customer sales/loyalty card data from a leading UK supermarket, in combination with the nutrition/health metrics, sustainability indicators, and demographic information from the Census.

This post is part of a team associated with a part completed EPSRC Programme Grant. The grant is titled “Friction: The Tribology Enigma” and is a five year study to understand the fundamental mechanisms of friction and provide predictive models. We are two thirds of the way through the grant and a short-term post has arisen to contribute to the research but also work with the existing researchers to promote impact and outputs from the work completed to date. The grant is held jointly between the Universities of Sheffield and Leeds and there are currently 8 post-doctoral researchers employed on the project. This post is based in Leeds, at the School of Mechanical Engineering.

We are looking for a Research Fellow to join our Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) funded project for 36 months, which will investigate tidal flows in stars and giant planets, with the goal to understand the mechanisms of tidal dissipation. The project will involve performing hydrodynamical or magnetohydrodynamical simulations to study tidal flows in spherical or ellipsoidal geometry, using and extending one or more existing codes. The results from these calculations will be applied to interpret current observations of extrasolar planets and close binary stars, and to make predictions for future observations. 

This 29-month fixed-term post, which is based in the Sait Laboratory, is funded by the Natural Environment Research Council and is part of a larger project, “Multigenerational Trophic Responses to Coupled Short- and Long-term Environmental Change”, which is investigating how temperature change impacts on insects and their natural enemies. The project is in collaboration with Drs Mike Fowler and Chenggui Yuan at Swansea University whose research team will develop population models that are informed by experiments at Leeds, and which together will develop our understanding of how interacting species adapt and respond across multiple generations to changing temperatures. This will help us to understand the impacts of future climate change on ecologically important trophic interactions. The project is fully lab-based, and builds on well-established controlled microcosm experiments to focus on how different forms of temperature variation affect the interaction between moths and their parasitic wasps. The project will combine long term population monitoring of the lab microcosms with multiple individual-level experiments, including quantifying life history responses to change. You will work on a day-to-day basis with a research technician also employed on the project, and the Leeds team will work closely with our colleagues in Swansea.

The CLOSURE project (Constraining marine boundary layer cloud properties in climate models) will use long-term in-situ observations from a major NASA-funded initiative to deliver a more comprehensive understanding of aerosol-cloud-climate interactions. The research at Leeds, in close collaboration with project partners in Exeter and internationally, involves development and application of novel model emulators to speed up the calculation of cloud droplet formation in the UK climate model. This will reduce uncertainty in estimates of the aerosol radiative forcing, leading to more robust climate projections.

The research group explores the opportunities for reducing energy demand in UK industry by bringing together novel energy and economy modelling approaches in a co-created programme of research with industry and government. The desired outcome of the research is a clear pathway for UK industry to reduce energy and emissions in line with internationally agreed targets. Reducing industrial energy demand goes well beyond technical energy efficiency measures requiring a wider appreciation of the materials and products produced by industry, patterns of consumption and the interaction between the energy demand and the economy. The research group has many years of experience in understanding these dynamics, combining a range of modelling techniques including material flow analysis, multi-regional input-output modelling, energy and exergy analysis, macro-econometric modelling and policy appraisal.  

The Dixon group works at the interfaces of molecular genetics and biology to understand how crop plants respond to the environment and translate this understanding to practical solutions for agriculture. Our research ranges across fundamental biological at the molecular level, through modelling approaches, to phenotyping and field trials. We are a highly collaborative group and the ability to work independently and as part of a team is essential. This position will focus on understanding how wheat (Triticum aestivum) responds to temperature, something of increasing global importance. The role will include designing and conducting experiments, supervising students, reporting and presenting results (including manuscript writing) and meeting with wider research teams. The Dixon group is a supportive and friendly environment and you will also be provided with support for career development.