The Helmholtz Centre Potsdam - GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences is the national centre for research into the geosphere. With around 1,650 employees, we develop a sound understanding of systems and processes of the solid Earth as well as strategies and options for action to counter global change, understand natural hazards and sustainably secure energy and raw material requirements.

For section 4.7 "Earth Surface Process Modelling" (Department 4 “Geosystems”), we are looking for a:

This position is part of the EU-funded Marie Skłodowska-Curie Doctoral Network “Climate-Tectonics Interactions using Big Data informed Models” (INITIATE, https://www.initiate-dn.eu/). We are seeking for a candidate to build a digital twin of debris flow catchments and associated debris flow early warning systems considering different climate scenarios. The objective is to assess how anthropogenic climate change controls debris flow activities in active tectonic areas. There will be two primary sites in Europe (Illgraben, Switzerland) and China (Jiangjia Ravine), and a few secondary sites in the USA.

Your responsibilities:

• Process and analyse continuous seismic data and high-resolution topography data
• Develop and/or improve numerical models for debris flows
• Develop a machine learning approach for determining the controlling factors and thresholds for debris flows 
• Discover natural patterns in geospatial and climate characteristics for debris flows
• Correlate those parameters with debris flow frequency and magnitude  
• Build a statistical framework for ensemble simulations derive thresholds for future climate
• Develop of digital twins for debris flow early warning system
• Interpretation and publication of results in peer-reviewed journals 

Your qualifications:

• Master degree or diploma in Physics, Mathematics or Geosciences 
• Familiarity with numerical modeling is strongly desirable
• Knowledge in machine learning and data science is desirable
• Programming skills in Python, C, or similar language are necessary
• Proficiency in spoken and written English

Eligibility:

• Researchers recruited in a doctoral network must be early-stage researchers and not been awarded a doctoral degree
• At the time of recruitment researchers must not have resided or carried out their main activity in Germany for more than 12 months in the 3 years prior to the reference date (EU mobility rule)