Faculty of Technology

Department of Mathematics

Research Fellow in Applied Operational Research and Waste Water Recovery

Employment type:  Fixed-term contract (to 31 December 2020)

Employment basis:  Full-time

Salary:  £34,520 to £37,706 per annum

Post number:  ZZ004333

Date published:  07 December 2017  

Closing date:  18 January 2018

Interview date:  29 January 2018

Applications are invited for the position of Research Fellow in the Logistics, Operational Research and Analytics (LORA) Group at the University of Portsmouth.  The Research Fellow will work on the NEREUS (New Energy and REsources from Urban Sanitation) project funded by EU Interreg 2 Seas. This is a multi-disciplinary project which involves 8 European partners including the Logistics, Operational, and Analytics (LORA) Group in the Mathematics Department and the School of Civil Engineering and Surveying (SCES) from the University of Portsmouth.

Applicants should have a PhD (or equivalent research experience) in Operational Research, or a related discipline. Experience in applied Operational Research and decision support tools is required; and expertise in waste water management and recovery is desirable. Ideally, you should have experience in dealing with industrial and/or governmental problem owners and decision makers. Proficiency in computer programming is also required. The applicants should show strong motivation for independent research, and the ability to work with academic and industrial partners.

Applicants should also be able to perform effectively under pressure and time constraints, possess good organisational and time management skills, pay close attention to detail, and have effective interpersonal skills. Applicants should be willing to undertake travel to work with the partners.

The NEREUS project will tackle the common 2SEAS area challenges by boosting further the development of green economy and transforming wastewater into a valuable source of water, resources (eg cellulose, nutrients), and energy that could be reused. The overall objective of the NEREUS project is to increase the reuse of resources, water and energy from wastewater by boosting the adoption of technologies that recover resources, water and energy from wastewater in urban areas. A demonstration framework and an institutional framework will be developed to increase the adoption and acceptance of resource recovering technologies.

The Research Fellow will work on the development of a decision support tool for implementing/executing organisations to select the best resource recovering technology for wastewater treatment. A decision support tool will be designed and implemented to assist decision makers in the optimal selection of the wastewater recovery technology (ies). The tool will consider a variety of technologies proposed by the pilot case studies, and evaluation of criteria for the selection of optimal treatment, including technical, economical, environmental and socio-cultural factors. All these criteria will be integrated within the tool. The decision support tool will require comparison of technologies in a comparable and reproducible manner. This will be done by using Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) and C-footprinting to produce comparable indicators of the environmental benefits\ impacts of recovering each unit mass of resource.

The research fellow will be responsible for taking a lead in the development and coding of these models and algorithms and production of testing. The research fellow will liaise with the LORA Group and SCES academics at the University of Portsmouth and the industrial/academic partners involved in the project in order to achieve this goal. The models and algorithms developed are expected to be of sufficient scientific novelty and application worth that they will lead to articles published in leading Operational Research scientific journals. The research fellow is also expected to disseminate the research findings at project meetings, international conferences, and industrial events. The research fellow will also be responsible for supporting general research activity in the Mathematics Department and SCES and encouraging more junior researchers such as PhD students in their research.

Applicants should be willing to undertake travel on a European scale.

The position is tenable from 1 February 2018.

Informal enquiries can be addressed to Prof. Djamila Ouelhadj (Djamila.ouelhadj@port.ac.uk), tel: +44 (0) 23 8059 6355, mobile: +44 (0)7818453756 and Prof. John Williams.

For detailed information about the vacancy, please select this link:ZZ004333 - Research Fellow in Applied Operational Research and Waste Water Recovery.docx