Bates College announces a faculty cohort-hire initiative focusing on climate and the environment. The five tenure-track positions, to be recruited and filled over the coming two years, are in the following academic areas and departments/programs. Please check back into this page for up status updates on each position. If you would like more information regarding the cohort hire in general, or one of the positions specifically, please send your inquiries to the Dean of the Faculty.

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Geodynamics

Search Timeline: Search Completed Fall 2022

Geodynamics refers to the processes that govern the solid earth: plate tectonics and continental drift, mantle convection and differentiation of the crust, and the relationship between lithosphere faulting and earthquakes.

A scholar in this area supports the core need for Earth and Climate Studies majors to map bedrock, which develops their abilities to think across vast spatial and temporal scales, to think in three dimensions, and to understand rock properties and deformation, plate tectonics, landscapes, and geologic time.

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Climate Modeling

Search Timeline: The search will occur in the 2023-24 academic year

The growing consequences of climate change requires students to understand the dynamics of the atmosphere and oceans in order to appreciate the drivers and effects of the central scientific challenge of our time.

This position provides a pathway for students to gain a deeper understanding of the Earth’s climate, broader grounding in its fundamental physical processes, increased access to computational techniques in the physical sciences, and improved offerings for all STEM students in a rapidly evolving field.

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Statistics and Analysis of Environmental Data

Search Timeline: The search is active!

The job description is available

Big data, data science, machine learning, and data analytics have become widespread approaches to problem solving. In the environmental field, the size of regularly collected datasets has grown substantially with the deployment of networks of sensors collecting real-time data in terrestrial, aquatic, and atmospheric systems.

Further, genetic techniques are now being applied in environmental systems for identification of microorganisms and biogeochemical processes, spreading the need for bioinformatics far beyond the laboratory. 

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Environmental Chemistry

Search Timeline: Search Completed Winter 2023

The job description is available.

Potential areas of expertise, in teaching or collaborative research, of this position are vast: the chemistry of urban and indoor atmospheres; air and water pollution, including waste-water treatment chemistry and environmental remediation; distribution or interaction of chemical species in atmospheric, terrestrial, or aquatic ecosystems; the application of analytical and microfluidic techniques to stop or reverse environmental problems; and the chemistry of solid wastes.

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Environmental Science

Search Timeline: The search will occur in the 2023-24 academic year

The job description is available.

An environmental scientist at Bates will find, within the Program in Environmental Studies, a strong culture of interdisciplinary research and coursework in the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities.

Comfortable working outside of disciplinary silos, the scientist will explore the interface of human and ecological or geomorphological systems, or explore earth surface processes, such as ecology, biodiversity, pollution, energy transitions, or public health. A range of approaches and world views are welcome: spatial patterns, data visualization, modeling, field studies, traditional ecological knowledge, local ecological knowledge, or the dynamics of social-ecological systems.