The recently created National Research Center for Natural Disasters Management (RCiNDIM) (http://www.cigiden.cl) funded by the Chilean Commission for Science and Technology (CONICYT, http://www.conicyt.cl/fondap/) offers up to 5 postdoctoral fellowships starting in may-june 2013. RCiNDIM aims to become a world-class research center whose primary objective is to integrate, develop, and transfer knowledge that will enable Chile to better confront natural disasters. The core purpose of the Center will be to substantially increase the capacity of the Chilean society to respond systemically and effectively to the occurrence of natural disasters, to minimize their impact in the physical, social, and built environments, while simultaneously achieving more resilient individuals and communities.

RCINDiM is a truly integrative and multidisciplinary research initiative conformed by national and international scientists from natural and social sciences, engineering and technology. This initiative is supported first on the empirical observation of the urgent need to mitigate the tremendous negative impact of natural disasters on the welfare of the country´s population, its physical infrastructure, and its economic development; and second, on the very clear opportunity of transforming Chile into one of the most significant natural laboratories in the world to study the physics of extreme natural phenomena, their significant social consequences, and the means of reducing disaster's impact on the society.

The Center hosts some of the most prominent Chilean researchers working on earthquake and tsunami sciences, hydro meteorological processes, civil and environmental engineering, behavioral sciences, territorial planning, human geography, information, communication, automation, and sensing technologies, in a partnership involving the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (http://www.uc.cl/), Universidad Católica del Norte (http://www.ucn.cl/), Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María (http://www.usm.cl/), and Universidad Nacional Andrés Bello (http://www.unab.cl/). The research to be conducted within the Center will contribute to a better understanding and characterization of the physics and fundamental nature of critical natural events (earthquake, coastal hazards, floods, landslides, and volcano eruptions), their propagation and impact on the physical, social, and built environments. The usual segregation of risk analysis into compartmentalized geo-social-sciences and engineering components will be avoided, by letting the rationale of complex interdisciplinary problems converge into addressing realistic Extreme Event Scenarios aimed to advance science and technology. This conceptual framework will enforce the integration of theories, algorithms, technologies, and experience from all disciplines in order to improve territorial planning and social response to natural disasters.

We invite applications for two years postdoctoral fellowships in any of the six broad research areas listed below, where the specific nature of the postdoctoral research can be largely defined in consultation with the principal investigators:

• Solid Earth Processes (Dr. Gabriel González Gabriel, ggonzale@ucn.cl)
• Surface Water Processes (Dr. Rodrigo Cienfuegos, racienfu@ing.puc.cl)
• Physical and Social Vulnerability and Risk Analysis (Dr. Juan Carlos De La Llera, jcllera@ing.puc.cl)
• Emergency Response and Disaster Management (Dr. Paula Repetto, prepetto@uc.cl)
• Sustainable Risk Mitigation (Dr. Luis Abdón Cifuentes, lac@ing.puc.cl)
• Information, Communication and Automation Technologies for Disaster Management (Dr. Aldo Cipriano, aciprian@ing.puc.cl)

NOTES: 4 to 5 openings.

Additional Salary Information: Salary is assigned according to CONICYT standards, equivalent to a maximum ca. 37k USD per year, which corresponds roughly to 2.5 times the Chilean per capita average income.

Requirements

Applicants must hold a PhD in a related discipline to the center's research obtained in the last 3 years and provide demonstrated research experience through peer reviewed publications in indexed journals.

We expect the positions to be filled on April 15^th, 2013. Written full applications (including a cover letter naming two references, a CV, and a list of publications and other scientific accomplishments) should be sent before March 31, 2013 to the following address: director@cigiden.cl.