Job Description

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This Singapore Ministry of Education grant funded position looks at water security in Southeast Asia. The overarching goals of this project are to (i) enhance the dataset underpinning regional water security, by reconstructing rainfall variability and the frequency of rainfall-related extreme events in Singapore, West Malaysia, andnorthern Sumatra between 1900 and 1960, and (ii) explore the socio-economic consequences of extremes to investigate patterns and strategies of risk and resilience. We will achieve these goals byexamining a body of untapped historical instrumental and documentary sources of weather and climate information which our team will research and collate from archives in the UK, US, Singapore and the Netherlands. The goal is to use past climate information will enhance our ability to estimate present and future vulnerability and,to infer whether rainfall-related extreme events were more, or less, severe in the recent past than in the period more commonly associated with anthropogenic change. The comparison of our record of floods and droughts with known El-Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events will allow us to deepen our understanding of the correlation of ENSO with localised extremes, especially those outside of the normal patterns of decadal variability.

The successful applicant will have prior experience in climate history, historical climatology, or a related field, and will hold a PhD in the same, and will be able to undertake archival research for historical weather information (in narrative and data form); be able to supervise and manage a crowd sourcing Zooniverse project to digitise extant and newly acquired weather data; will be able to compile a database of extreme weather events, their impacts and associated societal responses (through archival analysis of international collections of documents and newspapers from the study period) and, finally, to use this evidence to explore the impacts of rainfall extremes upon societies in Singapore, Malaysia and Sumatra during the study period.

Desirable, but not essential, would be to convert qualitative descriptions of rainfall conditions into continuous quantitative ordinal-scale climate indices (using standard historical climatology methods) and /or to be able to meld the quantitative meteorological data and climate indices to generate regional precipitation reconstructions (through integration of our data into the NOAA20th Century Reanalysis dataset).

The successful applicant will be expected to reside in Singapore for the duration of the grant and be able to travel to the UK, the US and, potentially, the Netherlands, for extended periods.

A summary of the responsibilities include: * To extend and expand the long time-series records of meteorological data and extreme climate-induced events in our study area (by running a Zooniverse project to digitise historical instrumental weather data contained in ships logbooks, newspapers, and mission station records, using crowd-sourcing methods);

• To compile a database of narrative evidence describing weather conditions and weather events, their impacts and associated societal responses (through archival analysis of international collections of missionary documents and newspapers from historical archives), and to assist in converting qualitative descriptions of rainfall conditions into continuous quantitative ordinal-scale climate indices (using standard historical climatology methods);
• To use the narrative evidence compiled in point 2, to explore the impacts of rainfall extremes upon societies in Singapore, Malaysia and Sumatra during the study period through modelling and/or historical analysis.

Qualifications: * PhD in Historical Climatology, Climate History, or a related field.

• Database management, data collection from historical archives; critical textual analysis; analysis of historical meteorological data.

Other Information:

Applicants will need to provide a resume, cover letter and a Statement of Research

About Us:

Singapore Management University is a place where high-level professionalism blends together with a healthy informality. The \'family-like\' atmosphere among the SMU community fosters a culture where employees work, plan, organise and play together building a strong collegiality and morale within the university.

Our commitment to attract and retain talent is ongoing. We offer attractive benefits and welfare, competitive compensation packages, and generous professional development opportunities all to meet the work-life needs of our staff. No wonder, then, that SMU continues to be given numerous awards and recognition for its human resource excellence.

Singapore Management University