Recruitment & Admissions

The CEADs team and the Institute of Environmental and Ecological Engineering at Guangdong University of Technology are jointly recruiting several outstanding postdoctoral researchers. The positions are intended for excellent scholars working in environmental science, industrial ecology and related fields to join the joint research team. Competitive remuneration will be offered. Outstanding postdoctoral fellows may apply for appointment as distinguished professors at Guangdong University of Technology after completing the postdoctoral appointment, with priority consideration for continued employment at the university. The joint recruitment is initiated by Professor Zhifeng Yang, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and Professor Dabo Guan of the CEADs team, with participation and supervision from several distinguished young scholars.

Zhifeng Yang is an Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, Chair Professor and doctoral supervisor at Guangdong University of Technology, academic leader of a National Innovative Research Group, recipient of the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars, chief scientist of a National 973 Program project, and Changjiang Distinguished Professor of the Ministry of Education. His research focuses on water resources and water environment, ecological planning and management. He has made a number of forward-looking and key technological breakthroughs in river-basin ecological water demand assurance, wetlands, and urban environmental and ecological construction, making outstanding contributions to improving technologies for river-basin, wetland and urban environmental protection. He has broad academic influence in China and internationally. He currently serves as president of the International Society for Environmental Ecology, chair of the China Chapter of the International Society for Emergy, chair of the Ecological Information Section of the International Society for Environmental Information Sciences, and editor-in-chief, associate editor or special issue editor for multiple mainstream journals in China and abroad.

Dabo Guan is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in the United Kingdom, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Earth System Science at Tsinghua University, affiliated professor at the Bartlett School of University College London, and senior scholar at St Edmunds College, University of Cambridge. His research addresses the causes, impacts and mitigation of climate change, analyses the drivers of greenhouse gas emissions, and explores low-carbon and low-resource sustainable development pathways at global and national scales. His interdisciplinary work combining natural and social sciences has been widely recognised by the academic community. He has published more than 150 papers in high-impact SCI journals in the international environmental field, including more than 40 papers in Nature, its sister journals and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. He and his collaborators have received the Leontief Prize three times in different years. His 2014 PNAS paper received the Cozzarelli Prize, awarded to one of the best papers among more than 4,000 papers published in PNAS that year.

Yanpeng Cai is Executive Vice Dean of the Institute of Environmental and Ecological Engineering at Guangdong University of Technology, a young and middle-aged leading talent under the National Ten Thousand Talents Program, a National Young Thousand Talents scholar, and recipient of the Excellent Young Scientists Fund of the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the first cohort of the Beijing Distinguished Young Scholars Fund. He has led or participated in more than 20 domestic and international research projects, including National Key R&D Program tasks, Ministry of Science and Technology 973 projects, National Natural Science Foundation of China projects, and Beijing Natural Science Foundation projects. He serves as Associate Editor of the SCI core journal Ecological Engineering with an impact factor of 3.4, co-founded and serves on the editorial board of Sustainability & Environmental Indicators, has published more than 190 high-level papers, has been cited more than 2,000 times, and has an H-index of 28. He has received awards including the second prize of the Environmental Protection Science and Technology Award.

Ya Zhou is a Class A appointee under the Young Hundred Talents Program at Guangdong University of Technology, Distinguished Associate Professor at the Institute of Environmental and Ecological Engineering, visiting scholar at the University of East Anglia, and member of the International Society for Environmental Information Sciences. Her research focuses on energy-environment systems analysis, urban ecosystem management, climate change and sustainable development. She has published more than 20 papers in quality journals including Applied Energy, IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid, Journal of Cleaner Production, Journal of Industrial Ecology, Energy, and International Journal of Electrical Power & Energy Systems, and has led or participated in more than 10 domestic and international research projects.

Zhifu Mi is an Assistant Professor at University College London, executive editor of the SCI journal Journal of Cleaner Production, and associate editor of the SSCI journal Structural Change and Economic Dynamics. He graduated from Shandong University and Beijing Institute of Technology, and was a postdoctoral researcher at the School of International Development, University of East Anglia. His research focuses on climate change economics and energy policy. He has published more than 50 SCI or SSCI papers in journals including Science Advances, Nature Energy, Nature Geoscience and Nature Communications, including 9 ESI hot papers and 19 ESI highly cited papers. He was selected for Forbes 30 Under 30 in recognition of his contribution to climate change economics. His awards include the 2018 World Sustainability Award, the 2018 Nature Communications Top 50 Earth and Planetary Sciences Paper Award, the 2017 China 100 Most Influential International Academic Papers, the 2017 Environmental Research Letters Best Early Career Paper Award, and the 2016 Applied Energy Highly Cited Original Paper Award. He was invited by Oxford University Press to write a review article on integrated assessment models for climate change, and has been invited many times to attend United Nations conferences on sustainable development and climate change.

Yuli Shan is a Faculty Research Fellow at the University of Groningen. He has received more than ten academic honours, including the German Green Talents Award and the Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Self-financed Students Abroad. He is a member of the editorial board of Journal of Cleaner Production and a contributing author to the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report. He graduated from the University of East Anglia and Fudan University, and his research areas include carbon emissions accounting, regional sustainable development and climate change economics. In recent years he has published more than 50 papers in leading international journals including Science and Nature sister journals, with 9 papers selected as ESI hot papers and 11 as ESI highly cited papers. His work has been widely covered by domestic and international media.

I. Responsibilities

Assist in coordinating and completing relevant research tasks; assist in applying for research projects; publish academic papers.

II. Application Requirements

1. Basic requirements:

In principle, applicants should have obtained or be about to obtain a doctoral degree within the past three years and be under the age of 35.

Applicants should have a professional background in environmental science and engineering, environmental planning and management, ecology, geography, systems science, population, resources and environmental economics, management science and engineering, or related fields.

Applicants should be committed to scientific research, have independent research capability, a strong sense of responsibility, and good teamwork skills.

The postdoctoral appointment requires full-time work on site.

2. Academic level and research capability. Applicants should meet at least one of the following conditions:

Published at least two high-level academic papers as first author in the relevant discipline in the past five years. High-level academic papers refer specifically to T-class and A-class papers.

Published at least one paper as first author in a top journal in the discipline, or a highly cited or hot paper.

Led at least one provincial or ministerial level research project or task.

Recognised as having outstanding academic and research capability by the university academic committee, faculty academic subcommittee or other academic bodies, based on recommendations from well-known experts in China or abroad.

III. Compensation

Base annual salary starting from RMB 330,000, plus research rewards and project performance payments. During the postdoctoral appointment, those who obtain national funding including the Young Scientists Fund, or special funding from the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation, may receive rewards. High-level research outputs during the appointment, including papers, patents and projects, will be rewarded according to the relevant university research reward policies. Participation in consulting and service projects will be compensated based on workload.

IV. Other Benefits

1. Social insurance. The university will provide social insurance and housing provident fund contributions for postdoctoral fellows in accordance with regulations. The employee contribution will be deducted from the annual salary and paid by the university on behalf of the fellow.

2. Housing. During the appointment, the university will arrange accommodation in postdoctoral apartments. Rent, utilities and related fees will be paid by the individual according to university standards.

3. Professional title. Upon entry, the university will appoint the fellow as Distinguished Associate Professor. Particularly outstanding fellows may apply for appointment as Distinguished Professor after completing the postdoctoral appointment.

4. Retention policy. Postdoctoral fellows rated excellent in the exit assessment may be introduced as high-level talents under the university Young Hundred Talents Program or Hundred Talents Program, with priority consideration under equal conditions.

5. Postdoctoral talent programs. The university encourages and supports postdoctoral fellows to apply for various postdoctoral talent programs. Fellows who obtain talent program funding will receive both the university annual salary and the program funding, with total annual income up to RMB 480,000.

6. International exchange. After completing one year on site and meeting university requirements, fellows may apply for paid long-term joint training and exchange at leading overseas universities such as University College London in the United Kingdom, the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, and the University of Maryland in the United States.

V. Application Method

Applicants may submit application materials by mail or email, including one Chinese CV, copies of academic credentials, degree certificates and other supporting materials. Please compile the materials into one PDF file and name it in the format Name + graduating university + major. Enquiries about specific research directions are also welcome.

The recruitment is open to applicants inside and outside the university. Candidates will be selected through application, eligibility review and interview procedures.

Contact: Ya Zhou

Phone: 13632816800

Email: yazhou@gdut.edu.cn