Open Postdoctoral position, faculty mentor John Openshaw

Heat Stress and Strategies for Adaptation in Coastal Informal Settlement Communities

Faculty in the Stanford School of Medicine are seeking a Postdoctoral Research Fellow to join a project characterizing heat stress in coastal informal settlement communities and develop, implement, and test strategies for adaptation.

The Postdoctoral Research Fellow will join an interdisciplinary team of physician researchers, epidemiologists, environmental scientists, biologists, and engineers working in a developing research site in coastal Eastern Indonesia. 

Data collection pipelines in place to understand heat exposure and stress include temperature/humidity sensors, wearable devices, and traditional survey administration. The group is poised to begin field implementation of heat adaptation strategies including reflective cool roofs and is testing innovative household-based and personal cooling innovations in preparation for piloting and field deployment and evaluation.

Our work emphasizes deploying novel approaches to evaluate human health and empower communities to adapt in the face of environmental change. Our goal is to design, implement, and evaluate cost-effective interventions that will allow people to live healthier lives.

This position is geared toward a recent PhD graduate interested in interdisciplinary research, with experience in field implementation in low-income settings, strong data science skills, and expertise in evaluating and measuring human health outcomes.

The position will be based at Stanford University, visits to our field site in Eastern Indonesia will be required. The fellowship has two primary goals: 

• To advance our research program on the health impacts of extreme heat exposure, including building out data collection pipelines and leading the analyses of field data including survey, sensor, and wearable data.
• To work with faculty and staff to pilot, implement, and evaluate new heat-specific adaption innovations including household and personal-based approaches to decrease risk of heat stress in high-risk settings.

Developing the research program will entail supporting the team with developing, refining, and working with local partners to implement field protocols and standard operating procedures; leading data analyses; leading the drafting of manuscripts and grant applications; and developing and refining protocols to pilot, implement, and evaluate heat-specific innovations. 

The Fellow will have opportunities to partner and collaborate with faculty and programs across the University and with our research partners internationally.