The department of Environmental and Occupational Health at the University of California, Irvine announces a new Project Scientist position available in Summer 2024. The successful candidate will serve as the assistant director of the Environmental Justice Research Lab to support a board program of community-based participatory research, community engagement and community science. This person will conduct investigations around community-driven epidemiology for environmental justice in both urban and rural contexts. We are seeking applicants with demonstrated experience in and/or commitment to working effectively with diverse communities. Research opportunities on multiple community-driven environmental justice projects focused on industrial pollution, health disparities, women and children, and community engagement abound in Southern California. A substantial portion of our research is grounded in working with economically stressed communities of color and conducted in partnership with community-based environmental justice organizations across Los Angeles and throughout Southern California.

A Project Scientist plans, designs, and conducts highly specialized, technical, and complex research projects independently. They analyze and evaluate research data and provide interpretations requiring significant knowledge of a specialized area of research and may contribute to the development of advanced new concepts, techniques and standards. Research Scientists develop solutions to complex research problems, which require a high degree of ingenuity, creativity, and innovativeness. The position requires excellent analytical skills, demonstrated ability to develop and execute creative approaches to analytical problems, strong written and oral communication skills, experience in both technology, community, public health and health policy analysis, experience working on externally funded grants, a willingness to attract external funding, the ability to lead projects and proposals, work as a member of a multi-disciplinary team, and a commitment to affecting change through empirical research. Our current and potential lines of research address health concerns of communities—especially those that consist primarily of Latinx, Asian/Pacific Islander and Blacks living under economic hardship and facing disproportionate adverse health outcomes from social and environmental disparities. Topics of interest include a) energy transitions and impacts to urban and rural communities; (b) health impacts of energy and climate crisis on communities and specifically women; and (c) air pollution arising from land-use decisions such as locating industries (e.g. lithium extraction or oil drilling) adjacent to homes and schools. Innovative approaches for exposure assessment and research translation to reduce health disparities, address environmental racism and promote health equity would be especially welcomed.

Successful candidates would have demonstrated leadership in developing new ideas and ability to publish in appropriate academic and practitioner outlets, excellence in managing the execution of multiple research projects, worked successfully with research and community partners and thought leaders, demonstrated ability to successfully develop and organize a strategic research agenda, execute and manage projects on a tight timeline, and provide measurable outcomes to document the success of the research agenda. They will have demonstrated independent thinking and leadership in proposal and scholarly writing according to such criteria as: first authored publications, conceptual leadership in the development of publications generated alone or with others, writing of first drafts of publications and/or single authored publications. Additionally, will have demonstrated experience with grant and technical report writing.

The salary range for this position is $104,000 - $195,000. The posted UC salary scales set the minimum pay determined by rank and step at appointment. See Table: https://www.ucop.edu/academic-personnel-programs/_files/2024-25/july-2024-scales/t37-b.pdf.