5 Aug 2026
Job Information
Organisation/Company: ENS/PSL
Department: Geosciences
Research Field: Environmental science » Global change
Research Field: Environmental science » Earth science
Research Field: Mathematics » Statistics
Researcher Profile: First Stage Researcher (R1)
Positions: Postdoc Positions
Application Deadline: 1 Sep 2026 - 00:00 (Europe/Paris)
Country: France
Type of Contract: Temporary
Job Status: Full-time
Hours Per Week: 40
Offer Starting Date: 1 Nov 2026
Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme?: Not funded by a EU programme
Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure?: No
Offer Description
Supervised by Freddy BOUCHET and Yoann ROBIN.
Where: École Normale Supérieure ENS/PSL Paris and IPSL – CNRS - Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique (LMD).
When: Starting on fall 2027.
Duration: A two-year post-doctoral position.
Scientific description:
The deadliest heatwaves so far were unprecedented events in historical records: the 2003 Western-European and the 2010 Russian heatwaves, with death tolls of 70,000 and 100,000 respectively. Similarly, it is expected that future events with extremely high death tolls, for instance in South Asia or elsewhere, might be unprecedented. Consequently, the study of heatwave hazards for present or future climate requires to study both usual extreme events with return periods of a few years to a few decades, the ones usually considered based on past recent experience, but also in complement extremely rare events, possibly unprecedented ones, which might have drastic consequences (low likelihood high impact events).
For such events, the scarcity of historical data and the difficulty of simulating them faithfully with comprehensive complex models, pose severe scientific challenges. For instance, the death toll from climate-related disasters is dominated by a handful of extreme weather catastrophes — events for which no historical precedent exists and for which realistic models are too costly to run and poorly anchored to observations. Moreover, the rare events that most affect the real world have often been overlooked by the academic community, owing to a limited understanding of how socio-ecosystems function and interact.
This post-doc is part of the international transdisciplinary project IMPHRESS that gathers key stakeholders in India, and academic teams in France, India, and the USA, and funded by the Belmont forum through ANR. The aim of this transdisciplinary project is to study the statistics of rare, extremely rare, and unprecedented heat extremes (either dry or wet) over Southern-Asia, using up to date theoretical, statistical and computational tools. The proposed work is to improve the estimate of the probability of extreme heatwaves both in present climate and future climate for different emission scenarios. From the applications point of view, the originality of the contribution will be to consider new heatwave indicators specifically dedicated to the South-Asian context, and that will be developed along the project though transdisciplinary interactions with Indian local stakeholders, for instance KEM Hospital Research Center and IIPH Bhubaneshwar. The statistical method has to be sufficiently versatile for back-and-forth scientific exchanges with the stakeholders.
The recent advances in mathematics and theoretical physics developed in the group of Freddy Bouchet have made a decisive difference, drawing on large deviation theory, rare event simulation, and machine learning for stochastic processes. To address this severe scientific challenge, we have developed three complementary approaches: (i) rare event simulations that efficiently generate model trajectories for unseen events and accurately estimate their probabilities; (ii) dynamical emulators leveraging machine learning to simulate Earth's atmospheric dynamics thousands of times faster than physical models; and (iii) Bayesian generalized extreme value statistics, combining observational data and model outputs to estimate the probabilities of rare events under future climates (based on initial works by Ribes and Robin). We will use these tools for studying South-East Asia heatwaves.
Profile: Applications are invited from candidates with a PhD degree, either in the fields of physics, climate, mathematics, or computer and data sciences. The motivation of the candidate for climate studies within a multidisciplinary environment will be essential.
Application process: Applications must include a cover letter, a CV, 2 recommendations letters and be sent before September, 1st, 2026, to Freddy.Bouchet@cnrs.fr.
Where to apply
E-mail: Freddy.Bouchet@cnrs.fr
Requirements
- Research Field: Environmental science » Earth science
- Education Level: PhD or equivalent
- Research Field: Mathematics » Statistics
- Education Level: PhD or equivalent
- Research Field: Physics » Statistical physics
- Education Level: PhD or equivalent
- Research Field: Environmental science » Global change
- Education Level: PhD or equivalent
Skills/Qualifications: See general announcement
Languages: ENGLISH
Level: Excellent
Internal Application form(s) needed: Post-doc-position-Extreme-Heat-Southern-Asia.pdf (English, 219.99 KB - PDF)
Additional Information
Work Location(s)
Number of offers available: 1
Company/Institute: ENS/PSL
Country: France
State/Province: Paris
City: Paris
Postal Code: 75005
Street: 24, rue Lhomond
Contact
State/Province: Paris
City: Paris
Website: https://www.ens.psl.eu
Street: 25, rue Lhomond
Postal Code: 75005
E-Mail: freddy.bouchet@cnrs.fr
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