Careers information
This page contains information on academic fellowship programs, on sectors, organisations and companies that would probably value experience in AOPP-related research or have employed former AOPP members, and links to websites giving general information on how best to advance your career. It was put together with input from many present and former members of AOPP. Of course there are many more academic posts and firms without any focus on AOPP topics or science and technology who will hire people from our field - the Careers Service can probably provide detailed help with these. Also, check out http://research-careers.org/ for its profiles of people who have transitioned from academia to industry. This page is maintained by Peter Watson - please do email with any suggestions or queries that you have.
Academic research fellowships
General or for both climate/meteorological and space/planetary science
UK
- Royal Society: University Research Fellowship, Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowships
- Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851: Research Fellowships
- AXA fellowships (applied to through a department)
- Oxford University: Glasstone Fellowships
- Cambridge University: Herchel Smith Fellowship (field varies from year to year)
- Imperial College London: Junior Research Fellowships
- Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship
- Newton International Fellowships (for non-UK scientists looking to do research in the UK)
- Junior research fellowships at Oxford and Cambridge colleges, advertised in the Oxford University Gazette for both universities.
USA
- NASA Postdoctoral Program
- Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Lawrence Fellowship (national security-related)
Europe
- Marie Curie Actions Individual Fellowships - fund European researchers and non-Europeans seeking to do research in Europe.
- Humboldt Research Fellowship (Germany, for non-German nationals)
Elsewhere/International
- Society in Science – The Branco Weiss Fellowship
- SMART Postdoctoral Scholarship (Singapore)
- National Science Foundation International Postdoctoral Research Fellowships (for US citizens to work abroad)
Climate and meteorological science
UK
- Natural Environment Research Council: Independent Research Fellowships; co-sponsors of Daphne Jackson Fellowships (for those who have taken career breaks)
USA
- Columbia University Earth Institute Fellowship Program
- NOAA Climate and Global Change Postdoctoral Fellowship Program
- NCAR/UCAR Postdoctoral Fellowships
- Yale University Postdoctoral Fellowships e.g. at Climate and Energy Institute and the Dept of Geology and Geophysics
- Harvard Centre for the Environment Environmental Fellows Program
- Princeton Postdoc and Visiting Research Scientist Program in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences (in collaboration with GFDL)
- Scripps Institution of Oceanography Postdoctoral Program
- Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Postdoctoral Scholar Program
Space and planetary science
UK
- Science and Technology Facilities Council: Ernest Rutherford Fellowships, "supporters" of various others
- Royal Astronomical Society: Research Fellowships, Sir Norman Lockyer Fellowship, co-sponsors of Daphne Jackson Fellowships (for those who have taken career breaks)
USA
- Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellowship
- Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory Clay Postdoctoral Fellowship
- UC Berkeley Townes Fellowship
- Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Postdoctoral Earth and Planetary Sciences Fellowship
- Hubble Postdoctoral Fellowship Program (related to NASA Cosmic Origins)
- Sagan Postdoctoral Fellowships (exoplanet research)
Europe
- European Space Agency Postdoctoral Research Fellowships
- European Space Agency Living Planet Fellowships
- European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere Fellowship Programme
Elsewhere
- JAXA: International Top Young Fellowship and Aerospace Project Research Associate (Japan)
- Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Postdoctoral Fellowships for Foreign Researchers
Research institutes, research companies and meteorological agencies
UK
- Met Office
- European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts
- Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (space science)
- British Antarctic Survey (climate science)
- National Oceanography Centre
- Centre for Ecology and Hydrology
USA and Canada
- NASA GISS (climate and planetary science)
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
- Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory
- National Centre for Atmospheric Research
- National Centres for Environmental Prediction
- The USA national labs
- Scripps Institution of Oceanography
- Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
- Northwest Research Associates (mainly climate and solar science)
- Carnegie Institution for Science (does some planetary science)
- Ashima (planetary science)
- Desert Research Institute
- Environment Canada (e.g. Canadian Centre for Climate Modelling and Analysis)
Europe
- Max Planck Institutes for Meteorology, Chemistry and Chemical Ecology (Germany)
- TROPOS (Germany)
- EUMETSAT (Earth observation)
- National weather forecasters
Further afield
- Meteorological Research Institute (Japan)
- Research Institute for Global Change (climate science) (Japan)
- National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (New Zealand)
- National weather forecasters
Space science, Earth observation and instrumentation
- NASA (GISS, Goddard, JPL, Langley, Ames)
- European Space Agency
- JAXA
- Astrium
- Thales
Scientific organisations
- Royal Society
- Royal Meteorological Society
- Institute of Physics
- Royal Astronomical Society
- World Meteorological Organisation
- Research councils (e.g. NERC, STFC, EPSRC)
- EGU and AGU
Financial sector
Insurance and Reinsurance
Relevant job positions
Catastrophe modellers and exposure management analysts (though the more ambitious may want to consider broker and underwriter roles).
Examples of firms
Underwriters: XL, Hiscox, Novae, Talbot, Catlin, Amlin, Barbican, Lancashire, AXIS Capital
Brokers: Aon, Willis, Guy Carpenter, JLT, Cooper Gay, Lockton, Howden, A J Gallagher
Reinsurers: Swiss Re, Munich Re, Renaissance Re, Validus Re, Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance, PartnerRe, Aspen Re, AQR Re, Tiger Risk
Model vendors: Risk Management Solutions, EQE, AIR
(Note each firm may have activities in more than one category, the above being just a rough guide.)
Hedge funds
Weather analysts at Cumulus Hedge Funds
Financial modelling in general
Governmental and intergovernmental bodies
- Atomic Weapons Establishment
- Centre for Science and Policy
- DECC
- Defence Science and Technology Laboratory
- DEFRA
- Environment Agency
- Environmental Protection Agency (USA)
- GCHQ
- UNEP
Software development
Examples of firms doing scientific software development
- Tessella
- Scisys
- Brockmann Consult (Germany)
General resources
Here are some tips on skills to develop and how to approach interviews (pdf). stackoverflow is one place where job listings can be found. Duncan Watson-Parris has worked at Tessella and is happy to be contacted by people looking to work in this sector.
Other sectors
- Environmental consultancy e.g. JBA consulting, HR Wallingford, Amec, WSP Group, Verisk Analytics (USA) (incorporating Verisk Climate and Atmospheric and Environmental Research)
- Environmental services e.g. Cargill International
- Weather and forecasting consultancy e.g. Fugro GEOS, Speedwell Weather, Weatherquest
- Space consultancy e.g. Euroconsult
- Private weather forecasting e.g. MeteoGroup, UbiMet
- Environmentalism - http://www.environmentjob.co.uk/ lists opportunities, sometimes with a research focus.
- Data science - general sector information can be found at KDnuggets and Predictive Analytics Times; the Nature blog carried an article for scientists about the sector with links to further resources; 80,000 hours profile of the sector.
- Technology consultancy e.g. Cambridge Consultants.
- Patents and patent law e.g. Intellectual property office, JA Kemp.
- Medical physics
Sources of general information
- AOPP LinkedIn group - includes former members who have pursued both academic and non-academic career paths.
- Earthworks jobs - lists worldwide jobs in geophysics and space and planetary sciences.
- Met-jobs mailing list
- Climlist mailing list
- Royal Astronomical Society "jobslist" mailing list
- Computational Fluid Dynamics Online jobs database
- European Geosciences Union job list
- American Geosciences Union job list
- EURAXESS job search
- Prospects - graduate jobs site.
- Gradcracker - lists graduate job opportunities.
- Young Earth System Scientist community - joblists
- Oxford Physics Dept job opportunities
- Weblearn "Career Planning in the Sciences" course and their resources page.
- Vitae - career development resources for people in academia.
- 80,000 hours - organisation that does research on how to decide on a career path, provides information about different career paths and can provide coaching and links to mentors.
- National Career Development Association (USA) resources
- Edinburgh University Careers Service have compiled a "day in the life" series for a range of occupations.
- The EODG and GFD groups have kept tabs on where past group members have ended up: GFD group members, EODG former members
- MyIDP, run by Science magazine, surveys your skills and interests and suggests scientific career paths that fit you best.
- My Next Move provides information on career paths, including a tool to survey your interests and suggests career paths that may correspond to them.
- Science careers webinars cover career choices for researchers, both inside and outside academia.
- Blogs giving advice for academics who wish to move to industry: Cheeky Scientist; Next Scientist; Inside Higher Ed; The Academic Blueprint.
