Associate Professor or DTU Tenure Track Assistant Professor in Quantitative Environmental Susta[...]

The Department of Environmental and Resource Engineering (DTU Sustain) at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) offers a full-time Associate Professor or Tenure track Assistant Professor position in Life Cycle Assessment . Expected start date is spring 2025. It will be nested within the Section for Quantitative Sustainability Assessment (QSA Section), which also co-hosts the DTU Centre for Absolute Sustainability (focusing on how products and systems can provide societal needs while operating within the tolerance levels of the environment) and hosts the DTU USEtox Centre (focusing on comparative assessments of chemicals, with application within life cycle impact assessment for example).

The position aims to advance research in life-cycle-based method development for assessing quantitatively the environmental sustainability of products, technologies and systems at large. The position also has a strong teaching component, where you will be co-lead in a course designed to introduce quantitative sustainability to all master students at DTU.

In the QSA Section, you will join a team of international front-runners in research pertaining to quantitative, life cycle based, and absolute sustainability assessment. We have over a 16-years period been the most publishing and cited university worldwide in the research field of life cycle assessment and are hosting/co-hosting two research Centres directed to support sustainability assessment. The position will allow you to interact with these Centres and collaborate with researchers and stakeholders across sectors, including international top-academic institutions and experts from the public and private sectors.

The position is full-time and based at DTU Lyngby campus, just north of Copenhagen. Copenhagen is renowned around the world for its relaxed atmosphere and high quality of life.

Responsibilities and qualifications
Sustainability is a central element in DTU’s Strategy, where a strategic aim is “to develop technologies for sustainable change” under which we “educate engineers who take leadership of sustainable change, and sustainability is a formal and active learning objective in all our study programmes”. In this context, quantitative sustainability assessment methods should be applicable inside and outside DTU, and the position targets current methodological challenges to achieve this aim as well as its incorporation into the education of future engineers so that they become knowledgeable about such methods.

A main responsibility of the selected candidate will be to lead and teach the course “Quantitative Sustainability (Polytechnical Foundation) that is mandatory for all master students at DTU. The selected candidate will be course responsible together with another colleague from the QSA section. The candidate will hence be setting directions and decide on several different aspects of the course from its design to student assessment, through coordination of the teaching in collaboration with other involved teachers.

We seek candidates with strong experience in one or more of the following research areas:

• Life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) methods, including development of characterization models for one or more environmental impact categories (e.g. climate change, water use, land use, toxicity of chemicals on ecosystems and human health, etc.), regionalization in LCIA, damage modelling, etc.
• Prospective life cycle assessment (LCA), including the building of life cycle inventory (LCI) datasets and implementation of temporal differentiation into LCI and LCIA.
• Macroscale sustainability assessment, with the development of methodologies, methods, models and data for assessing large-scale systems, like organizations, sectors or nations, and addressing societal changes, e.g. lifestyles, socio-/technoeconomic patterns, etc. (both retrospective and prospective angles being relevant)
• Integration of multi-region environmentally enhanced input-output statistics into methods for sustainability assessment of current and future technologies and systems, including hybridisation with process-LCA, spatially-differentiated inventory modelling to ensure sufficient coverage of resource and emission flows, links to impact assessment, and/or integration of dynamic approaches. This therefore can include combinations or integration of LCA with other complementary tools and models, such as integrated assessment models, system dynamics, computable general equilibrium models, etc.
• Integration of absolute sustainability or science-based target perspective into sustainability assessments, including the determination of biophysical limits, planetary boundaries or carrying capacities of Earth systems, the development of allocation principles (for allocating these limits and boundaries to specific assessment contexts, like companies, products or individuals) and their operationalization into quantitative sustainability assessment frameworks.
• Data analytics and potential use of AI to support more comprehensive sustainability assessments, including automated data curation and integration of various life cycle inventory and impact assessment big data streams using different machine learning and advanced computational techniques.
• Methods and indicator development for United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) assessment.

Experience and insights into the practical application of the developed methods and models in various technology fields and domains will be an advantage.

We seek candidates with a high potential for creative and independent research, willingness to collaborate and ability to interact with other researchers to build collaborations. Equally important is the ability to lead and teach introductory sustainability related courses (in particular to large classes) and to disseminate research in seminars, conferences and in the classroom.

The position requires a unique set of interdisciplinary academic expertise along with technical and training skills to establish new research areas within quantitative environmental sustainability assessment.

As part of your activities, you are thus expected to:

• Lead and teach a course with large numbers of involved teachers and students (at MSc level) as well as supervise students in their bachelor and master thesis projects.
• Conduct excellent research to develop and maintain your core research field(s) within the above-mentioned research areas at highest international level.
• Develop research proposals and attract external excellence funding and strategic funding in your research field.
• Build collaborations on developing technologies for sustainable transition with researchers within and outside DTU, and with private and public sector stakeholders.
• Engage actively and represent QSA in international network activities (e.g. UN Environment, European Commission’s Joint Research Center) within your core field(s).

As a perfect candidate for our position, you are additionally expected to:

• Value teaching at bachelor and master levels and be eager to develop your skills regarding teaching in quantitative sustainability assessment for engineers.
• Bring strong expertise and an adequate track record in one or several of the research topics listed above, drawing on competences within several of the fields of sustainability science, systems science, data integration, technology assessment, with skills in e.g. material flow analysis, life cycle assessment, input-output analysis, systems dynamics modelling, environmental impact assessment, computational data analysis, automation and machine learning, geospatial analysis, or quantitative indicator development.
• Enjoy working with complex topics using a systems perspective and integrating data and methods from various scientific disciplines.
• Motivate colleagues, peers, and students to give the very best and create an interdisciplinary atmosphere to achieve ambitious goals.
• Be a team player in a front-running research group and contribute to its further development.

You must be responsible for the teaching of courses. DTU employs two working languages: Danish and English. You are expected to be fluent in at least one of these languages, and in time are expected to master both.

As a formal qualification you must hold a PhD degree (or equivalent). If you are applying for the associate professor position you should also have academic qualifications equivalent to those obtained by holding an assistant professorship and documented didactic/pedagogic training.

You will be assessed against the responsibilities and qualifications stated above and the following general criteria:

• Experience and quality of teaching
• Research experience
• Research vision and potential
• International impact and experience
• Societal impact
• Innovativeness, including commercialization and collaboration with industry
• Leadership, collaboration, and interdisciplinary skills
• Communication skills

Salary and terms of employment
The appointment will be based on the collective agreement with the Danish Confederation of Professional Associations. The allowance will be agreed upon with the relevant union.

The assistant professor position is part of DTU’s Tenure Track program. Read more about the program and the recruitment process here .

You can read more about career paths at DTU here .

Further information
Further information may be obtained from Head of QSA Section, Prof. Alexis Laurent ( ) and Associate Professor Stig I. Olsen ( ), Department of Environmental and Resource Engineering.

You can read more about the Department of Environmental and Resource Engineering at .

If you are applying from abroad, you may find useful information on working in Denmark and at DTU at DTU – Moving to Denmark .

Application procedure
Please submit your online application no later than 23 March 2025 (23:59 Danish time).

Applications must be submitted as one PDF file containing all materials to be given consideration. To apply, please open the link "Apply now", fill out the online application form, and attach all your materials in English in one PDF file . The file must include:

• Application (cover letter)
• Vision for teaching and research for the tenure track period
• CV including employment history, list of publications, H-index and ORCID (see )
• Teaching portfolio including documentation of teaching experience
• Academic Diplomas (MSc/PhD)
• Research statement, including research vision, 3-5 most relevant scientific achievements and research strategy
• 2 support letters from professional referees (e.g. former supervisors, senior collaborators)

You can learn more about the recruitment process here .

Please indicate whether you are applying for the position as Associate or Assistant Professor.

Applications received after the deadline will not be considered.

All interested candidates irrespective of age, gender, disability, race, religion or ethnic background are encouraged to apply. As DTU works with research in critical technology, which is subject to special rules for security and export control, open-source background checks may be conducted on qualified candidates for the position.

The Department of Environmental and Resource Engineering (DTU Sustain) is one of the largest university departments specializing in environmental and resource engineering in Europe. The department conducts research, development & scientific advice and provides educational programs and service to society. We are working to develop new environmentally friendly technologies, methods and solutions to enable the transition to a sustainable society, and to disseminate this knowledge to society and future generations of engineers. The department has approximately 300 employees from more than 30 nationalities.

Technology for people
DTU develops technology for people. With our international elite research and study programmes, we are helping to create a better world and to solve the global challenges formulated in the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Hans Christian Ørsted founded DTU in 1829 with a clear mission to develop and create value using science and engineering to benefit society. That mission lives on today. DTU has 13,500 students and 6,000 employees. We work in an international atmosphere and have an inclusive, evolving, and informal working environment. DTU has campuses in all parts of Denmark and in Greenland, and we collaborate with the best universities around the world.