Research Fellow (Integrated Assessment Modeling)

About the role

The Yanyan Cheng research group at NTU's Asian School of Environment (ASE) is seeking a Research Fellow for a Singapore NRF-funded project. The fellow will advance research in Regional Integrated Assessment Model (IAM) modeling, especially GCAM, helping to understand the Land-Energy-Water nexus and how land and water constraints shape global and regional pathways toward a resilient future. Results will be shared through peer-reviewed publications and conference presentations. The appointment is one year and potentially renewable based on performance and funding availability.

Key responsibilities

• Collect and harmonize multi-source datasets for model calibration and validation.
• Develop new model functionalities in GCAM, with a focus on land, water and energy systems.
• Design and run scenario simulations to examine how climate and resource constraints affect regional resilience pathways.
• Mentor students and research assistants on integrated assessment modeling and related workflows.

Required profile

• PhD in Environmental Science.
• Extensive experience in IAM development and application, specifically with GCAM, including scenario design, model functionality development and simulation of climate mitigation and adaptation pathways.
• Published scientific papers in high-quality research journals.
• Good written and spoken English, as stakeholder engagement is required.
• Enthusiasm for research, teamwork and independent problem solving under tight deadlines.

Required skills

• High proficiency in GCAM, including its land-use (AgLU), water and energy modules; familiarity with GCAM-USA or other regionalized variants is highly desirable.
• Advanced programming in R and Python for data processing and visualization.
• Strong quantitative skills with large geospatial and socio-economic datasets.
• Proficiency in high-performance computing environments and scripting (e.g. Bash).