Advertisement Number: P.Rect./R&D/2023/79

About the project: The states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar have amongst the worst air pollution in India. A new path-breaking project aims to deploy and monitor air quality in all the rural districts of the two states. The criteria for identifying the non-attainment cities under National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) was based on the PM₁₀ levels monitored using manual monitoringtechnology. One of the limitations of the criteria set was that this ended up excluding therural districts of India which did not have continuous PM_2.5 and PM₁₀ air quality monitoring. The project"To Support the Rural Air Quality Monitoring"is to set up a scientifically validated real-time air quality monitoring network which will provide unprecedented insights into the air quality conditions of rural India.

About the group/team: The team has made impactful contribution at nationwide scale to address the challenges of Air Pollution and Climate Change. Under the leadership of Prof Tripathi, the team has built ground-breaking innovative approaches for indigenously built low-cost sensor-based network technologies for nation-wide urban air quality monitoring and Real Time Source Apportionment (RTSA). The group has successfully evaluated a very large field-based sensor evaluation project in collaboration with MPCB, Mumbai. Recently, the group has been awarded the International Centre of Excellence on advanced pollution monitoring technologies recognized by the Office of the Principal Scientific Advisor to the Government of India. This work will be carried out as a part of this Centre. RTSA work has been done in Delhi with support from CPCB and is currently being carried out with support from Swiss Development Corporation in the cities of Lucknow and Pune.The group has also established sensor network in 5 cities (Jaipur, Chennai, Guwahati, Kanyakumari and Delhi)with support from Ericsson.

About the position

We are looking for one Project Post-Doc post who should be primarily in charge of data analysis, calibration, accuracy, report generation, and publishing papers.

Responsibilities: The candidate would be responsible for coordinating and running large scale networks for air quality measurements using low-cost sensors. The candidate will be in-charge of the air quality sensors and will be responsible for their regular operation, calibration and maintenance and ensuringdevice uptime. The candidate will also take part in analysis of large datasets evolved during such monitoring.The candidates should be open to visit field sites whenever required.

Relevant skills & experience

• Strong background in atmospheric science and air quality research.
• Significant background in handling and processing large data sets.
• Prior fieldwork experience in air quality monitoring and in operating and maintaining air quality monitoring sensors.
• Impressive publications record in high impact air quality research journals. Knowledge of any scientific programming language.
• Knowledge on programming languages like FORTRAN, Python, MATLAB, Igore, R etc.

Compensation & benefits

He/she will get the opportunity to work in a conductive environment and can avail the hostel/family accommodation facility (according to availability) at IIT Kanpur.

As regards the medical facilities, only the OPD facility for self shall be available at the Health Centre of IIT Kanpur without any reimbursement of cost of medicines. Any outside referral shall not be reimbursed. For the purpose, a medical booklet shall be provided to you on request.

Essential Qualification

• Ph.D. in Civil Engineering/Environmental Sciences/Atmospheric Sciences/Climate Sciences/Electrical Engineering/ MachineLearning/ Artificial Intelligence or relevant field.

Duration of Appointment 

• The post is purely temporary and is on contractual basis.
• The appointment for the post is up tothree years or till the completion of the project, whichever is earlier. Appointment will be initially for one year. Renewal of appointment will be subjected to the performance of the candidate.
• Salary: Rs. 60,000/65,000/70,000 per month (as per the experience)

The department reserves the right to fix suitable criteria for short listing of eligible candidates satisfying qualifications and experience. The selection will be based on two stage interviews: online and in person. Short listed candidates will be informed with an email about the date of interview.

Interested candidates mayapply via email (to [email protected]) giving full details qualifications and experience with copies of relevant certificates by April 20, 2023. *Extended till May 10, 2023.

Please mention the post applied for and advertisement no. in the subject line of email.