Job Description

About us
Set within UCL's Faculty of The Built Environment, The Bartlett School of Environment, Energy and Resources (BSEER) is a world-leading school on sustainability transformations in research and teaching and comprised of four world-class Institutes, providing the expert knowledge collaborative research and teaching of UCL Energy Institute, UCL Institute for Environmental Design and Engineering, UCL Institute for Sustainable Heritage and UCL Institute for Sustainable Resources. The UCL Energy Institute delivers world-leading learning, research and policy support on the challenges of climate change and energy security. Most energy problems are multidisciplinary in nature, spanning science, engineering and the social sciences. Therefore, different approaches are needed to understand and tackle these issues. The UCL Energy Institute's Air Transportation Systems Laboratory (www.atslab.org) develops physical science, econometric, and operations research-based models that simulate the behaviour of passengers, freight shippers, airlines, and airports within the global aviation market. The one-of-their-kind, peer-reviewed tools help quantifying the propagating impacts of government policies, disruptive technological change, and expansions in airport capacity.
About the role
The successful candidate will be analysing how the capacity of the London airport system can be expanded while meeting the net-zero target. The researcher will be a core member of the ATSLAB and strengthen its modelling capabilities.
The successful candidate shall:
- actively support the further development of the Airline Behaviour Model
- closely collaborate with academic and industry partners in the UK and abroad
- assist in the expansion of ATSLab's research portfolio by contributing to grant applications and to scientific paper publications
- present ATSLab's research outputs at national and international conferences
- contribute to PhD and MSc student supervision and teaching as required.
The post is available from 01 November 2025 and is funded for 12 months in the first instance; further funding to support the post may become available.
A job description and person specification can be accessed at the bottom of this page. If you have any queries regarding the vacancy, or the application process, please contact bseer-recruitment@ucl.ac.uk. If you have specific questions about the role please contact Prof Andreas Schafer, a.schafer@ucl.ac.uk.
UCL welcomes applications from international applicants and has licence to sponsor individuals who require a visa. This is dependent on the post and candidate meeting eligibility requirements for visa sponsorship under UK Visas and Immigration legislation.
About you
A PhD (or in the process of submitting a PhD) along with specialism in transportation, optimisation and econometrics are essential requirements. Excellent knowledge of solvers/software and packages/programming languages, e.g., CPLEX, R, Python, Matlab is desirable.
What we offer
As well as the exciting opportunities this role presents, we also offer some great benefits, some of which are below: o 41 Days holiday (27 days annual leave, 8 bank holiday and 6 closure days) o Additional 5 days' annual leave purchase scheme o Defined benefit career average revalued earnings pension scheme (CARE) o Cycle to work scheme and season ticket loan o Immigration loan o Relocation scheme for certain posts o On-site nursery o On-site gym o Enhanced maternity, paternity and adoption pay o Employee assistance programme:Staff Support Service o Discounted medical insurance Visit https://www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/rewards-and-benefits to find out more.
Our commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
As London's Global University, we know diversity fosters creativity and innovation, and we want our community to represent the diversity of the world's talent. We are committed to equality of opportunity, to being fair and inclusive, and to being a place where we all belong. We therefore particularly encourage applications from candidates who are likely to be underrepresented in UCL's workforce. These include people from ethnic minority backgrounds; disabled people; LGBTQI+ people; and for our Grade 9 and 10 roles, women. Our department holds an Athena SWAN Silver award in recognition of our commitment and demonstrable impact in advancing gender equality.
Available documents

Skills Required