University of California, Santa Barbara, Statistics and Applied Probability

Position ID: UCSBSAPP-MELLICHAMP [#21848, JPF02370]
Position Title: Mellichamp Chair in Statistics and Applied Probability
Position Type: Tenured/Tenure-track faculty
Position Location: Santa Barbara, California 93106, United States [map] sort by distance
Subject Area: Environmental Justice
Application Deadline: 2023/01/17 11:59PMhelp popup finished (2022/12/17, finished 2023/07/22, listed until 2023/06/30)
Position Description:    

*** this position has been closed. ***

Environmental harms and benefits are not shared equitably, either domestically or internationally. Throughout the world, low-income and marginalized groups, particularly communities of color and Indigenous populations, experience the greatest exposure and vulnerability to pollution, climate risks, and their associated negative health effects. These inequities are driven by multiple forces, including structural racism perpetrated by government institutions, corporations, and discriminatory and inequitable legal systems. 


Environmental and racial justice scholars have recognized the ways these intersecting and cascading socio-environmental crises reinforce and amplify each other. Policies that confront unequal environmental harms represent an important step towards racial justice, while racial justice is a precondition for lasting solutions to climate disruption, environmental instability and societal adaptation. There is a fundamental need for interdisciplinary scholarship that holistically explores these intertwined challenges. UCSB, a Hispanic-Serving and Asian American, Native American, and Pacific Islander-Serving Institution, seeks to hire a cluster of four scholars whose research and professional activities describe, diagnose, and propose solutions to the inequities that permeate attempts to manage the environment. These hires will be appointed as Mellichamp Chairs in Racial Environmental Justice, joining the existing Mellichamp Chairs in Racial Environmental Justice and a strong and expanding group of faculty across numerous departments, and colleges at UCSB with expertise in environmental, climate, food, Indigenous, and social justice. They will be expected to participate in collaborative activities with the other scholars hired as part of this cluster, including, but not limited to: cross-university working groups, workshops, and conferences. These efforts will be supported with campus and chair resources. 

The new cluster of Mellichamp Chairs in Racial Environmental Justice will amplify existing campus strengths in both interdisciplinary environmental research and environmental and climate justice. These scholars, appointed at the Associate or Full Professor level, will be primarily housed in or across the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management, the Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies, the Environmental Studies Program, and the Department of Statistics and Applied Probability, interacting with faculty and possibly having joint appointments across multiple departments including Anthropology, Asian American Studies, Black Studies, Economics, Global Studies, Political Science, and Sociology. With these positions we have three objectives: (1) prioritizing race as a critical lens through which to understand environmental injustices; (2) building UCSB's capacity for collaborations among humanistic, qualitative, and quantitative research teams on racial environmental justice; and (3) expanding definitions of (and imagining the redesign of) the environment to include the built and urban spaces that many marginalized communities inhabit. 

As part of the Mellichamp Chairs in Racial Environmental Justice cluster hire, UCSB’s Department of Statistics and Applied Probability seeks to hire a faculty member who engages in environmental and/or climate justice challenges through Statistics and Data Science methods. The candidate’s data-analytic transdisciplinary research to study racial inequities in environmental exposures, and/or health and environmental policies, public health, morbidity, food security, climate and urban analytics, will expand campus strengths in quantitative environmental justice research and promote more just and inclusive policies. We especially seek applicants with research agendas in spatial/temporal data science, causal inference, big data analytics, extreme values and uncertainty quantification in climate, environment and health sciences including environmental epidemiology, statistical assessment of cumulative burden of environmental and social injustice, and data-driven decision making. The ideal candidate will actively engage in collaborative research with the Statistics and Data Science group in the department as well as Data Science Initiatives on campus, other cluster Chairs, and contribute to cross-disciplinary quantitative social science or demographic research centers/programs on campus. The Chair will be expected to contribute to our ongoing departmental and campus efforts to recruit and support students and scholars from underrepresented minority groups and first generation students. Responsibilities of faculty members include the development of an actively funded research program of the highest quality, teaching at undergraduate and graduate levels, recruitment, supervision, and mentorship of graduate students, and participation in department leadership, university service and professional activities. We welcome applicants from Statistics, Biostatistics and Computational Social Science backgrounds. 

The University is especially interested in candidates who can contribute to the diversity and excellence of the academic community through research, teaching, and service as appropriate to the position. 

For more information on the department, please visit www.pstat.ucsb.edu

The University of California is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.

As a condition of employment, you will be required to comply with the University of California SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) Vaccination Program Policy: https://policy.ucop.edu/doc/5000695/SARS-CoV-2_Covid-19. All Covered Individuals under the policy must provide proof of Full Vaccination or, if applicable, submit a request for Exception (based on Medical Exemption, Disability, and/or Religious Objection) or Deferral (based on pregnancy) no later than the applicable deadline. Please refer to Appendix F, Section II.C. of the policy for the deadlines applicable to new University of California employees. (Capitalized terms in this paragraph are defined in the policy.) Federal, state, or local public health directives may impose additional requirements.


We are not accepting applications for this job through MathJobs.Org right now. Please apply at https://recruit.ap.ucsb.edu/JPF02370 external link.
Contact: Alan Mojarro Franco, (805)893-2129, (805)893-4867 (fax)
Email: email address
Postal Mail:
University of California MC3110, 5607 South Hall
Santa Barbara, CA 93106
Web Page: www.pstat.ucsb.edu