Postdoctoral Researcher - Forest Management and Economics

In research, you will develop your own ideas within the wider field of forest management and economics, building on or linking to remote sensing, decision support, and related areas. You will acquire, clean, analyse, and interpret data, prepare scientific manuscripts, contribute to non-scientific outputs, and present your work at national and international conferences. You will also play an active role in developing new research proposals. This includes combining your own scientific interests with the broader research focus of the FORM group, identifying funding opportunities, contributing to proposals as a PI, collaborator, or partner, and helping turn good ideas into funded projects. In teaching, you will contribute to existing and new courses in the Bachelor’s and Master’s programs in Forest and Landscape Management, particularly Forest Economics. You will help students understand how ecological, economic, spatial, and societal questions come together when decisions about forests and landscapes are made. You will supervise student projects. This includes helping students shape research questions, develop methods, collect and clean data, apply statistical approaches, improve their writing, and move from “I have an idea” to “I have a solid thesis.” Beyond research and teaching, you will support and sometimes lead the organisation of workshops, meetings, events, and other activities hosted by FORM and D-USYS. You will help maintain and develop scientific networks and professional alliances, and you will be encouraged to further develop your own skills in project management, supervision, communication, leadership, and collaboration.

The Chair of Forest Resources Management FORM at ETH Zurich is looking for a Postdoctoral Researcher to join our team. The position combines research, teaching, student supervision, project development, and engagement with a lively scientific and professional network. It is a great opportunity for someone who wants to grow as an independent researcher while contributing to applied, forward-looking forestry research. The FORM group is a dynamic, interdisciplinary research team at ETH Zurich. We work on the question of how forests can be understood, monitored, modelled, and managed today and in the future. Our research connects forest ecology, forest management, remote sensing, decision support, risk analysis, economics, and stakeholder-oriented approaches. We are strongly involved in teaching within the Department of Environmental Systems Science D-USYS. Our courses, practicals, field activities, and student projects cover forest resources management, forest and landscape planning, forest economics, applied decision-making, and the sustainable management of landscapes under changing environmental conditions. We like research that is rigorous, useful, creative, and connected to the real world. We work with data, models, maps, people, forests, students, and partners from science, practice, and administration.

• You hold a PhD in forestry, forest sciences, forest economics, environmental sciences with a major in forest and landscape management, or a related field, providing you with solid knowledge about forests

• You have a strong interest in forest management and economics and enjoy working at the interface of science, teaching, and application

• You bring experience in developing research ideas, analysing data, writing scientific publications, and communicating results to different audiences

• You are curious, methodologically strong, and ready to connect your expertise with the broader work of the group

• You enjoy teaching and supervising students

• Ideally, you already have experience in university teaching, thesis supervision, course development, or applied educational formats

• You communicate clearly, give constructive feedback, and like helping students grow

• Very good English skills are required

• German skills are an asset, especially for teaching and exchange with Swiss practice partners

• You should be comfortable working in an interdisciplinary team, taking initiative, organising your work independently, and contributing to a positive, respectful, and collaborative team culture