Guarini Dean’s Postdoctoral Fellowship – Climate Resilience, Health Systems, and Quantitative Modeling

Description

Dartmouth College invites applications for the Guarini Dean’s Postdoctoral Fellowship jointly hosted by

• The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice (TDI)
• The Irving Institute for Energy & Society
• Dartmouth Cancer Center / Department of Radiation Oncology

This fellowship supports early-career scholars whose work advances climate resilience, health-system preparedness, operations modeling, and quantitative approaches to energy–health intersections.

The PROF Program aims to expand the pipeline to the professoriate by preparing early-career scholars for long-term success in academia. Fellows join a multidisciplinary cohort committed to increasing inclusive access in their disciplines and in higher education through research, teaching, and community engagement.

Research Focus and Opportunity

This two-year fellowship advances scholarship at the intersection of:

• Climate resilience & health systems
•  Quantitative operations research and optimization
• Systems engineering, energy transitions & energy justice
• Health services research and implementation science
•  Environmental health & population health
• Computational modeling, simulation, and data-driven decision-making

The fellow will contribute to Dartmouth’s institutional priorities in Cold Climate Resilience (President Beilock) and interdisciplinary climate-health initiatives across TDI, Geisel, and the Irving Institute. Core activities include:

1. Climate-Hazard Vulnerability Assessment. A quantitative assessment of climate-related risks (e.g., heat, storms, wildfire smoke, grid instability, energy disruptions) across Dartmouth Health hospitals and clinics.
2. Healthcare & Energy Climate Resilience Toolkit. Development of optimization-based or modeling-driven decision tools for hospital and cancer-care resilience—especially in northern, cold-climate, and rural regions.
3. Interdisciplinary Quantitative Modeling Applicants may pursue independent research aligned with their disciplinary training and scholarly interests, such as:

• Mathematical modeling & simulation
•  Optimization of clinical pathways or resilience strategies
•  Energy systems modeling applied to healthcare
• Quantitative environmental epidemiology
• Operations management & decision science
• Machine learning, data science, or computational modeling
• Stochastic modeling of climate-health disruptions
• Systems engineering approaches to resilience design

Fellows will be expected to contribute their quantitative expertise toward developing modeling, optimization, or analytical approaches that strengthen climate–health resilience and health-system preparedness at Dartmouth and in northern, cold-climate regions.

4. Trainee-directed Scholarship. Fellows retain protected time for their research agenda and publications, supporting career advancement and strong positioning in the academic job market. Fellows will be encouraged to develop independent lines of scholarship suitable for NIH K-award, NSF CAREER, or equivalent early-career pathways.

Mentorship Environment

Primary co-mentors:

Amber Barnato, MD, MPH, MS
Director, TDI; Professor of Medicine
Expertise: health-care delivery, implementation science, equity, pragmatic trials

Katie Lichter, MD, MPH
Assistant Professor, Radiation Oncology & Health Policy
Director, Division of Sustainable & Resilient Cancer Care
Expertise: climate-health, environmental sustainability, health systems, oncology

Additional mentorship from Irving Institute faculty (e.g., operations research, systems engineering, energy modeling), the COBRE Implementation Research Core, and Dartmouth Engineering as appropriate for the fellow’s disciplinary background. Fellows will participate in TDI res