Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) Tier II Canada Research Chair in Human Thermoregulatory Physiology

Academic

Job Category

Faculty Bargaining

Job Title

Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) Tier II Canada Research Chair in Human Thermoregulatory Physiology

Department

UBCO | Faculty | School of Health and Exercise Sciences | Faculty of Health and Social Development (Jonathan Little)

Posting End Date

February 1, 2025

Note: Applications will be accepted until 11:59 PM on the Posting End Date.

Job End Date

The expected salary range for these positions are:

Assistant Professor: $110,000 - $135,000

Associate Professor: $155,000 – $180,000

Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) Tier II Canada Research Chair in Human Thermoregulatory Physiology

Academic unit: Faculty of Health and Social Development, UBC Okanagan campus

Type of appointment: Assistant Professor, Tenure Track or Associate Professor, Tenure

Anticipated Start date: April 1st, 2026

Date posted:  December 13, 2024

Closing Date: February 2nd, 2025

Situated on the traditional, ancestral, unceded territory of the Syilx Okanagan Nation, The Faculty of Health and Social Development at the University of British Columbia (UBC) Okanagan campus invites applications for a Tier II Canada Research Chair (CRC) in Human Thermoregulatory Physiology in the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) stream. Tier II CRCs are tenable for five years and renewable once.

UBC Okanagan has prioritized climate adaptation and disaster resilience as core research areas, aligning with its Outlook 2040 vision and commitments under the 2019 Climate Emergency Declaration and Canada’s 2022 National Adaptation Strategy. As part of this initiative, the campus is conducting a cluster hire for three NSERC Canada Research Chairs (CRCs) across the Faculties of Science, Applied Sciences, and Health and Social Development. These roles aim to advance research on climate change mitigation and adaptation, fostering resilient communities. The NSERC Tier-II CRC in Human Thermoregulatory Physiology in the Faculty of Health and Social Development is one of the three Chairs that will be recruited as part of the UBC Okanagan cluster hire initiative. Please consult UBC Okanagan’s VPRI webpage for more details about each Chair (https://research.ok.ubc.ca/canada-research-chairs-cluster-hiring).

Applicants must have a PhD with a strong background in both scholarship and community engagement, provide evidence of active and excellent research, and demonstrate a record of successful teaching at the undergraduate and graduate levels. The Chair will pursue a research program examining the acute and chronic influence of environmental thermoregulatory stress. Ideally, the individual would use an experimental systems physiology approach that would complement the strengths in cardiac, vascular, respiratory, cerebrovascular and metabolic physiology that already exist within the School of Health and Exercise Sciences. Critically, the research program should be aligned with the institutional priority of Environmental Resilience, with clear avenues for the development of mitigation strategies to enhance human performance, comfort and safety in thermally challenging and unstable environments.

This individual will run controlled laboratory, and field-based studies examining the human physiologic response to thermoregulatory challenges and use these data to inform further research or knowledge translation avenues. Studies examining the physiological response to environmental thermal stress in healthy individuals across the lifespan, as well as individuals with increased exposure to these stressors (e.g., wildland firefighters and military personnel) or those with chronic health conditions, would produce data that could be used as a basis for future cross-faculty collaboration. For example, the CRC might work with colleagues across UBC to apply the knowledge they develop through their research program to inform 1) mechanistic studies exploring the influence of genetic, epigenetic, immunological and microbiome status on the human response to thermal stress, 2) the development of new materials or mitigation strategies to enhance human comfort, safety, and performance in challenging environments, or 3) policy development (e.g., health, first responders/military, schools, or provincial government).

The successful candidate will be an emerging scholar who has achieved public and academic recognition for their intellec