Postdoc in Transdisciplinary Digital Twins for Climate-Smart and Health-Safe Cities

Job description

The challenge

Cities worldwide are increasingly implementing Blue-Green Infrastructure and Nature-Based Solutions to address climate-related challenges such as urban heat stress and flooding. While these interventions can improve urban resilience and liveability, they may also introduce new public health risks, including mosquito breeding and vector-borne disease transmission.

The UrbanHealthTwin project addresses this challenge by developing digital twin approaches for climate-resilient and health-conscious urban planning. The project integrates climate, water, urban, biological, epidemiological, and community knowledge into an explainable digital twin that supports evidence-based climate adaptation decisions in São Paulo and Rotterdam.

Your role

As postdoctoral researcher, you will lead the development of the UrbanHealthTwin digital twin platform, integrating climate, hydrological, epidemiological, biological, and urban-system models into an interactive and explainable decision-support environment for climate adaptation and public health planning.

You will coordinate digital twin activities across the wider international consortium and help ensure that the platform aligns with both scientific objectives and practical stakeholder needs. You will also investigate existing digital twin initiatives in Rotterdam and explore opportunities to connect and build upon ongoing city-scale developments.

In this role, you will:

• Lead the UrbanHealthTwin project and work package on Digital Twin for Urban Climate and Health Risk Integration.
• Develop knowledge-graph-based approaches for integrating heterogeneous datasets and models.
• Support simulation orchestration across hydrological, urban climate, epidemiological, and urban-system models.
• Design interactive and explainable digital twin interfaces for policymakers, planners, public health professionals, and community stakeholders.
• Translate complex model outputs into accessible insights for scenario-based climate adaptation decision-making.
• Support the integration of probabilistic exposure and risk maps into digital twin workflows.
• Contribute to case studies involving urban heat islands, waterlogging risks, mosquito breeding risks, and climate adaptation scenarios.
• Train and support project stakeholders in digital twin concepts, tools, workflows, and interfaces.
• Collaborate closely with academic and societal partners in the Netherlands and Brazil.
• Contribute to scientific publications, prototypes, and project deliverables.

Environment and collaboration

The successful candidate will work within the Integral Design and Management Section of the 3MD Department, Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, TU Delft, and will be associated with the DigiConstruct Lab.

The project brings together researchers and stakeholders from TU Delft, Leiden University, University of Groningen, institutions in São Paulo, and a broader network of urban and public health partners. The role offers opportunities to lead digital twin development, coordinate an international research work package, collaborate with urban and public health stakeholders, and contribute to prototypes, case studies, publications, and scientific outputs.

Job requirements

We are looking for a candidate with strong computational and interdisciplinary research skills, and an interest in climate adaptation and urban health challenges. You:

• Hold a PhD, or are close to completing a PhD, in a relevant field such as Computer Science, Data Science, Artificial Intelligence, Geomatics, Civil or Environmental Engineering, Urban Systems, Climate Adaptation, or a related discipline.
• Have experience with digital twins, geospatial modelling, simulation workflows, semantic data integration, urban analytics, or decision-support systems.
• Have strong programming skills, preferably in Python and/or JavaScript.
• Are comfortable working with geospatial and heterogeneous datasets.
• Have experience with GIS and spatial data processing, including geospatial datasets, map layers, or web-based mapping tools.
• Enjoy collaborating across disciplines and working with researchers, policymakers, and stakeholders.
• Communicate clearly in English and can explain technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Are willing to travel to São Paulo for an extended research stay and collaborate closely with Brazilian project partners.
• Are motivated to work in an international and transdisciplinary research environment.

Experience with knowledge graphs, semantic web technologies, web development, urban climate modelling, epidemiological modelling, FAIR data principles, or climate-risk mapping is considered an advantage.

TU Delft (Delft University of Technology)

Delft University of Technology is built on strong foundations. As creators of the world-famous Dutch waterworks and pioneers in biotech, TU Delft is a top international university combining science, engineering and design. It delivers world class results in education, research and innovation to address challenges in the areas of energy, climate, mobility, health and digital society. For generations, our engineers have proven to be entrepreneurial problem-solvers, both in business and in a social context.

At TU Delft we embrace diversity as one of our core values and we actively engage to be a university where you feel at home and can flourish. We value different perspectives and qualities. We believe this makes our work more innovative, the TU Delft community more vibrant and the world more just. Together, we imagine, invent and create solutions using technology to have a positive impact on a global scale. That is why we invite you to apply. Your application will receive fair consideration.

Challenge. Change. Impact!

Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences

The Faculty of Civil Engineering & Geosciences (CEG) is committed to outstanding international research and education in the field of civil engineering, applied earth sciences, traffic and transport, water technology, and delta technology. Our research feeds into our educational programmes and covers societal challenges such as climate change, energy transition, resource availability, urbanisation and clean water. Our research projects are conducted in close cooperation with a wide range of research institutions. CEG is convinced of the importance of open science and supports its scientists in integrating open science in their research practice. The Faculty of CEG comprises 28 research groups in the following seven departments: Materials Mechanics Management & Design, Engineering Structures, Geoscience and Engineering, Geoscience and Remote Sensing, Transport & Planning, Hydraulic Engineering and Water Management.

Click here to go to the website of the Faculty of Civil Engineering & Geosciences.

Additional information

For more information about this vacancy, please contact Ranjith Soman at r.soman@tudelft.nl

Application procedure

Are you interested in this vacancy? Please apply no later than 21 June 2026 via the application button and upload the following documents:

• CV
• Motivational letter
• Published papers or draft of submittted papers (in confidence)

You can address your application to Ranjith Kuttantharappel Soman.

Please note:

• You can apply online. We will not process applications sent by email and/or post.
• As part of knowledge security, TU Delft conducts a risk assessment during the recruitment of personnel. We do this, among other things, to prevent the unwanted transfer of sensitive knowledge and technology. The assessment is based on information provided by the candidates themselves, such as their motivation letter and CV, and takes place at the final stages of the selection process. When the outcome of the assessment is negative, the candidate will be informed. The processing of personal data in the context of the risk assessment is carried out on the legal basis of the GDPR: performing a public task in the public interest. You can find more information about this assessment on our website about knowledge security.
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