Assistant Professor in Computer Science Department and Durham Law School (Research & Education)
- Durham University
- Full Time
- Durham
- £46,485 - £55,295 per annum
Job Description
Working at Durham University
A globally outstanding centre of teaching and research excellence, a warm and friendly place to work, a unique and historic setting - Durham is a university like no other.
As one of the UK's leading universities, Durham is an incredible place to define your career. The University is located within a beautiful historic city, home to a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and surrounded by stunning countryside. Our talented scholars and researchers from around the world are tackling global issues and making a difference to people's lives.
We believe that inspiring our people to do outstanding things at Durham enables Durham people to do outstanding things in the world. Being a part of Durham is about more than just the success of the University, it's also about contributing to the success of the city, county and community.
Our University Strategy is built on three pillars of research, education and wider student experience, but also on our keen sense of community and of inspiring others to achieve their potential.
We want our University to be a place where people can be free to be themselves, no matter what their identity or background. Together, we celebrate difference, value one another and are each responsible for creating an inclusive community that is respectful and fair for all.
Find out more about the benefits of working at the University and what it is like to live and work in the Durham area on our Why Durham? information page.
This post will be a joint appointment between the Department of Computer Science and the Law School at Durham University.
We are seeking a talented researcher with expertise in AI and natural language processing (NLP), particularly those with a focus on AI and NLP applications in legal compliance control.
The Departments
The Department of Computer Science
The Department is one of the UK's leading Computer Science departments, with an outstanding reputation in research, teaching, and student employability. Our internationally recognised research covers Algorithms and Complexity, Artificial Intelligence and Human Systems, Networks, Scientific Computing and Vision, Imaging and Visualisation. There is a lively research culture with many visitors and events, and active and rewarding collaborations with other departments in Durham and with other scientists in the UK and internationally. In the recent assessment exercise REF2021 we improved by six places in the ranking. We aim to provide an encouraging and friendly environment with a strong sense of community. The Department has recently grown rapidly, and now has more than 55 permanent members of academic staff. In 2021, we moved to a newly constructed building, which we share with Mathematics.
The Department has a proud tradition of delivering excellence in its undergraduate programmes through research-led teaching. Attracting some of the best students in the UK, the Department is ranked 4th in the Complete University Guide 2024. As part of the expansion of the Department, new MSc programmes in Business Analytics, Scientific Computing and Data Analysis, and in Data Science launched within the past five years.
The Department holds an Athena SWAN Silver award. Athena SWAN is a national initiative that recognises the advancement of gender equality, representation, progression and success for all in academia.
Durham Law School
Durham Law School is a leading law school. Consistently ranked in the Top 10 nationally and Top 50 globally, it has been growing strongly over the past few years and now comprises a community of over 100 academics and professional support staff. Durham Law School fosters innovative and interdisciplinary approaches to legal research and wishes to attract scholars with strong backgrounds in these areas. The Law School provides a supportive environment for its community of Professional services staff and academics, which comprises a very generous sabbatical policy and an infrastructure of high-profile research centres that brings together colleagues for collaborative projects. The school is housed in the iconic Palatine Centre overlooking Durham Cathedral in the heart of the city, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is located on the main East Coast trainline connecting to London and Edinburgh and also within convenient reach of Newcastle Airport. The School has an extensive network of leading international partner institutions and close ties with the City of London and the Inns of Court. It counts among its alumni two Supreme Court Justices.
Our top-ranked global law courses are very competitive with an excellent and diverse student population from across the world delivering a cutting-edge, research-led curriculum with a commitment to small group teaching through seminars and tutorials much prized by employers.
Our School's strategic objectives put EDI at the heart of everything that we do. We are committed to Equality Diversity and Inclusion and actively develop our policies and procedures to ensure that everyone within our community is treated fairly and is provided with the same opportunities. This applies to our everyday working in teaching, research and administration, including academic progression and promotion processes. Our Law School is also proud to hold the Athena Swan Bronze award.
A strategic investment in Durham's Centre for Sustainable Development Law and Policy: Just Transitions to a Net Zero World (JusTN0W). Your research in our Department and University will contribute to strategically important research objectives as part of Durham's internationally leading JusTN0W initiative ('Just Transitions to a Net Zero World'), which is embedded in Durham's Centre for Sustainable Development Law and Policy . (CSDLP). The CSDLP was founded in 2022 and operates as a research centre at the University level, with around 50 members from different disciplines.
The ambitious and interdisciplinary initiative JusTN0W is funded by a £5 million investment that will see seven academic staff appointed to lead Durham's commitment to a better and fairer world in the face of climate change, biodiversity loss and environmental degradation. Our initiative brings together academic colleagues across Law, Economics, Computer Science and Natural Sciences to advance the knowledge and the implementation of just transitions to net zero at international, national and local levels. The work programme comprises four strands of work. Each strand sets forth a range of objectives, including grant capture activity and engagement with different partners. More information on JusTN0W can be found here (https://www.durham.ac.uk/research/institutes-and-centres/csdlp/justn0w/).
You will be joining an interdisciplinary team of colleagues at an exciting moment where we are shaping and developing cutting-edge research and impact agenda to attract sustainable research funding and leverage research capacity. We build on existing links into international governance frameworks such as the Conferences of Parties (COPs) under the umbrella of the international climate change regime. By collaborating and harnessing expertise across disciplines, the JusTN0W initiative will support your ground breaking solutions to address the climate crisis.
We welcome applications from those with research and teaching interests in the intersection of Law and Computer Science. We are particularly eager to hear from applicants with a research focus and interest in AI-based compliance control systems and those whose research is related to the goals of the JusTN0W project.
Assistant Professors at Durham
Assistant Professors on the Education and Research track are encouraged to focus on research and teaching but are also expected to engage in wider citizenship to enhance their own development, support their department and discipline, and contribute to the wider student experience. This specific position for JusTN0W will offer the new colleague an opportunity to focus on research and grant capture activity, with a significantly reduced teaching load.
Academic colleagues are supported to publish ...
