Assistant Professor in the field of Acoustics

The Centre for Industrial Electronics (CIE) at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University of Southern Denmark, invites for applications for a 3-year Assistant Professor position in the field of Acoustics. The position is in Sønderborg, and the staring date is March 1, 2025, or as soon as possible thereafter.

The application deadline is December 10, 2024, at 11.59 PM/23.59 (CET/CEST) 

About the position

One of the key research areas at the Acoustics Lab (CIE, SDU) is psychoacoustics, which focuses on how humans hear, interpret, and react to different sounds. To support this research, the lab is equipped with innovative technology for capturing and analyzing sound. Additionally, the lab develops custom equipment to measure and analyze the performance of speakers.

The research unit of the Acoustics Lab seeks a strong candidate with a robust translational and training profile, and a demonstrated track record of publications and interdisciplinary collaborations. The focus should be on the relationship between acoustics, sound perception and students' training on voice and body signals using different types of technology as well as advanced methods for teaching such concepts. 

Technical expertise should include experience and knowledge in audiovisual prosody and multimodal communication, embodied cognition and acoustic signal processing. Moreover, the ability and experience to work effectively in a multidisciplinary team, collaborating with other researchers, students, and industry partners.

Research and teaching

The main tasks of the assistant professor are research and research-based teaching, including exams.

Job description

The key responsibility is to undertake cutting-edge research addressing questions within the areas of psychoacoustics and signal processing. The successful candidate will also develop a toolkit to enhance engineers' professional communication. The candidate must be able to demonstrate strong potential for obtaining independent funding or have a proven track record of securing such funding.

As an assistant professor, you will primarily work on furthering your own research, developing the scientific field, and activities in liaison with other colleagues at the SDU and with other companies in and around Sønderjylland. The position also involves research grant applications and research management, including supervision and training of research fellows (BSc., MSc, MD pre-graduates and Ph.D. students) and other staff. Additionally, you will teach, prepare for, and participate in examinations.

The successful candidate must complete a Lecturer Training Programme during the period of employment.

Expectation of qualifications

A strong candidate will actively seek opportunities to enhance the pedagogical innovations and visibility of the programs. This can be achieved through various methods, including, but not limited to, the following: presenting at relevant conferences or other venues, publishing peer-reviewed research, and conducting workshops for industry representatives or faculty and students at the university.

Additionally, a strong candidate will be prepared to teach specialized professional and engineering communication genres, including written, oral, visual, and team communication. This includes not only writing but also developing and delivering compelling presentations, creating effective figures and tables, collaborating in teams and integrating multimodal elements. Experience teaching professional, technical, scientific, or engineering communications at the university level is required. Experience training graduate students would be advantageous, as this position may eventually involve creating new opportunities for the Master programs.

Applicants with interdisciplinary teaching experience and the ability to identify and meet the instructional needs of faculty in various technical fields are highly desirable.

Preference given to candidates with a Ph.D. in hand (the minimal requirement) by the employment date in one of these areas:  

• Professional Communication  
• Technical Communication  
• Science Communication 
• Applied Linguistics with a specialization in Professional and Academic Discourse or related sector 
• Related degree with a focus teaching oral presentations and multimodal artifacts

Other qualifications are: 

• A strong CV, having published in international peer-reviewed journals within the fields of rhetoric, speech technologies, public speaking training and prosody as first author, and presentations at international meetings (including IEEE conferences). 
• An enthusiastic interest in developing a toolkit to enhance engineers' professional communication.
• Proven experience in creating and developing content in both software and hardware formats. The ideal candidate will have a strong background in designing and implementing innovative solutions that integrate software applications with hardware components. Experience in prototyping, testing, and refining these solutions to meet industry standards is highly desirable.
• Postdoctoral research experience of research in an area relevant to the work conducted in the Acoustics Lab at CIE SDU.
• A previous stay abroad at least for 3 months.
• Established collaboration with researchers within the research field.
• A basic proficiency in Danish will also be desirable to establish deeper connections with the industries surrounding the university.

Assessing candidate suitability will involve meeting as many of the aforementioned requirements as possible. 

Further information is available from Professor Thomas Ebel, Head of CIE, phone: +45 93 50 72 05, email: [email protected], Associate Professor Oliver Niebuhr, email: [email protected]

If you experience technical problems, please contact [email protected]. 

Further information for international applicants about entering and working in Denmark. You may also visit WorkinDenmark for additional information.

Further information about The Faculty of Engineering.

Conditions of employment

Appointment as assistant professor is temporary and for an initial 3-year period. 

The preferred starting date is March 1, 2025.

The successful applicant will be employed in accordance with the agreement between the Ministry of Finance and the Danish Confederation of Professional Associations. Further information on salary and taxation. 

Employment as assistant professor requires scientific qualifications at Ph.D. level at the time of employment.

Assessment and selection process

Read about the Assessment and selection process. 

Applications will be assessed by an assessment committee. Shortlisting may be applied. Only shortlisted candidates will receive a written assessment. Read about shortlisting at SDU. 

Interviews and tests may be part of the process.

Application procedure

Applicants are advised to read the SDU information on how to apply and specific faculty information for application at the Faculty of Engineering.

Assessment of the candidates is based on the application material. Please include the following documents in English: 

• Motivated application.
• Curriculum Vitae. 
• Certificates/Diplomas (master’s and PhD degree) – Danish and/or English. 
• Complete list of publications.
• Publications most relevant for the position. Please attach as one PDF-file for each publication (only full text publications (i.e. no links) can form the basis for assessment of the application).
• Summary of experience in teaching. Please attach as Teaching Portfolio. 

The application may also include:

• List of supervised projects and acquired third party funding, if any.   
• References
• Documentation of other qualifications with relevance to the position.

UPLOAD GUIDE: Motivated application shall be uploaded as ‘Cover letter’, Curriculum Vitae shall be uploaded as ‘Resume’. All other documents shall be uploaded as ‘Miscellaneous documents’. 

Documents must not contain a CPR number (civil registration number) – in this case, the CPR number must be crossed out.

The application and CV must not exceed 10 MB. 

The application deadline is December 10, 2024, at 11.59 PM/23.59 (CET/CEST) 

According to the University of Southern Denmark’s internal guidelines, there must be at least three qualified applicants to a position before it can be filled.

The University of Southern Denmark wishes to reflect the surrounding community and therefore encourages everyone, regardless of personal background, to apply for the position.