Assistant Professor

The Department of Water, Earth, and Environmental Sciences (WEES) at Utah State University invites applications for a tenure-track, academic year (9-month) Assistant Professor, anticipated to start August 2027. This is a teaching-focused position for a scientist who is passionate about engaging students through instruction and mentorship in the water, Earth and environmental sciences and developing courses that inspire curiosity and strengthen decision making within these societally important fields.

Our approach intends to build evidence and demonstrate how courses in this subject matter, and the degrees they lead to, provide students an opportunity for a meaningful, high impact career.

Applications should be submitted by December 15 for full consideration; job will stay open until filled.

USU is undertaking a substantial redesign of its general education curriculum, led by the Center for Civic Excellence (https://www.usu.edu/civic-excellence/). This new curriculum includes science courses to strengthen student capacity for rigorous inquiry, respectful dialogue, and provide diverse perspectives. Students should be able to connect what they learn to real-world problems. WEES intends to help lead this transition.

Few disciplines are better matched to meet that charge than ours. Utah's most consequential problems are linked to water, Earth, and environment questions: how a growing population along the Wasatch Front prepares for the earthquakes along its active faults, how a drying region manages and allocates its limited water resources, how land and resource decisions play out across human and geologic timescales.

This 9-month tenure-track position involves teaching (60%), research (30%), and service (10%). The successful candidate will:

• Design and teach outstanding general education courses in Breadth Physical Sciences within the Civics Center and University Studies Depth Science programs;
• Teach undergraduate and graduate courses related to their expertise in Earth Sciences, Environmental Systems, and Hydrology and Water Resources within WEES;
• Closely collaborate with the Civic Center to help shape the physical-science curriculum and develop assessment practices within the Center and WEES Department;
• Play a central role in growing our undergraduate programs through sustained recruitment efforts;
• Help build the evidence base for the value of WEES degrees: how students find us, how they progress and complete, our retention approaches, our mentoring and experiential learning opportunities, and where our students go afterward, the record that lets the department, the college, and the university make the case for these programs;
• Build a productive scholarly enterprise that integrates teaching and research programs;
• Have opportunities to mentor undergraduate researchers and graduate students.

Minimum Qualifications:

• By the start date, candidates must have a Ph.D. in the Earth, hydrological, environmental sciences, or a closely related field.
• Evidence of established or emerging teaching experience at the collegiate level.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Postdoctoral research or teaching experience
• Experience with undergraduate course development and assessment
• Experience with research in education or within your field of expertise
• Evidence of thoughtful engagement with generative AI in science teaching,
• Evidence of interest in shaping and expanding academic programs

Commensurate with experience, plus excellent benefits

Employees typically work indoors and are protected from weather and/or contaminants, but not, necessarily, occasional temperature changes.

WEES brings together broad strengths in hydrology and watershed science,…