After the feedback of the LinkedIn post

 Following my LinkedIn post, I've gained around fifty new followers and received several inquiries about the PhD and postdoc positions. While many CVs show promise, they often lack the specific background we're seeking. To be clear: we value genuine interest and appreciation of our research over purely academic credentials, but this commitment must be demonstrated, not just stated.

Before reaching out, I strongly encourage prospective candidates to enroll (free of charge) in our Winter School [info here and here]. The Winter School has already begun, but a motivated PhD candidate should be able to catch up on the material independently and address any gaps. If difficulties arise, you're welcome to ask questions, but the ability to work through challenges autonomously is precisely what we're looking for.

No pain, no gain!

P.S. - Although the Winter School could not available at the time of your application, please take time to explore our materials and understand our research approach. We appreciate candidates who show commitment through their preparation.

During interviews, we typically explore:

• Your relevant skills for this specific project
• Your programming capabilities and experience
• Your motivation for not applying the Winter School (if you did not apply to any)
• Your understanding of GEOframe and our research
• Your availability and current commitments
• Technical aspects specific to the project
• The skills and expertise you've highlighted in your application (specificity is valued over generic statements)

A CV template for postdocs that I like

I frequently receive PhD applications with standardized EuroPass CVs. While these formats have their place, I find they often lack personality and fail to effectively showcase a candidate's unique qualities. Even when institutions explicitly request standardized formats, these templates rarely help applicants stand out.
Previously, I've written about the differences between CVs and resumes, and shared my own CV on this blog. However, as a senior academic, my format may not be ideal for early-career researchers. 

Recently, I collaborated with one of my former PhD students to refine her curriculum vitae for postdoctoral applications. She created a format that effectively highlights her qualifications while demonstrating alignment with potential supervisors' research directions. I'm sharing this template below as a resource for prospective postdoc candidates.

Important advice: Always tailor your research plans to align with those of the principal investigator issuing the call for which you are writing your resume. Failing to do this significantly undermines your application's chances of success.

While your past achievements matter—they demonstrate your capability to complete projects—what's truly critical is how your future goals complement mine. Unless you've accomplished truly exceptional work (landmark publications or breakthroughs), focus more on articulating how your skills and interests will contribute to advancing our shared research objectives.

Please you can find here:

• A pdf template with fake contents
• A pdf template
• A LaTeX file (hyperlinks not working)
• An HTML file that can be eventually imported and edited in a word processor

The formatting can be improved since I did not dedicate all the time it needed. Obviously each one cane personalize some parts according to their own personality and attitude. Something can be missing. However, it contains what I expect it should be there. 

Two possibile positions, if the right people show up

We are once again looking for exceptional individuals to join our team for PhD (3 years) or postdoc (2 years) positions.

Position 1: GEOframe-NewAGE System Application and Methodologies to build a Po Digital Twin

This role focuses on the implementation and application of the GEOframe-NewAGE system to the Po River Basin. You will assist the team in finalizing the calibration and analysis of the hydrology of the Po catchment for the period 1990-1991, with exciting outcomes expected in climatology, drought studies, and hydroinformatics applications. This project is not purely applicative as it may initially seem. It aims to encompass numerous methodological aspects and offers a wealth of research opportunities, along with the data needed to pursue them.

Position 2: Earth Observations and GEOSPACE System Development

This position focuses on integrating Earth Observations into the GEOSPACE system, with further development and applications in the Po River Basin and the Val di Non (Noce River catchment). The primary objective is to advance the integration of high-resolution remote sensing with hydrological modeling, while also improving our land-surface modeling capabilities. The role involves exploring and testing various transpiration models, incorporating increasing levels of physical realism and plant physiology to enhance model reliability.

We encourage interested candidates to explore my blog, where you’ll find detailed information about our working methods, the tools we use, and the philosophy we follow. An insightful candidate will recognize how well we might work together by reviewing the contents they find.

If you’re interested, please reach out to us at abouthydrology@gmail.com.

One year position (hopefully extensible to two or three years) for working on the Po Project is open until January 31st.

One year position (hopefully extensible to two or three years)  for working on the Po Project is open at the University of Trento, Department of Civil, Environmental and Mechanical Engineering. Information about the project can be found at:

http://abouthydrology.blogspot.com/2022/10/the-po-project.html

We search  for a skilled candidate able to boost the work on the project and eventually start  new researchers among the various challenging research lines which were better defined in the so called DARTH4MED project:

http://abouthydrology.blogspot.com/2021/12/darth4med-digital-earth-twin-of.html

PI of the Project are Riccardo Rigon (riccardo.rigon@unitn.it) and Giuseppe Formetta (giuseppe.formetta@unitn.it). Please do not hesitate to ask for information and clarifications and note that we encourage to apply also to students who do not have yet discussed their Ph.D. Thesis.

The call details are at:

https://www.unitn.it/en/ateneo/bando/76801/department-dicam-call-for-the-selections-for-the-awarding-of-no-1-research-fellowship-decree-no-4072

The net salary is around 1700 Euro/Months. Other submitted projects, including the already mentioned DARTH4MED are synergic to the this project and they could provide further financial support for the next years. An ideal reference for the framework used in the project is the paper on Digital eARth Twins of Hydrology (DARTHs) recently published on HESS

https://hess.copernicus.org/articles/26/4773/2022/hess-26-4773-2022-discussion.html

To the potential applicants:

Please observe that the use of our system GEOframe is mandatory for that project. After January 31 we will be evaluating the submission. For incoming possible postdoc, I wrote this

Please observe that you are a little late but you can browse our Winter School on GEOframe to understand what we require. 

Hydrological CVs and Research

 It happens to me, but I suppose the same happens to most of my colleagues to receive many CV, especially from excellent guys developing countries. Some of them are remarkable but they usually do not  meet my requirements. What is the problem ? They are clearly very motivated and smart persons. However there is a constant in their backgrounds. They were trained in using models like HEC-RAS-HMS or SWAT or even MODFLOW and they wrote papers about case studies (regional studies they call them now).  This is not bad at all obviously and that “standard knowledge” should be part of any robust professional. There are other two variations the CVs: the use of machine learning techniques (under standard frameworks) to infer something or the use of Earth observation "products" to extract something of information (often without ground check). Sometimes their work is valuable and again, how can we say that they should not be part of the professional CV ?

However all of this has just a little to do with the research gold medal which stand in investigating processes, learning from them, disentangling their feedbacks, implementing new tools. Their trying to do something new remains within the very limited scope which is allowed by something built by others and not open to modifications and evolutions.  That's what I would like to see instead: these solid bases but also a little spark that try to go out for this standard comfort zone. 

For my critics, it is true that I push my activities  to the extreme, to the point that all discusses, not only processes, but also tools, the way to build them, the way to share them with others. It is true that, it can be seen as an act of high presumption, which prepares, for normal people like me, to a destiny of failures, low productivity and frustration, far away out of the highways of the industrial success of some paradigms.  Then if you do not have to imitate me to the limit, at least take the good of my perspective and do not stay still in a cycle which all renews for nothing change.

To potential postdocs

Are you interested to work with me or my colleagues, inTrento, as a post-doc in hydrology and Earth System Sciences ?  Well, there are two main ways to do it and all of it has to do with the source of funding. If the funds comes from our own research, we expect that the post-doc interacts actively with the topics on which we  are working on. Coming to me, there are many places in this blog where one can deduce what I am doing, but the characteristic of my research work is the commitment to build the GEOframe infrastructure. Therefore for applicants who wants to work with me, a good idea is to learn the use of GEOframe from the Winter School and the Summer School  we held every year. There is a plenty of material (slides, video, codes, food for thinking) that we have prepared with which willing people can self-instruct. We also, I mean the group of GEOframers, will be very proactive in helping you if you want to learn it. Start here or here. To sum up: do you want to work with me/us ? Sweat to learn GEOframe! In the meanwhile you'll do it we will have time to know each other and understanding if we can get along whilst creating for you a reputation independent from ours. 

A postdoc is though to be a pro-active person in the group making to advance the research, supporting Ph.D. Students, injecting new ideas and enthusiasm. Therefore learning to do what we do is just a prerequisite. We have expectations that they postdocs is able to pose research questions, suggest solutions, indicate new roads, leading the writing of papers for the best journals,  and make our small community more rich.

Researchers who are more mature in this can try to get a grant by themselves, for instance, getting a grant through a project proposal, like, for instance, the Marie Slowdowska Curie calls. In this case, it is more appropriate to say that we can host their research in Trento University DICAM or C3A. They, grant winners,  has  their own research to pursue which is not exactly the mine and, in a sense, it cannot be. But I can give them support, exchange ideas, walk with them along the road drawn. It can be fun for both, and I am sure Trento is a nice place to do it. It is obviously worth if there is some connection with what I know and I am practicing or someone of us is doing. 

An intermediate step would be to try to design, in advance, together,  the project, before presenting it. I am, we are, available to help.

For other information, please give a look to what I wrote for Ph.D. Student applicants. We are talking, usually, of different ages, different maturity, different goals but some arguments remain the same.

Please, remind that I am also committed to produce open source software (meaning we do code and we do it open source) and open science. The most open possible. People with medieval attitude to science (i.e. who hide it selfish) can avoid the discussions applying elsewhere.

Please, also consider to write your Resumé (CV) in an appropriate way.