Lecturer/ Assistant Professor/ Assistant Professor (Practice) in Forensic Science

ABOUT THE ROLE

Working within the Department of Applied Sciences, this role involves both teaching and research or professional practice. The successful candidate will be part of a multidisciplinary team that teaches undergraduate and postgraduate forensic science students, on programmes accredited by the Chartered Society of Forensic Sciences. This post will involve designing, developing and delivering innovative and research-informed teaching and supporting our students to achieve their future career aspirations. In parallel, you will be part of the Department’s research future, through your own academic excellence through high quality publications and income generation from funding applications to external bodies such as UKRI, charities and commercial partners.

This post is advertised across our Lecturer, Assistant Professor,and Assistant Professor (Practice)roles.

For further detail please see the job description. 

Lecturer  £39,347 - £44,262

Assistant Professor  £45,584 - £56,021

Assistant Professor (Practice)  £45,584 - £56,021

Colleagues appointed into our Lecturer grade are usually early career academics who are supported through their probationary period to develop their Academic profile. Upon completion of probation objectives these colleagues are automatically moved into the Assistant Professor role. The selection panel will assess your application and discuss with you which role you are being considered for at selection and appointment stages.

ABOUT THE TEAM

The Department of Applied Sciences specialises in biological and chemical sciences, teaching undergraduate and postgraduate students on professionally accredited degrees in the disciplines of Biology, Biochemistry, Biomedical Science, Biotechnology, Chemistry, Food Science & Nutrition and Forensic Science . We have over 80 academics researching in these areas, working with 60 PDRAs, research fellows and PhD students, and a thriving undergraduate population of approximately 1,500 students. The Department has a history of impactful inter-disciplinary subject research, often in collaboration with industry and supported through UKRI funding. With 86% of our staff submitted to REF2021 , we were delighted to say that 82% of the Department’s publications were rated as internationally excellent and world-leading. More than 60 colleagues in the Department were part of our REF2021 submission to the Allied Health Unit of Assessment 3 which was ranked 8th (out of 91) in the UK for Research Power. In addition, our Research Environment was given the highest possible rating of 100% 4* - acknowledging our excellence in this area and state of the art facilities for performing research. Due to the multi-disciplinary nature of our Department, academics were also returned in Units of Assessment for Engineering, Geography & Environmental Studies, and Law thus illustrating the breadth of collaborative opportunities within the Department and wider university.

The Department’s laboratory estate spans four floors of interdisciplinary activity and is recently refurbished providing research laboratory space for analytical and synthetic chemistry, molecular biology, genetics and microbiology. This includes specific laboratories for genetics, genomics, mass spectrometry, chromatography and materials analysis, and a microscopy suite which is currently undergoing a multimillion-pound expansion. The forensic science programmes specifically benefit from a bespoke, multi-level, crime scene facility that includes a separate laboratory and a wet room for blood pattern analysis. This is complemented by dedicated high performance computing for bioinformatics and modelling and dedicated, state-of-the-art, inhouse facilities for metabolomics, proteomics and genomics (including MiSeq, NextSeq and PacBio sequencing platforms), which enabled this department to be the North of England representative undertaking analysis and surveillance for the Covid-19 Genomics UK consortium (COG-UK) through the Pandemic. The Department also hosts Research England funded Hub for Biotechnology in the Built Environment (HBBE) which seeks to create a transdisciplinary working space for bringing together the latest research and thinking in biotechnology, architecture, and sustainability. 

Details of our research groups, innovation units and themes can be found here

The Department is proud to hold an Athena SWAN Bronze award and actively works to support diversity especially in terms of career progression and leadership opportunities. We provide a range of facilities to support your career development such as on-site nursery, funded leadership training courses, action learning support for promotion application, EDI networks, HEA fellowship application training, research mentoring and grant application support.

ABOUT YOU

The highly-successful Forensic Science teaching team are hoping to recruit applicants from across a range of disciplines that are situated in or allied to forensic science. We would particularly welcome (but not limited to) applications from:

We are also open to applicants with expertise in areas that align with our existing research groups, innovation units and themes (further detail can be found here ). For example, this might relate to expertise in analytical chemistry or biosciences, data science or machine-learning whose expertise is suitable to positively impact our teaching delivery and research profile in forensic science.

Experience of designing, delivering, assessing, and evaluating high quality teaching and learning practice as well as evidence of high-quality research outputs are essential.

Applicants for the Assistant Professor (Practice) role should hold a first degree in a relevant subject and professional qualification or substantial professional experience in the discipline. You must also be able to demonstrate contemporary expert specialist knowledge and subject expertise within the relevant discipline/practice areas ensuring that the curriculum reflects the latest developments within practice.

Experience of designing, delivering, assessing, and evaluating high quality teaching and learning practice as well as evidence of contributions to the development of contemporary practice are essential.