Open Positions
Harvard University is an equal opportunity employer; all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, gender identity, sexual orientation, pregnancy and pregnancy-related conditions or any other characteristic protected by law.
Harvard Center for Green Buildings and Cities (CGBC) Fellow
With mounting evidence of the impact of human activity on the global climate, the built environment is increasingly understood to be a critical site for applied and conceptual research in questions of energy and ecology. The CGBC Fellowship offers a one-year research and teaching position with the possibility of extension for an additional year. It is intended for an early-career individuals who hold a Ph.D. or Doctorate Degree in an area related to building sciences, and whose research focuses on various scales. Fellows will be hosted at the Center for Green Buildings and Cites and conduct research related to their field. They will be expected to teach two classes at the Graduate School of Design (GSD). Fellows will be provided with resources to develop their research and will have access to HouseZero. Opportunities to interact with other researchers and scholars within and outside the GSD as well as to share the outcome of their work will be provided.
Candidates should hold a Ph.D. or Doctorate Degree in an area related to building sciences, with research that focuses on various scales.
For the required statement of teaching philosophy, please describe your pedagogical approach, including how you would approach teaching students across disciplines and departments in the context of design and/or planning education, in no more than two pages.
For the required statement of diversity, inclusion, and belonging, please address the following question in no more than two pages:
Given the geographic diversity represented in the GSD community, and our commitment to anti-racism and inclusion, how do you approach pedagogy and mentoring for a student cohort that is diverse across multiple dimensions including but not limited to nationality, ethnicity, race, religion, and gender identity?
Candidates should upload a letter of interest; CV; list of three recommenders with contact information; writing samples; research statement, proposal for possible classes to teach, a Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging statement; and a portfolio if applicable. Candidates will be notified regarding requests for recommendation letters during the short list phase of the recruitment process.
Pollman Fellowship in Real Estate and Urban Development
Established in 2002 through the generous gift of Harold A. Pollman, the Pollman Fellowship in Real Estate and Urban Development is given to outstanding postdoctoral graduates in real estate, urban planning, and development to spend one year in residence as a visiting scholar at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. Applicants in the fields of economic development, political economy, urban economics, and other areas in urban planning related to real estate and urban development are also encouraged to apply.
Postdoctoral candidates for the Pollman Fellowship should either have received their doctorate or have submitted their dissertation for final awarding of the degree. The fellowship award is $30,000, plus medical benefits, and is to be used towards living and research expenses. While at Harvard, the fellow may audit courses and may seek to supplement the fellowship with teaching and research assignments. The fellow is expected to produce at least one publishable paper in a refereed journal, to participate in research workshops, and to contribute to the life of the School.
Applications are accepted annually. Please refer to the Pollman Fellowship webpage for instructions on how and when to apply.
Daniel Urban Kiley Teaching Fellowship in Landscape Architecture
The Daniel Urban Kiley Teaching Fellowship is awarded to an emerging designer who demonstrates a promising trajectory towards consequential work in the design of the urban public realm. The Kiley Fellow will be appointed Lecturer in Landscape Architecture for the academic year. While the fellowship is awarded competitively on an annual or semi-annual basis, successful fellows are eligible to have their academic appointments renewed for a second year at the rank of Lecturer, dependent upon review of their teaching, research, and creative practice.
The AY ’23-’24 Kiley Fellow is Kira Clingen.
The Daniel Urban Kiley Fellowship builds upon the history of pedagogic innovation at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design as well as more than a century of leadership in landscape architecture education. A jury comprised of Harvard GSD faculty will identify a short-list of two to three finalists who will be invited to remote interviews. The recipient of the fellowship will be announced publicly in February.
The Landscape Architecture Department will be conducting an application process for the Kiley Fellowship this year for AY 24-25.
For information on application processes, see the information below.
Eligibility
Landscape architects and designers from a range of allied design professions who can demonstrate a significant engagement with landscape architecture practice, pedagogy, or scholarship are invited to apply.
The Selection Process
A jury composed of members from the Harvard GSD faculty will typically select the Fellow. The two-stage competition process will identify a short-list of three finalists who will be invited to interviews with the competition jury. The jury will recommend a winner to be notified in December and announced publicly in February.
How to Apply
The Kiley Fellowship application deadline is November 15, 2024 at 5pm (EST).
Please submit the following application materials in the form of a single PDF (not larger than 25 MB):
- Current curriculum vitae
- One-page proposal describing the design/research project to be undertaken during the Fellowship
- Digital portfolio of design work
- Please name the PDF Lastname_Firstname.pdf
- Submit the PDF by email attachment to [email protected]
- Finalists should be prepared to provide names and contact information for 3 references
Return of Materials and Usage
All documents submitted through the application process will become the property of the Harvard University Graduate School of Design and may be used, with proper attribution, at a future date by the School for noncommercial purposes in any media or format.
For more information, email [email protected].
Laboratory for Design Technologies: Experimental Postdoctoral Fellows
The Laboratory for Design Technologies (LDT) offers two one-year research positions for work in the area of health, wellness, and sustainable material systems for buildings, landscapes, and cities. Funded by the Experimental Foundation (EXP) gGmbH, the work by the fellows should be geared towards research that is relevant and impactful for practice within a timeframe of 2-4 years. Research proposals by applicants have to be feasibly executed within one year, and lead to outcomes such as publication, exhibition, prototypes, pilots or similar. The fellowship is intended for individuals who hold a Ph.D. or Doctorate Degree in a related area. Each fellow will be compensated for a 12-month period including benefits, with a modest budget for research costs.
LDT is a collaborative research platform that combines several investigators and research units. The Experimental Fellows will be working with guidance from at least two of the LDT faculty investigators. These include:
Karen Lee Bar-Sinai: Bar-Sinai’s group investigates the interaction between machines, landscapes, materials, and environments with the aim of reshaping how we design and construct with found matter in the face of imminent material scarcity, environmental challenges, and climate change. The research spans from small to territorial to planetary scales, all involving the modulation of matter in architectural or landscape construction. Current research projects include: (1) Material-led Mechanisms—exploring living and bio-materials as modifiers for bio-fabrication in construction; (2) Performative Landscapes—simulating design responses to environmental challenges such as noise and sea level rise; (3) Projective Ecologies—utilizing generative AI to explore restoration techniques for improving degraded or post-disaster environments; (4) Environmental Robotics—analyzing beaver habitats to develop “beaver-bots,” robotic tools inspired by beavers that work within and alongside natural systems; and (5) Planetary Design Computation—testing the potential of using targeted local landscape design to influence global climate-system dynamics.
Martin Bechthold, Material Processes and Systems (MaP+S) Group: The MaP+S Group advances knowledge about design materials through a combination of technical, scientific and design research that result in prototypes, pilots, papers, patents, and exhibitions. Designers, technologists and critical makers engage in a dynamic setting with material scientists, psychologists and neuroscientists in the effort to lower the embodied carbon footprints of material systems and to quantify the psychological and behavioral effects of materials in buildings. MaP+S is closely affiliated with the Harvard Center for Green Cities and Buildings.
Elizabeth Christoforetti and Carole Voulgaris, ViBE Lab: The Laboratory for Values in the Built Environment (ViBE Lab) seeks to create knowledge that enables practitioners in the built environment professions to design and plan our urbanizing world by defining and building upon values that are consistent with the development of meaningful and sustainable 21st century communities. Our transdisciplinary work joins quantitative and qualitative approaches to better understand and imagine the future of our built world. We develop and employ scalable systems of design and analytic planning methods to make tangible and systemic impact, and to explore the risks and potentials of emerging technological capabilities such artificial intelligence to encounter our pressing environmental and social crises. We take a particular interest in research that has the potential to increase the supply of affordable housing and to increase the sustainability of urban transport systems.
Craig Douglas: His work explores landscape as a dynamic material process in a constant state of flux through analytical and conceptual approaches integrating modelling, simulation, and sensing to make visible and reconstitute the landscape as a complex temporal and material manifold of differential space. The ‘Digital Air’ research claims air as matter by reconceptualising it as a material that is both corporeal and technological. This material dialectic shifts the scope of landscape architecture by positing air as the matter and agent of entanglement and interconnection, registering the built environment through a complex transient and dynamic architecture of interactions.
Allen Sayegh, Responsive Environments and Artifacts Lab (REAL): The REAL lab investigates critical challenges in the built environment, exploring how emerging technologies shape spatial perception, cognition, and human behavior. Recognizing that the intelligence of a place arises from the dynamic interplay between individuals, their surroundings, and the technologies they engage with, the lab examines how digital tools and infrastructures augment spatial experience and collective interaction. Its research focuses on two key areas: designing hybrid and immersive experiences and understanding technology’s role in shaping human interaction with the built environment.
Andrew Witt, Computational Geometry Lab: The Computational Geometry Lab researches the design and science of shape, aided by computational tools and design intuition. The Lab combines computational, formal, architectural, and historical research into a single synthetic program of computational geometry. Specific interests include morphology, design topology, discrete differential geometry, packings, and machine learning methods for unstructured geometric and spatial data. The products of the lab include physical prototypes, software, video media, and scholarly texts treating the imbrication of geometry, data, and technology with design. Current and recent projects include: AI Image Segmentation for Building Material Identification; Reconfigurable Packable Robotic Furniture; 3D Motion Capture of Domestic Interactions for Kinetic Environments Design; and Histories of Transdisciplinary Design.
Applicants should upload a letter of interest, CV, research proposal in relation to the thematic areas of health, wellness, and sustainable material systems, short portfolio (10 pages maximum) and a list of three recommenders with contact information. The letter of interest needs to state clearly which LDT faculty investigators the applicant proposes to collaborate with on the proposed research project. Candidates will be notified regarding requests for letters of recommendation during the short-list phase of the recruitment process.
Final hiring decisions will be contingent on the availability of expected funds.
Applications will be accepted until May 21, 2025.
The appointments will be for one calendar year starting on July 1, 2025.
Please use the following link to submit an application:
Postdoctoral Research Fellow: Sustainable Buildings and Urban Development in the Era of Climate Change
Harvard University is launching the Sustainable Buildings and Urban Future Cluster—a bold, interdisciplinary research initiative designed to address the climate crisis through transformative innovation in the built environment. This pioneering effort brings together Harvard scholars and practitioners across chemistry, materials science, fluid mechanics, AI, computer science, architecture, and engineering to develop scalable, data-informed solutions in sustainable design, construction, and energy management.
The Cluster aims to modernize—and ultimately revolutionize—energy management by building on and scaling the HouseZero® concept—Harvard’s prototype for ultra-efficient, naturally ventilated smart buildings—into interconnected communities. This unique initiative integrates three synergistic research thrusts:
- Advanced thermal storage and sensing materials
- Intelligent, building-scale integration of sensing and control systems
- Cooperative, urban-scale energy management
Together, these research directions seek to reimagine how buildings and cities operate—optimizing energy use, enhancing human well-being, and reducing carbon emissions at scale.
We are seeking multiple Postdoctoral Researchers to join this collaborative effort. These three-year positions, starting September 1, 2025, are hosted by the Harvard Center for Green Buildings and Cities and funded by the Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability. While the project is scheduled to launch in September, hiring may occur earlier, and selected candidates may have the opportunity to begin their appointments ahead of the official start date. Each postdoctoral researcher will work with one or more principal investigators (PIs) aligned with their domain expertise, while contributing to a highly integrated, interdisciplinary research team.
Key research areas include:
- Development of low-carbon materials and tunable thermal energy storage materials integrated with smart sensors and advanced algorithms
- Creation of Digital Twins for energy-efficient building and urban operation
- Exploration of novel Human-Building Interaction interfaces
- Design of cooperative energy-sharing systems across multiple buildings
- Integration of data-driven and physics-informed learning algorithms for scalable energy management and control
- Engagement with industry stakeholders to guide practical implementation and scale-up strategies
Ideal candidates will have expertise in one or more of the following areas:
- Sustainable building systems or materials science
- Power system modeling, control systems, or HVAC alternatives
- IoT and sensor networks in the built environment
- AI or data-driven modeling and control for building and urban systems
- Human-centered or interaction design for smart systems
Postdoctoral researchers will collaborate closely with faculty from the Graduate School of Design, the John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, as well as with industry experts. This is a rare opportunity to contribute to a high-impact, interdisciplinary initiative at the forefront of climate innovation.
Leading faculty:
- Joanna Aizenberg, Amy Smith Berylson Professor of Materials Science
- Petros Koumoutsakos, Herbert S. Winokur Jr. Professor of Computing in Science and Engineering
- Na Li, Winokur Family Professor in Electrical Engineering and Applied Mathematics
- Le Xie, Gordon McKay Professor of Electrical Engineering
- Ali Malkawi, Professor of Architectural Technology
- Jarad Mason, Associate Professor of Chemistry & Chemical Biology
- Vijay Janapa Reddi, John L. Loeb Associate Professor in Electrical Engineering
Please submit a CV, a cover letter, a research statement, two example research papers, and the names of three references. In the cover letter, please list at least two co-PIs from the above list you would like to work with. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis.
The positions are intended for individuals who hold a Ph.D. or Doctorate Degree in a related area.
Final hiring decisions will be contingent on availability of funding.
Join us in redefining how we live, build, and share energy in a changing world.
Please use the following link to apply:
Research Associate: Informal Transport
The Harvard Graduate School of Design is currently seeking a full-time Research Associate (pre-doctoral) to contribute to a research project related to informal urban transportation in Kampala, Uganda. The project involves primary data collection and a planned randomized experiment. The fellow will be involved in data cleaning, data analysis, design of the experiment, academic and policy writing. The candidate will work under the supervision of Principal Investigators, Dr. Carole Turley Voulgaris (Graduate School of Design, Department of Urban Planning and Design) and Dr. Gabriel Kreindler (Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Department of Economics).This position is funded through a grant from Harvard University’s Motsepe Presidential Research Accelerator Fund for Africa.
Duties and Responsibilities:
The individual will work in close collaboration with the Principal Investigators. More specifically, the individual will:
- Design, write, and fine-tune code in the R programming language for data cleaning and data analysis;
- Create data analysis results, including regression results, and spatial analysis, including visualizations and maps;
- Run power calculations for randomized controlled trials;
- Assist in reviewing, synthesizing, and writing reviews of existing literature on informal transport in the global south;
- Assist (potentially as a co-author) in the preparation of academic journal submissions and code and data for publication;
- Develop the individual’s own research agenda, drawing on the data and results from the primary project.
Qualifications:
- Proficiency in the R programming language, including for geospatial data (simple features using the sf package).
- Proficiency with Git and GitHub for project version-control.
- Strong interest or background in transportation planning, transportation engineering, urban planning, development economics, informal economies, or related topics.
- Curiosity and eagerness to learn.
- Strong academic writing skills.
- Undergraduate degree in civil engineering, geography, urban planning, urban studies, computer science, data science, economics, urban studies, statistics, or a related field.
- If you are unsure whether you meet all of the above requirements, but you think you might meet most of them, and you are interested in the position, please apply.
- Ability to work in-person or remotely from California, Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, orWashington (a visa can be arranged).
Additional Qualifications:
Preference may be given to candidates with the following qualifications, but they are not required.
- Ability to work in-person in Cambridge, Massachusetts at least two days per week.
- Familiarity with or direct lived experience in Sub Saharan African cities.
Additional Information: This is a 12-month, full-time position with benefits. You can find more information on benefits for Harvard employees here: https://hr.harvard.edu/health-welfare-benefits.
Start Date: July 1, 2025
Duration of Employment: 12 months
Salary Grade: $60,000 per year.
Application Instructions: Please apply at this link:
https://academicpositions.harvard.edu/postings/14909
Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis as they are received and will continue until the position is filled. Highly qualified applicants will be invited to complete a data analysis coding task and an interview.
Final hiring decisions will be contingent on availability of funding.