PhD in Attribution of European Floods and Extreme Precipitation at UCLouvain UCLouvain in Belgium

UCLouvain in Belgium is recruiting a PhD student for a research project on the attribution of European floods, with a focus on extreme flooding, heavy rainfall, climate change, non-stationary statistical modeling, climate data analysis, and extreme value theory.

The project investigates the causes of recent extreme climate events in Europe and aims to better constrain the probabilities of past and future extremes and produce robust attribution statements. The PhD researcher will work on flexible, physically realistic non-stationary extreme-value models to study heavy precipitation and floods across different regions of Europe, while identifying physical covariates that capture regional climate responses in both thermodynamical and dynamical properties.

The position is based at the Institute of Statistics, Biostatistics and Actuarial Sciences (ISBA) at UCLouvain, part of LIDAM. The project is an interdisciplinary collaboration with the Earth and Climate Center (part of ELI) at UCLouvain. Supervision is by Anna Kiriiluk (UCLouvain) and Francesco Ragone (University of Leicester).

Funding is provided through the ARC project EXALT (EXtreme weather Attribution at mid- and high-Latitudes) using advanced statistical techniques. The PhD grant is fully funded for three years, starting on 1 October 2026, with a net salary of around 2500 euros per month. The role also offers an international and multidisciplinary environment, conference and research-visit travel opportunities, access to high-performance computing, and opportunities to gain experience in statistics teaching and consultancy.

Eligibility highlights: a master’s degree with distinction (120 ECTS) in statistics, mathematics, physics, climatology, earth sciences, engineering, or a similar domain; programming skills in R and/or Python; good written and oral English; and interest in interdisciplinary research. Experience with extreme-value theory and climate data analysis is an advantage, and French is a plus.

To apply, send a CV and motivation letter, plus contact details for at least two references, to Anna Kiriiluk and Francesco Ragone. Use the subject line “EXALT PhD application” and apply at your earliest convenience.