Job Details
Posting Number: PG191796PD
Position Number: 00111548
Position Type: Post Doc
FLSA: Exempt
Department ID: 120401 - Landscape Architecture
Department: 120401 - Landscape Architecture
Job City & State: Raleigh, NC
Essential Job Duties:
The Natural Learning Initiative seeks a postdoctoral research scholar to advance the emerging interdisciplinary field of biophilic nature-connected urbanism: the planning, design, programming, research, and stewardship of interconnected urban green infrastructure that integrates ecological and human developmental systems, enabling meaningful relationships with nature across the life course and generations. Nature-based Solutions (NbS) provide a global framework, supported by international treaties and policy commitments, including the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and the Social Determinants of Health.
The position builds on NLI’s longstanding record of environment and behavior research and measurement; cross-sector professional development; learning resource production; evidence-based playful learning landscape design; universal co-design; and environmental quality assessment.
The underlying premise is that regenerating biodiverse, interconnected urban green infrastructure, although essential, is insufficient to sustain a healthy planet. Urban environments must also enable people to experience, engage with, enjoy, understand, and care for nature in everyday life. For nature connectedness to become embedded in individual identity and transmitted across generations, experiences of nature must begin in early childhood and continue throughout life. Accordingly, early childhood facility naturalization and associated systems change remain a primary NLI focus.
A central research proposition is that nature connectedness develops through networks of everyday settings repeatedly experienced across the life course—including homes, neighborhoods, childcare facilities, schools, parks, greenways, urban forests, campuses, workplaces, and civic landscapes. Together, these settings constitute developmental green infrastructure, supporting ecological functions while nurturing lifelong, intergenerational relationships with nature, expressed through arts, science, and community engagement embedded in nature-connected urban networks. In other words, urban landscapes must be planned, designed, managed, programmed, and assessed as ecological systems integrating nature and human development, inspiring cultural expression, to ensure intergenerational nature connectedness.
Postdoc major responsibilities may include:
- Conduct literature reviews and synthesize research from relevant disciplines.
- Develop conceptual frameworks, research methods, measures, indicators, protocols, and measurement tools.
- Analyze existing NLI environmental assessment, behavior-mapping, observational, survey, and post-occupancy datasets.
- Design and conduct pilot field investigations across everyday socio-cultural physical environments.
- Investigate ecological, spatial, experiential, developmental, and intergenerational dimensions of nature connectedness.
- Prepare coauthored peer-reviewed publications, conference papers, research briefs, and professional publications.
- Contribute to research proposals and external funding opportunities.
- Collaborate with the NLI communications team on videos, animations, podcasts, diagrams, infographics, webinars, and other audiovisual and public-facing communication.
- Develop collaborations across NC State and with national and international research and practice partners.
The successful candidate will have the opportunity not only to conduct research but to help define, test, measure, communicate, and establish biophilic nature-connected urbanism as an emerging field of research and practice contributing to a nature-connected society.
If these works resonate, please apply for this unique position!
NC State University
NC State University, an R1 research institution, is located in the high-tech Research Triangle, alongside UNC-Chapel Hill and Duke University, in one of the fastest-growing regions in the U.S. Raleigh is reputed to be a low-stress place to live.
NC State supports a high level of research activity and extensive doctoral programs. As the state’s flagship land-grant institution, research tends to focus on impactful, real-world solutions, driven by innovations and collaborations that address global challenges. The university consistently ranks among the top institutions in the country for research expenditures and technology commercialization.
The Natural Learning Initiative
The Natural Learning Initiative (NLI), based in the College of Design at NC State University (a land-grant R1 doctoral institution), advances research, design, professional development, and policy supporting environments for healthy human development and a healthy biosphere. NLI works across childcare, schools, parks, neighborhoods, communities, civic spaces, and other everyday environments to create equitable opportunities for engagement with nature. NLI was co-founded in 2000 by Robin Moore, architect and urban designer, Professor Emeritus of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning, Honorary ASLA; and Research Professor Nilda Cosco, PhD, ASLA, NLI Director of Programs. Soolyeon Cho, PhD, is NLI Interim Director.
Wolfpack Perks and Benefits:
As a Pack member, you belong here, and can enjoy exclusive perks designed to enhance your personal and professional well-being. As you consider this opportunity, we encourage you to review our Employee Value Proposition and learn more about what makes NC State the best place to learn and work for everyone.
What we offer:
- Medical, Dental, Vision, Retirement and Leave
- Faculty and Staff Assistance Program
- Enhance your career with LEAD courses
- Attend non-revenue generating sporting events for free.
Attain Work-life balance with our Childcare benefits, Wellness & Recreation Membership, and Wellness Programs that aim to build a thriving wolfpack community.
Disclaimer: Perks and Benefit eligibility is based on Part-Time or Full-Time Employment status. Eligibility and Employer Sponsored Plans can be found within each of the links offered.
Work Schedule:
Monday-Friday 8am-5pm with option of 1 day/week remote work
Department Required Skills:
- PhD or equivalent degree in landscape architecture, landscape/environmental design, urban design, urban planning, horticultural science, environmental psychology, environmental education, child development, public health, urban ecology, geography, sustainability science, or a closely related field.
- A prior degree in landscape architecture, architecture, urban design, landscape design or similar built environment design degree.
- Demonstrated ability to conduct independent and collaborative research.
- Strong scholarly writing, analytical, and communication skills.
- Experience with quantitative, qualitative, or mixed research methods.
- Ability to work effectively across disciplinary and professional boundaries.
- Interest in human—environment relationships and translating research into design, practice, policy, and public communication.
Preferred Years Experience, Skills, Training, Education:
Ph.D. or equivalent doctorate (e.g., DDes – Doctor of Design) in an appropriate filed awarded no more than five (5) years from the initial date of postdoctoral appointment.
Preference will be given to candidates demonstrating one or more of the following:
- Peer-reviewed publication experience.
- Literature review and research synthesis.
- Environmental assessment, observational research, behavior mapping, surveys, spatial analysis, GIS, or statistical analysis.
- Research related to nature connectedness, biophilic design, children’s environments, public health, urban ecology, green infrastructure, or nature-based solutions.
- Development or validation or research measures and assessment tools.
- Field-based environmental or human-behavior research.
- Grant writing or collaborative proposal development.
- Communication of research through audiovisual, graphic, digital, or other public-facing media.
Expertise in all areas is not expected. NLI seeks a scholar with strong research capabilities, intellectual curiosity, and enthusiasm for helping build an innovative interdisciplinary field framed by urban human development and nature connectedness.
Required License or Certification:
N/A
Valid NC Driver's License required?: No
Commercial Driver's License Required?: No
Anticipated Hiring Range: $60,000
Job Open Date: 10/19/2026
Quick Link: https://jobs.ncsu.edu/postings/236416
Organization
NC State: Think and Do
NC State was founded with a purpose: to create economic, societal and intellectual prosperity for the people of North Carolina and the country. We began as a land-grant institution teaching the agricultural and mechanical arts. Today, we're a pre-eminent research enterprise with 12 colleges excelling in all major academic fields.
Our 34,000 high-performing students take what they learn in the classroom and apply it in the real world by conducting research, working in internships and co-ops, and performing acts of world-changing service. That experiential education ensures that they leave here ready to lead the workforce. NC State's 13:1 student-faculty ratio is one of the reasons why we're the best college for your money in North Carolina (Money) and the No. 5 best value among public universities nationally (U.S. News & World Report).
Overcoming Challenges, Improving Lives
NC State is one of only two universities in the nation leading two National Science Foundation Engineering Research Centers — one developing wearable, self-powered health monitors, and the other researching smart-grid technology. We’re also leading interdisciplinary efforts to curb nuclear proliferation, help farmers confront climate change and build a new American manufacturing sector.
Our research doesn't just get published in a journal or sit on a shelf; it makes an impact. NC State is No. 6 nationwide in commercialization agreements based on university research, and we're No. 2 among universities without a medical school. Our Cooperative Extension Service provides research-based information to citizens in all 100 North Carolina counties. In addition, our industrial extension unit — Industry Expansion Solutions — has created an economic benefit for the state's manufacturers averaging $149 million per year since 2005.
Bright Minds Creating a Bold Future
NC State’s 9,000 faculty and staff are world leaders in their fields, bridging the divides between academic disciplines and training high-caliber students to meet tomorrow's challenges. NC State students won two Goldwater scholarships, five Fulbright scholarships, one Churchill scholarship and a record-breaking 25 National Science Foundation graduate research fellowships in the [contact details available in the full listing] academic year. In addition, 25 faculty are members of the National Academies.
Our Centennial Campus, an award-winning public-private research campus, is home to more than 70 partner organizations working alongside more than 70 NC State research and academic units. Centennial is also the location of the innovative Hunt Library, which Time magazine has dubbed “the library of the future.”
In Raleigh and Around the World
It all happens in one of the best cities in America. A top spot for job-seekers and tech professionals, Raleigh is nationally recognized as a leading urban center:
- No. 2 hot spot for tech jobs (Forbes, 2016)
- No. 3 best city for young professionals (Forbes, 2016)
- No. 4 best city for jobs (Glassdoor.com, 2017)
- No. 4 best place to live (U.S. News & World Report, 2016)
- Best big city in the Southeast (Time, 2016)
- Selected as a Google Fiber expansion city
With Durham and Chapel Hill, Raleigh anchors the Research Triangle, a national hotspot for high-tech enterprise. The top companies in the region — including IBM, Cisco Systems, SAS Institute, Biogen Idec and GlaxoSmithKline — are among the country’s best employers. They also lead the way in hiring new NC State graduates.
More than 130 years after its creation, NC State continues to make its founding purpose a reality. Every day, our career-ready graduates and world-leading faculty make the fruits of learning and discovery available to people across the state, throughout the nation and around the world.
