Doctoral Position in Geology

Doctoral Student in Geology (Ice Core Research)

Lund University was founded in 1666 and is repeatedly ranked among the world’s top 100 universities. The University has 40 000 students and more than 8 000 staff based in Lund, Helsingborg and Malmö. We are united in our efforts to understand, explain and improve our world and the human condition.

The Faculty of Science conducts research and education within Biology, Astronomy, Physics, Geosciences, Chemistry, Mathematics and Environmental Sciences. The Faculty is organized into nine departments, gathered in the northern campus area. The Faculty has approximately 1500 students, 330 PhD students and 700 employees.

The Department of Geology has a long and successful history of research with an international reputation throughout the entire geological field and offers nationally leading undergraduate programmes at Bachelor’s and Master’s levels. About 40 researchers/teachers and 20 research students are active at the department, which consists of two sub-departments: Quaternary Sciences and Bedrock Geology.

Subject description

In the framework of the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Innovative Training Network (ITN) DEEPICE the Department of Geology looks for an Early Stage Researcher (PhD student) in Geobiosphere Science (spec. Quaternary Sciences) to investigate “36Cl in Antarctic ice cores – developing a key dating tool and climate proxy”

Background: 36Cl has, with its half-life of 301´000 years, the potential to play a key role in absolute dating of the oldest ice cores covering the past ~1.5 Mio years. However, it has been shown that chlorine can diffuse in and escape from the firn at low accumulation sites in Antarctica. Such sites, however, hold the potential for recovering ice cores that span more than 1 Mio years. This project will aim to better understand the 36Cl behaviour in ice cores in order to assess the potential for reconstructing past climate conditions (e.g. snow accumulation rates) and to use 36Cl, together with other cosmogenic radionuclides, for absolute dating of the lowermost ice recovered within the Beyond-EPICA project. The project will make use of the full suite of chemical analyses performed on the ice core recovered within the Beyond-EPICA project. It will also use data and ice core samples generated and available through the predecessor project EPICA DomeC. Samples from other ice cores with different snow accumulation rates and chemical content will also be available, including at the labs of the secondment partner at University of Cambridge and the British Antarctic Survey.

Work duties

The candidate must have a keen interest and solid knowledge in (paleo-)climate science and global biogeochemical cycles with a MSc in (environmental) physics, (biogeo-)chemistry, geo or climate science or a related field. Apart from his/her own research, the candidate will be involved in the extensive DEEPICE training programme including three summerschools and outreach activities and must be willing to spend an extended time at secondments with other DEEPICE partner institutions (University of Cambridge and the British Antarctic Survey). 

Admission requirements

The candidate for this position can have any nationality but must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in Sweden for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately before the recruitment date.

In addition, the successful candidate should satisfy at the time of the recruitment the following mandatory characteristics:

• having not more than 4 years of equivalent research experience (i.e., working as researcher after obtaining the master’s degree)
• having not been awarded a title of PhD.

Eligibility

Students with basic eligibility for third-cycle studies are those who- have completed a second-cycle degree- have completed courses of at least 240 credits, of which at least 60 credits are from second-cycle courses, or- have acquired largely equivalent knowledge in some other way, in Sweden or abroad.

The employment of doctoral students is regulated in the Swedish Code of Statues 1998: 80. Only those who are or have been admitted to PhD-studies may be appointed to doctoral studentships. When an appointment to a doctoral studentship is made, the ability of the student to benefit from PhD-studies shall primarily be taken into account. 

Terms of employment

Limit of tenure, four years according to HF 5 kap 7§.

DEEPICE is a research and training network on understanding deep ice core proxies to infer past Antarctic climate dynamics. It is funded by the EU HORIZON2020 programme and consists of 10 academic partner organisations from 10 European countries plus 9 collaborating institutions from academia and industry. In total 15 early stage researchers (PhD students) will be employed after a competitive recruitment process and work together within the European DEEPICE consortium. Each early stage researcher will be supervised by his/her local main supervisor and a co-supervisor within the consortium. For each of the early stage researcher positions a recruitment panel adhering to strict gender equality and equal opportunity rules will be set up consisting of the two supervisors and a third DEEPICE representative. Selection criteria will encompass the potential as researchers, creativity, level of independence, teamwork ability, knowledge, and communication experience and availability for the intended start date. Start date of this 4-year position can be as early as July 2021 but it must be filled by October 2021. The candidate will be employed by Lund University according to standard University rules.

More information on DEEPICE project can be found at: http://deepice.cnrs.fr/

More information about eligibility and employment conditions can be found at: https://ec.europa.eu/research/mariecurieactions/sites/mariecurie2/files/msca-itn-fellows-note_en_v2.pdf

Contact and application

For additional information please contact Prof. Dr. Raimund Muscheler

(email: raimund.muscheler@geol.lu.se).

Interested students are asked to submit their application including a letter of motivation with a statement of their research interests, a curriculum vitae, their academic credentials, abstracts of the MSc and BSc theses and contact details of two academic referees. 

Lund University welcomes applicants with diverse backgrounds and experiences. We regard gender equality and diversity as a strength and an asset. We kindly decline all sales and marketing contacts.

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Type of employment Temporary position longer than 6 months
First day of employment As soon as possible, according to agreement
Salary Monthly salary
Number of positions 1
Working hours 100
City Lund
County Skåne län
Country Sweden
Reference number PA2021/302
Contact
Raimund Muscheler, +46462220454, raimund.muscheler@geol.lu.se
Union representative
SACO:Saco-s-rådet vid Lunds universitet, 046-222 93 64
SEKO: Seko Civil, 046-222 93 66
Published 09.Feb.2021
Last application date 31.Mar.2021 11:59 PM CET