Author: pancyber

Dust-DN doctoral network – DC17

National Observatory of Athens (NOA) and Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH)

Supervisors: Vassilis Amiridis, Eleni Marinou and Charikleia Meleti

The Dust-DN doctoral network

Atmospheric dust or mineral dust (or simply “dust”) is a major atmospheric aerosol, and it gives us one of the most visible and detectable aspects of transboundary transport of atmospheric constituents, impacting visibility, radiation and climate. What is less evident are its quantitative impacts on health, transportation and energy production. Atmospheric dust is not fully understood at the fundamental level (microphysical properties, dust emissions, source regions) and hence atmospheric models fail to fully reproduce its impacts. Moreover, dust observations using ground-based instrumentation, remote sensing and aircraft are abundant, but not evenly distributed; in particular they are missing near the major dust sources. Moreover, the techniques are still under development, with each giving a different picture of a phenomenon with multiple facets. For example, it is now known that super-coarse and giant dust particles have gone undetected for a long time due to limitations in the measurement and modelling tools that have been in use for decades, and this misdetection alters the understanding and the prediction of a number of processes. Finally, dust affects the environment, society, and several economic sectors, with impacts on the transportation and energy sectors for example, the nature and cost of which is not fully understood and quantified. Several methodologies exist to study mineral dust, each giving its own differing picture of a complex phenomenon: numerical modelling, remote sensing, in-situ observations, laboratory research.

We establish the Dust Doctoral Network (Dust-DN), in order to address gaps in the understanding of dust and its impacts by linking the different disciplines and methods. The aim is to train a team of early career scientists into overcoming compartmentalism in this field of science, and into developing a multi-disciplinary approach to mineral dust. Dust-DN will set up a network of academic and non-academic partners working on different aspects of dust research, and will coordinate a program of doctoral projects that will enhance knowledge across a broad range of fundamental, but linked, components of the atmospheric dust life cycle and its impacts. The projects will span across the disciplines of atmospheric sciences (dust processes, modelling, and remote sensing), geology (dust emissions and source regions), as well as the impacts on society and economic sectors. The knowledge will be shared among participating institutions and the wider public and scientific community. Common activities will be held, so as to enhance the network among the partner institutions and among the doctoral researchers, delivering an ambitious advanced training program for capacity building.

The Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and the National Observatory of Athens

The Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTh) was founded in 1925 and it constitutes a comprehensive institution with Faculties and Schools serving a vast array of scientific fields, ranging from natural and technological to social and health sciences, arts and humanities.Ιt is the largest Higher Education Institution in Greece and Southeastern Europe. It comprises in total of 41 Schools organised into 11 Faculties. Every Faculty/School offers an undergraduate degree, postgraduate degrees (2nd cycle and PhD).In total 64.000 undergraduate and more than 10.000 postgraduate and PhD students, of which 3.966 are international students, are registered in the Faculties and Schools of AUTh. AUTh operates 41 bachelor’s degree programmes and 68 master degree programmes in individual Faculties and Schools, as well as interdisciplinary, inter-university and international. AUTh participates in 48 Research Networks, implements more than 1.400 national, European and international research projects per year and cooperates closely with many universities, research institutions and enterprises in Greece and abroad.

The National Observatory of Athens (NOA) is the first Research Institution created in modern Greece with a continuous presence in science and education activities at international level, for more than 170 years. NOA has been historically nominated by the Greek government as the sole institution in charge of environmental, atmosphere, Earth Observation, Geodynamics, Space, Astronomy and Astrophysics research and relevant studies, with a clear mandate to offer innovative services and support for the benefit of the Greek citizens. ΝΟΑ has important human capacity with high skills in the observation of the atmospheric environment and in particular the investigation of physical processes and interactions in the atmosphere based on atmospheric and meteorological observations and modelling with emphasis on extreme events and climate studies (past, present and future climate trends, assessment of impacts).

The selected applicant will be working at the Institute for Astronomy, Astrophysics, Space Applications and Remote Sensing (IAASARS) of NOA) at the Remote sensing of Aerosols, Clouds and Trace gases (ReACT) group. ReACT/NOA activities are targeted towards understanding physical and chemical processes in the atmosphere, seizing the opportunity provided by the complex and vulnerable Mediterranean environment, utilising advanced ground-based and space-borne remote sensing observations and theoretical models. The group’s mission is to promote world-class atmospheric research in the area by shedding light on problems of compelling scientific interest and increasing social relevance. ReACT/NOA implements and operates the Remote Sensing National Facility of the Panhellenic Geophysical Observatory of Antikythera (PANGEA) Research Infrastructure (RI) funded by the European Investment Bank, an atmospheric, climate and geophysical RI being developed by NOA at Antikythera, Greece.

The doctoral project

Doctoral Candidate 17 (DC17) – “Ice nucleating dust particle concentration profiling and effects on ice crystal formation”

Enrolled in AUTH‘s PhD Program in “Environmental Physics”.

This project has the objective of improving knowledge on atmospheric dust mineralogy and impacts; delivering mineralogical-aware retrievals of dust INP profiling for Aerosol-Cloud-Interaction (ACI) studies; engaging the scientific community (e.g. from the European Research Infrastructure, ACTRIS) to utilise the new retrievals towards delivering innovative products of high applicability to communities working on ACI (size distribution, absorption); enhancing long-term atmospheric monitoring of dust to better assess its impact on weather and climate. The candidate will develop retrieval algorithms for atmospheric dust mineralogy, using ground-based remote sensing  (i.e., lidars, sunphotometers),to be validated against electron scanning microscopy (ESM) techniques applied on collocated samples collected from airborne platforms; apply the retrievals on datasets collected in Mediterranean campaigns; identify the source contribution and ageing/mixing of the sampled air masses by comparing with modelled dust mineralogical profiles using EMIT satellite data on soil mineralogy at source;develop immersion and deposition ice nucleation parameterizations based on lidar dust mineralogical retrievals and thermodynamic quantities, and study the relation of INP profiles to ice crystal concentration profiles derived by collocated cloud radars. The doctoral candidate will be based at IAASARS/NOA in Athens, Greece, and will be supervised by Dr. Vassilis Amiridis (NOA), Dr. Eleni Marinou (NOA) and Prof. Charikleia Meleti (AUTH). The project will include planned secondments at the Barcelona Supercomputing Centre (Spain) and the Technical University of Darmstadt (Germany).

Details

The recruited doctoral candidate will be enrolled in AUTH‘s PhD Program in “Environmental Physics” and and included in the “Dust Doctoral Network”, which involves highly prestigious research groups on this scientific topic, and which will ensure that the cohort of doctoral candidates is integrated in a dynamic and enthusiastic scientific environment. The doctoral candidate will learn about the consortium partners’ unique facilities and research topics/methods, and will exploit these opportunities for their research. All Dust-DN doctoral candidates will work side-by-side with lead scientists at world-leading institutes, and they will:

• Take responsibility for the scientific project that they are involved in, and the instruments and/or software required.
• Collect scientific knowledge through experiments and/or numerical modelling, and data analysis.
• Develop tailor-made data processing methods.
• Advance the fields of research in atmospheric dust and/or the related measurement and/or modelling techniques.
• Participate in the Dust Doctoral Network training and networking activities.
• Publish research results in scientific peer reviewed journals, and present at conferences and workshops.

Qualification Requirements

• The candidates are required to have an excellent master’s degree (or equivalent)in a physical, mathematical or computer science subject (or other natural science discipline) and to not have any kind of PhD degree.
• Fluency in written and oral English is compulsory.
• Motivation for research on atmospheric dust.
• Experience to develop scientific software (computer-based programming).
• Strong background in atmospheric and cloud physics.
• Demonstrated ability in being a strong team player.
• Strong international mobility for the purpose of research, training, and dissemination is mandatory.

Preferred Qualifications

Additional appreciated skills and competencies are:

• Experience in applying broad scientific knowledge to a range of specific problems or scenarios.
• Previous research experience and/or previous interest in the atmospheric sciences, meteorology or closely related discipline will be appreciated.
• Experience with written or oral scientific communications.
• Publication record.

Eligibility Requirements

• Qualifications:  The candidate must hold a title satisfying the admission requirements for a doctoral candidate at the institution where they will be enrolled (see qualification requirements). A doctoral degree in any field is not compatible with these positions.
• Mobility: Transnational mobility is an essential requirement of MSCA Doctoral Networks. At the time of recruitment, the candidates must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in Greece for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior to the recruitment date. Applicants must be aware that seconding periods are planned for this position as described above. International applicants are welcomed. 

Rights and Responsibilities of Researchers Participating in Marie Skłodwska-Curie Actions
The European Charter for Researchers is a set of general principles and requirements which specify the roles, responsibilities and entitlements of both researchers and the employers and/or funders of researchers. The aim of the Charter is to ensure that the nature of the relationship between researchers and employers or funders is conducive to successful performance in generating, transferring, sharing and disseminating knowledge and technological development and to the career development of the researchers.

It is obligatory for applicants to read and understand the detailed information regarding the rights and responsibilities of researchers engaged in an MSCA Doctoral Network.

The European Charter for researchers can be accessed at: https://euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/charter/european-charter

Employment Contract and Financial Aid

The selected candidate will be appointed under a 36-months full-time employment contract. A competitive financial aid package will be offered to the successful candidate with a gross annual salary of €33,112.08  (living allowance and mobility allowance). In addition, there can be further allowances depending on family status and other needs, as per MSCA relevant provisions.

It is understood that failure to successfully continue the PhD program will result in immediate cancellation of the employment contract and the financial support provided.

Start date

The position starts in June 2025 and is a full-time position (40 hours/week), funded for a period of 36 months.

Application and selection

Application advisory: A pre-screening of the candidates will be made by the Dust-DN consortium as a first step prior to the formal recruitment process. Candidates should submit a CV and motivation letter on the Dust-DN website, together with their university transcripts and the name and contact information of two referees, and indicating up to 3 preferred doctoral projects (in order of preference) amongst the ones advertised within the whole Dust-DN (which includes the one in the present advert). It is very important that the motivation letter should recall each of the qualification requirements and preferred qualifications indicated in this advert, clearly justifying how the candidate is able to meet each of them, and providing evidence. After short-listing, the most suitable candidates will be called for an interview.

Formal recruitment phase: The most highly-ranked applicants interviewed during the application advisory phase will be re-directed for the formal application.

With the submission of the documents, applicants agree that the documents will be shared among all supervisors of the Dust-DN consortium and members of the respective shortlisting and interviewing panels.

Dust-DN respects and supports the compatibility of professional and private life and promotes development opportunities for its cohort of doctoral researchers. We promote equality of opportunity, value diversity and nurture a working and learning environment.

Deadlines:

Applications for the advisory phase must be submitted by 31 August 2024.

Deadline extended to 30 September 2024

Formal applications must be submitted by 31 January 2025.

We reserve the possibility to extend the deadline(s).

Contact Information
For further information, please contact Dr. Eleni Marinou (e-mail: elmarinou@noa.gr).

Dust-DN doctoral network – DC16

The Cyprus Institute (CyI)

Supervisors: Jean Sciare and Diana Francis

The Dust-DN doctoral network

Atmospheric dust or mineral dust (or simply “dust”) is a major atmospheric aerosol, and it gives us one of the most visible and detectable aspects of transboundary transport of atmospheric constituents, impacting visibility, radiation and climate. What is less evident are its quantitative impacts on health, transportation and energy production. Atmospheric dust is not fully understood at the fundamental level (microphysical properties, dust emissions, source regions) and hence atmospheric models fail to fully reproduce its impacts. Moreover, dust observations using ground-based instrumentation, remote sensing and aircraft are abundant, but not evenly distributed; in particular they are missing near the major dust sources. Moreover, the techniques are still under development, with each giving a different picture of a phenomenon with multiple facets. For example, it is now known that super-coarse and giant dust particles have gone undetected for a long time due to limitations in the measurement and modelling tools that have been in use for decades, and this misdetection alters the understanding and the prediction of a number of processes. Finally, dust affects the environment, society, and several economic sectors, with impacts on the transportation and energy sectors for example, the nature and cost of which is not fully understood and quantified. Several methodologies exist to study mineral dust, each giving its own differing picture of a complex phenomenon: numerical modelling, remote sensing, in-situ observations, laboratory research.

We establish the Dust Doctoral Network (Dust-DN), in order to address gaps in the understanding of dust and its impacts by linking the different disciplines and methods. The aim is to train a team of early career scientists into overcoming compartmentalism in this field of science, and into developing a multi-disciplinary approach to mineral dust. Dust-DN will set up a network of academic and non-academic partners working on different aspects of dust research, and will coordinate a program of doctoral projects that will enhance knowledge across a broad range of fundamental, but linked, components of the atmospheric dust life cycle and its impacts. The projects will span across the disciplines of atmospheric sciences (dust processes, modelling, and remote sensing), geology (dust emissions and source regions), as well as the impacts on society and economic sectors. The knowledge will be shared among participating institutions and the wider public and scientific community. Common activities will be held, so as to enhance the network among the partner institutions and among the doctoral researchers, delivering an ambitious advanced training program for capacity building.

The Cyprus Institute

The Cyprus Institute (CyI) is a no-profit research and educational institution with a strong scientific and technological orientation, emphasizing international collaborations, cross-disciplinary research, innovation, and post-graduate education. CyI, through its established research centres, addresses challenging issues that are important at both the regional and international levels. Many of its research activities are being carried out in partnership with leading institutions in respective thematic areas. The Cyprus Institute actuates its educational mission through its Graduate School. It is a fully accredited, degree-granting institution of higher education offering exclusively postgraduate programs. It maintains a small number of students that are fully integrated into the research activities of the institute. This provides the students with the opportunity to acquire hands-on training in the use of the latest methods and techniques, have access to state-of-the-art infrastructure, and conduct research with internationally recognized research teams.

The selected candidate will be working at the Climate and Atmosphere Research Centre (CARE-C) of the Cyprus Institute within a highly international environment. CARE-C is a regional Centre of Excellence focused on addressing urgent climate change and air pollution challenges and impacts. The establishment of CARE-C was sponsored through funding received from the European Union’s research and innovation program (grant no. 856612) and the Cyprus Government, within the framework of Teaming project EMME-CARE. It comprises four departments: Environmental Observations, Environmental Predictions, Impact and policy, and Environmental Technologies. Moreover, it comprises a number of facilities for atmospheric research such as the Cyprus Atmospheric Observatory and the Unmanned Systems Research Laboratory.

The doctoral project

Doctoral Candidate 16 (DC16) – “Quantification and characterisation of dust microphysical properties in the Mediterranean and Middle East, through the novel Aerotape technology”

Enrolled in the Cyprus Institute’s PhD programme on “Energy, Environment and Atmospheric Sciences”.

This project has the objective of improving our knowledge of dust physico-chemical fingerprints from local (city emission) vs regional (desert) dust; propose to EU Air Quality Networks a new technology to better respond to the new (more stringent) EU Air Quality Directive; and engage the scientific community (e.g. from European Research Infrastructures) to further utilize this new technology and enhance long-term atmospheric monitoring of dust to better assess their impacts. The candidate will test and validate a novel cost-effective scientific instrument (AEROTAPE) to perform high time resolution quality-controlled measurement of dust micro-physical properties, leverage field campaigns and long-term observations planned in the Dust-DN to create new synergies between in-situ and remote sensing monitoring systems; deploy the technology across the Mediterranean and the Middle East to better identifying the influence of source regions (Sahara & Arabian deserts) on atmospheric dust properties; deploy the technology in contrasted EU Air Quality Monitoring Networks to better apportion local (e.g. road resuspended dust) vs regional (long-range transported) fraction of dust so as to build a new database of PM dust within cities and address the health impact of chronic exposure to local dust. The doctoral candidate will be based at CyI in Nicosia, Cyprus and will be supervised by Prof. Jean Sciare (CyI) and Dr. Diana Francis (Khalifa University). The project will include planned secondments at the Technical University of Darmstadt (Germany), the National Observatory of Athens (Greece), and Khalifa University (United Arab Emirates).

Details

The recruited doctoral candidate will be enrolled in CyI’s PhD programme on “Energy, Environment and Atmospheric Sciences” and included in the “Dust Doctoral Network”, which involves highly prestigious research groups on this scientific topic, and which will ensure that the cohort of doctoral candidates is integrated in a dynamic and enthusiastic scientific environment. The doctoral candidate will learn about the consortium partners’ unique facilities and research topics/methods, and will exploit these opportunities for their research. All Dust-DN doctoral candidates will work side-by-side with lead scientists at world-leading institutes, and they will:

• Take responsibility for the scientific project that they are involved in, and the instruments and/or software required.
• Collect scientific knowledge through experiments and/or numerical modelling, and data analysis.
• Develop tailor-made data processing methods.
• Advance the fields of research in atmospheric dust and/or the related measurement and/or modelling techniques.
• Participate in the Dust Doctoral Network training and networking activities.
• Publish research results in scientific peer reviewed journals, and present at conferences and workshops.

Qualification Requirements

• The candidates are required to possess an excellent master’s degree (or equivalent) in a physical or mathematical science subject (or other natural science discipline) and to not have any kind of PhD degree.
• Fluency in written and oral English is compulsory (as per the admission requirements of the CyI Graduate School, a certificate will be required in the second step of the application procedure).
• Motivation for research on atmospheric dust.
• Experience or aptitude to develop scientific software (computer-based programming)
• Demonstrated ability in being a strong team player.
• Strong international mobility for the purpose of research, training, and dissemination is mandatory.

Preferred Qualifications

Additional appreciated skills and competencies are:

• Experience in applying broad scientific knowledge to a range of specific problems or scenarios.
• Previous research experience and/or previous interest in the atmospheric sciences, meteorology or closely related discipline will be appreciated.
• Experience with written or oral scientific communications.
• Publication record.
• Driving licence.

Eligibility Requirements

• Qualifications:  The candidate must hold a title satisfying the admission requirements for a doctoral candidate at the institution where they will be enrolled (see qualification requirements). A doctoral degree in any field is not compatible with these positions.
• Mobility: Transnational mobility is an essential requirement of MSCA Doctoral Networks. At the time of recruitment, the candidates must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in Cyprus for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior to the recruitment date. Applicants must be aware that seconding periods are planned for this position as described above. International applicants are welcomed. 

Rights and Responsibilities of Researchers Participating in Marie Skłodwska-Curie Actions
The European Charter for Researchers is a set of general principles and requirements which specify the roles, responsibilities and entitlements of both researchers and the employers and/or funders of researchers. The aim of the Charter is to ensure that the nature of the relationship between researchers and employers or funders is conducive to successful performance in generating, transferring, sharing and disseminating knowledge and technological development and to the career development of the researchers.

It is obligatory for applicants to read and understand the detailed information regarding the rights and responsibilities of researchers engaged in an MSCA Doctoral Network.

The European Charter for researchers can be accessed at: https://euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/charter/european-charter

Employment Contract and Financial Aid

The selected candidate will be appointed under a 36-months full-time employment contract. A competitive financial aid package will be offered to the successful candidate with a gross annual salary of €33,640  (living allowance and mobility allowance). In addition, there can be further allowances depending on family status and other needs, as per MSCA relevant provisions.

It is understood that failure to successfully continue the PhD program will result in immediate cancellation of the employment contract and the financial support provided.

Start date

The position starts on 3 February 2025 and is a full-time position (40 hours/week), funded for a period of 36 months.

Application and selection

Application advisory: A pre-screening of the candidates will be made by the Dust-DN consortium as a first step prior to the formal recruitment process. Candidates should submit a CV and motivation letter on the Dust-DN website, together with their university transcripts and the name and contact information of two referees, and indicating up to 3 preferred doctoral projects (in order of preference) amongst the ones advertised within the whole Dust-DN (which includes the one in the present advert). It is very important that the motivation letter should recall each of the qualification requirements and preferred qualifications indicated in this advert, clearly justifying how the candidate is able to meet each of them, and providing evidence. After short-listing, the most suitable candidates will be called for an interview.

Formal recruitment phase: The most highly-ranked applicants interviewed during the application advisory phase will be re-directed for the formal application.

With the submission of the documents, applicants agree that the documents will be shared among all supervisors of the Dust-DN consortium and members of the respective shortlisting and interviewing panels.

Dust-DN respects and supports the compatibility of professional and private life and promotes development opportunities for its cohort of doctoral researchers. We promote equality of opportunity, value diversity and nurture a working and learning environment.

Deadlines:

Applications for the advisory phase must be submitted by 31 August 2024.

Deadline extended to 30 September 2024

Formal applications must be submitted by 30 November 2024.

We reserve the possibility to extend the deadline(s).

Contact Information
For further information, please contact Professor Jean Sciare (e-mail: j.sciare@cyi.ac.cy).

Dust-DN doctoral network – DC15

PMODWRC Davos/ΕΤΗ Ζurich, Switzerland

Supervisors: Stelios Kazadzis and Martin Wild

The Dust-DN doctoral network

Atmospheric dust or mineral dust (or simply “dust”) is a major atmospheric aerosol, and it gives us one of the most visible and detectable aspects of transboundary transport of atmospheric constituents, impacting visibility, radiation and climate. What is less evident are its quantitative impacts on health, transportation and energy production. Atmospheric dust is not fully understood at the fundamental level (microphysical properties, dust emissions, source regions) and hence atmospheric models fail to fully reproduce its impacts. Moreover, dust observations using ground-based instrumentation, remote sensing and aircraft are abundant, but not evenly distributed; in particular they are missing near the major dust sources. Moreover, the techniques are still under development, with each giving a different picture of a phenomenon with multiple facets. For example, it is now known that super-coarse and giant dust particles have gone undetected for a long time due to limitations in the measurement and modelling tools that have been in use for decades, and this misdetection alters the understanding and the prediction of a number of processes. Finally, dust affects the environment, society, and several economic sectors, with impacts on the transportation and energy sectors for example, the nature and cost of which is not fully understood and quantified. Several methodologies exist to study mineral dust, each giving its own differing picture of a complex phenomenon: numerical modelling, remote sensing, in-situ observations, laboratory research.

We establish the Dust Doctoral Network (Dust-DN), in order to address gaps in the understanding of dust and its impacts by linking the different disciplines and methods. The aim is to train a team of early career scientists into overcoming compartmentalism in this field of science, and into developing a multi-disciplinary approach to mineral dust. Dust-DN will set up a network of academic and non-academic partners working on different aspects of dust research, and will coordinate a program of doctoral projects that will enhance knowledge across a broad range of fundamental, but linked, components of the atmospheric dust life cycle and its impacts. The projects will span across the disciplines of atmospheric sciences (dust processes, modelling, and remote sensing), geology (dust emissions and source regions), as well as the impacts on society and economic sectors. The knowledge will be shared among participating institutions and the wider public and scientific community. Common activities will be held, so as to enhance the network among the partner institutions and among the doctoral researchers, delivering an ambitious advanced training program for capacity building.

The Physics and Meteorology Obs. Davos, World Radiation Center (PMODWRC)

PMODWRC is a research institute in Davos, Switzerland that is designated from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) to host the reference instruments for Solar radiation and aerosol optical depth measurements (AOD) worldwide. The World Radiation Center group  leads projects related to the Metrology of aerosol optical properties, satellite validation, aerosol cloud and radiation interactions and networking activities. It provides the WMO scale of AOD traceability to the ACTRIS-RI/Center for aerosol remote sensing. It leads the Harmonia COST Action of aerosol Sun-photometer networking and it hosts the world aerosol optical depth calibration center (WORCC). WMO-defined World Calibration Center (and holding the reference instrumentation) for total solar, IR and UV radiation, and AOD. Hosts facilities for metrological calibration and characterization of solar instruments, calibrating more than 200 instruments per year also hosts the Global Atm. Watch PFR AOD network.

The selected candidate will be affiliated to the Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETHZ) D-USYS, Institute for Atmosphere and Climate, Prof. Dr. Martin Wild. ETH Zurich is a public research university in Zürich, Switzerland. Founded by the Swiss federal government in 1854, with the stated mission to educate engineers and scientists; the school focuses primarily on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, although its 16 departments span a variety of disciplines and subjects. Doctoral studies are carried out in individual research groups, combining original research with specialised doctorate courses and teaching activities.With 4.5K doctoral students out of a total of over 25K students, ETH Zurich is one of the universities in Europe which focuses most intensively on research. Doctorates make a significant, fundamental contribution to that research work. They are based on research projects that are carried out independently, with the support of a professor. All doctoral students at ETH Zurich are employed as scientific assistants.

The doctoral project

Doctoral Candidate 15 (DC15) – “Identification of dust properties from different sources using sun-photometry and their effects on spectral solar irradiance”.

Enrolled in the ETH Zurich PhD programme of D-USYS, Institute of Atmosphere and Climate, in collaboration with PMODWRC.

Spectral measurements of solar irradiance will be exploited to provide information on aerosol microphysical properties for different dust sources (Sahara, Middle East, Central China). Total-column properties, vertical profiles, aerosol inversion models (GRASP) and other sources of dust mineralogy will provide additional information. Existing measurements (Tenerife, Spain – Saharan dust), Cyprus (Middle East and Saharan) and Mt. Walliguan (Central China) and also measurements to be conducted during the project, will be used. Measurement in other relevant locations, based on available aerosol networks (AERONET) will be also exploited.

Expected potential results: Improved knowledge of dust aerosol optical properties associated to different dust sources, spectral signatures (UV, Visible, IR) of dust effects on solar radiation, Assessment of uncertainties on the global Earth-atmosphere radiative effect, Impacts of solar exposure, e.g. erythemal, vitamin D, DNA damage, photosynthetically active radiation, satellite validation aspects. Dust spatiotemporal changes and effects on spectral solar irradiance.

The project includes 2 up to 6 weeks visits to the Barcelona Supercomputing Center, Spain (dust modelling and dust mineralogy training),   GRASP SAS Lille, France (Introduction and hands on experience of the GRASP algorithm for enhanced aerosol optical properties retrievals) and Eratosthenes Center of Excellence, Limassol, Cyprus (participating in field experiments related with aerosol and solar measurements). 

Details

The recruited doctoral candidate will be enrolled in ETHZ PhD programme in collaboration with PMODWRC, and included in the “Dust Doctoral Network”, which involves highly prestigious research groups on this scientific topic, and which will ensure that the cohort of doctoral candidates is integrated in a dynamic and enthusiastic scientific environment. The doctoral candidate will learn about the consortium partners’ unique facilities and research topics/methods, and will exploit these opportunities for their research. All Dust-DN doctoral candidates will work side-by-side with lead scientists at world-leading institutes, and they will:

• Take responsibility for the scientific project that they are involved in, and the instruments and/or software required.
• Collect scientific knowledge through experiments and/or numerical modelling, and data analysis.
• Develop tailor-made data processing methods.
• Advance the fields of research in atmospheric dust and/or the related measurement and/or modelling techniques.
• Participate in the Dust Doctoral Network training and networking activities.
• Publish research results in scientific peer reviewed journals, and present at conferences and workshops.

Qualification Requirements

• The candidates are required to have an excellent master’s degree (or equivalent) in a natural sciences, atmospheric physics, physics, mathematics or related field.
• Proficiency in writing your own software code in a high-level programming environment such as Matlab, Python, or similar.
• Experience in analysing atmospheric remote sensing data sets and related statistical tools are an asset.
• PhD language and communication is in English so fluency in written and oral English is required 
• Motivation for research on solar radiation and atmospheric dust.
• Demonstrated ability in being a strong team player.
• Strong international mobility for the purpose of research, training, and dissemination is mandatory.

Preferred Qualifications

Additional appreciated skills and competencies are:

• Experience through courses or Master Thesis in Atmospheric Remote Sensing and/or atmospheric modeling.
• Previous research experience and/or previous interest in the atmospheric sciences, meteorology or closely related discipline will be appreciated.
• Experience with written or oral communications.
• Publication record.

Eligibility Requirements

• Qualifications:  The candidate must hold a title satisfying the admission requirements for a doctoral candidate at the institution where they will be enrolled (see qualification requirements). A doctoral degree in any field is not compatible with these positions.
• Mobility: Transnational mobility is an essential requirement of MSCA Doctoral Networks. At the time of recruitment, the candidates must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in Switzerland for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior to the recruitment date. Applicants must be aware that seconding periods are planned for this position as described above. International applicants are welcomed. 

Rights and Responsibilities of Researchers Participating in Marie Skłodwska-Curie Actions
The European Charter for Researchers is a set of general principles and requirements which specify the roles, responsibilities and entitlements of both researchers and the employers and/or funders of researchers. The aim of the Charter is to ensure that the nature of the relationship between researchers and employers or funders is conducive to successful performance in generating, transferring, sharing and disseminating knowledge and technological development and to the career development of the researchers.

It is obligatory for applicants to read and understand the detailed information regarding the rights and responsibilities of researchers engaged in an MSCA Doctoral Network.

The European Charter for researchers can be accessed at: https://euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/charter/european-charter

 Employment Contract and Financial Aid

The selected candidate will be appointed under a 36-months full-time employment contract. A competitive financial aid package will be offered to the successful candidate with a gross annual salary of 53,000CHF. In addition, there can be further allowances depending on family status and other needs, as per MSCA relevant provisions.

It is understood that failure to successfully continue the PhD program will result in immediate cancellation of the employment contract and the financial support provided.

We offer: An attractive workplace at a world-leading Institute in a beautiful touristic town in the Swiss Alps. You will join an international team of scientists with state of the art expertise in remote sensing of atmospheric aerosols, solar measurements, aerosol and solar modelling, statistical time series analyses, to help answer key questions concerning the aerosol dust properties and their effects on solar radiation and climate.

We respect and support the compatibility of professional and private life and promote individual development opportunities. We promote equality of opportunity, value diversity and nurture a working and learning environment. Please visit our gender equality plan (https://www.pmodwrc.ch/en/institute/gender-equality-plan/) for further information.

Start date

The position’s possible start dates are between 1st of December 2024 and 1st of April 2025  and is a full-time position, funded for a period of 36 months..

Application and selection

Application advisory: A pre-screening of the candidates will be made by the Dust-DN consortium as a first step prior to the formal recruitment process. Candidates should submit a CV and motivation letter on the Dust-DN website, together with their university transcripts and the name and contact information of two referees, and indicating up to 3 preferred doctoral projects (in order of preference) amongst the ones advertised within the whole Dust-DN (which includes the one in the present advert). It is very important that the motivation letter should recall each of the qualification requirements and preferred qualifications indicated in this advert, clearly justifying how the candidate is able to meet each of them, and providing evidence. After short-listing, the most suitable candidates will be called for an interview.

Formal recruitment phase: The most highly-ranked applicants interviewed during the application advisory phase will be re-directed for the formal application.

With the submission of the documents, applicants agree that the documents will be shared among all supervisors of the Dust-DN consortium and members of the respective shortlisting and interviewing panels.

Dust-DN respects and supports the compatibility of professional and private life and promotes development opportunities for its cohort of doctoral researchers. We promote equality of opportunity, value diversity and nurture a working and learning environment.

Deadlines:

Applications for the advisory phase must be submitted by 31 August 2024.

Deadline extended to 30 September 2024

Formal applications must be submitted by 30 November 2024.

We reserve the possibility to extend the deadline(s).

Contact Information
For further information, please contact Dr. Stelios Kazadzis, Project coordinator, (stelios.kazadzis@pmodwrc.ch).

Dust-DN doctoral network – DC14

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)

Supervisors: Martina Klose and Carlos Pérez García-Pando

The Dust-DN doctoral network

Atmospheric dust or mineral dust (or simply “dust”) is a major atmospheric aerosol, and it gives us one of the most visible and detectable aspects of transboundary transport of atmospheric constituents, impacting visibility, radiation and climate. What is less evident are its quantitative impacts on health, transportation and energy production. Atmospheric dust is not fully understood at the fundamental level (microphysical properties, dust emissions, source regions) and hence atmospheric models fail to fully reproduce its impacts. Moreover, dust observations using ground-based instrumentation, remote sensing and aircraft are abundant, but not evenly distributed; in particular they are missing near the major dust sources. Moreover, the techniques are still under development, with each giving a different picture of a phenomenon with multiple facets. For example, it is now known that super-coarse and giant dust particles have gone undetected for a long time due to limitations in the measurement and modelling tools that have been in use for decades, and this misdetection alters the understanding and the prediction of a number of processes. Finally, dust affects the environment, society, and several economic sectors, with impacts on the transportation and energy sectors for example, the nature and cost of which is not fully understood and quantified. Several methodologies exist to study mineral dust, each giving its own differing picture of a complex phenomenon: numerical modelling, remote sensing, in-situ observations, laboratory research.

We establish the Dust Doctoral Network (Dust-DN), in order to address gaps in the understanding of dust and its impacts by linking the different disciplines and methods. The aim is to train a team of early career scientists into overcoming compartmentalism in this field of science, and into developing a multi-disciplinary approach to mineral dust. Dust-DN will set up a network of academic and non-academic partners working on different aspects of dust research, and will coordinate a program of doctoral projects that will enhance knowledge across a broad range of fundamental, but linked, components of the atmospheric dust life cycle and its impacts. The projects will span across the disciplines of atmospheric sciences (dust processes, modelling, and remote sensing), geology (dust emissions and source regions), as well as the impacts on society and economic sectors. The knowledge will be shared among participating institutions and the wider public and scientific community. Common activities will be held, so as to enhance the network among the partner institutions and among the doctoral researchers, delivering an ambitious advanced training program for capacity building.

The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)

KIT, the research university within the Helmholtz Association, combines three core tasks — research, education and innovation — into a single mission. With 9,400 employees and 25,000 students, it is one of the largest institutions of research and higher education in natural sciences and engineering in Europe. KIT was awarded the title “University of Excellence” within the German Excellence Strategy launched by the federal and state governments on 19 July 2019. In the area of Atmospheric Science, KIT is ranked #1 in Germany by the Shanghai Ranking of Academic Subjects. With the Karlsruhe House of Young Scientists (KHYS), KIT has a central unit dedicated to promoting young scientists, such as doctoral students. KIT actively supports equality, diversity, and inclusion, and as an equal opportunity employer, KIT explicitly encourages applications from women as well as from others with diverse backgrounds and perspectives. Applicants with disabilities will be preferentially considered if suitably qualified.

The selected candidate will be working at the Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research Troposphere Research (IMKTRO) at KIT. IMKTRO participates in the KIT Centers “Climate and Environment” and “MathSEE (Mathematics in Sciences, Engineering, and Economics)” and contributes significantly to the research program “Changing Earth” of the Helmholtz Association. The Helmholtz Young Investigator Group “Mineral Dust” at IMKTRO, led by Dr. Martina Klose, is dedicated to advancing understanding of dust processes and impacts. 

The doctoral project

Doctoral Candidate 14 (DC14) – “Size-dependent turbulent dust transport in idealised and realistic high-resolution simulations”

To be enrolled in the Faculty of Physics at KIT. 

This project aims to estimate the impact of turbulence on vertical dust transport, considering both irregular and coherent turbulent structures. Toward this aim, the doctoral candidate will conduct idealised large-eddy simulations (LES) with the ICON-ART model to statistically quantify vertical motions under different atmospheric stability conditions and in selected scenarios of organised turbulence, e.g. vortex roles; investigate size-dependent dust transport using a Eulerian model representation, with particle sizes ranging from fine to giant; explore coupling with a Lagrangian particle model. Finally, she or he will use data from the J-WADI comprehensive field campaign and from existing storm-resolving global model simulations to investigate micro- and meso-scale turbulent structures and link them with the statistical investigation using LES. The doctoral candidate will be based at KIT in Karlsruhe, Germany, and will be supervised by Dr. Martina Klose (KIT) and Dr. Carlos Pérez García-Pando (Barcelona Supercomputing Center). The project will include two planned secondments: the first one of 1-2 months at the National Observatory of Athens (Greece) at the beginning of the second year of the project and the second one of 2-3 months at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center, Spain, at the end of the second project year. 

Details

The recruited doctoral candidate will be enrolled in the Faculty of Physics at KIT and included in the “Dust Doctoral Network”, which involves highly prestigious research groups on this scientific topic, and which will ensure that the cohort of doctoral candidates is integrated in a dynamic and enthusiastic scientific environment. The doctoral candidate will learn about the consortium partners’ unique facilities and research topics/methods, and will exploit these opportunities for their research. All Dust-DN doctoral candidates will work side-by-side with lead scientists at world-leading institutes, and they will:

• Take responsibility for the scientific project that they are involved in, and the instruments and/or software required.
• Collect scientific knowledge through experiments and/or numerical modelling, and data analysis.
• Develop tailor-made data processing methods.
• Advance the fields of research in atmospheric dust and/or the related measurement and/or modelling techniques.
• Participate in the Dust Doctoral Network training and networking activities.
• Publish research results in scientific peer reviewed journals, and present at conferences and workshops.

Qualification Requirements

• The candidates are required to have an excellent master’s degree (or equivalent) in a physical or mathematical science subject (or other natural science discipline) and must not have any kind of PhD degree.
• Very good knowledge of the physics of the atmosphere
• Very good programming skills (e.g. Fortran, C++, Python, shell script, etc.)
• Very good English language and communication skills 
• Motivation for research on atmospheric dust
• Ability to work independently and in a team
• Proactive attitude
• Strong international mobility for the purpose of research, training, and dissemination is mandatory.

Preferred Qualifications

Additional appreciated skills and competencies are:

• Experience with numerical modelling
• Experience with high-performance computing
• Previous knowledge in dust / atmospheric aerosols / boundary layer turbulence

Eligibility Requirements

• Qualifications:  The candidate must hold a title satisfying the admission requirements for a doctoral candidate at the institution where they will be enrolled (see qualification requirements). A doctoral degree in any field is not compatible with these positions.
• Mobility: Transnational mobility is an essential requirement of MSCA Doctoral Networks. At the time of recruitment, the candidates must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in Germany for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior to the recruitment date. Applicants must be aware that seconding periods are planned for this position as described above. International applicants are welcomed. 

Rights and Responsibilities of Researchers Participating in Marie Skłodwska-Curie Actions
The European Charter for Researchers is a set of general principles and requirements which specify the roles, responsibilities and entitlements of both researchers and the employers and/or funders of researchers. The aim of the Charter is to ensure that the nature of the relationship between researchers and employers or funders is conducive to successful performance in generating, transferring, sharing and disseminating knowledge and technological development and to the career development of the researchers.

It is obligatory for applicants to read and understand the detailed information regarding the rights and responsibilities of researchers engaged in an MSCA Doctoral Network.

The European Charter for researchers can be accessed at: https://euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/charter/european-charter

Employment Contract and Financial Aid

The selected candidate will be appointed under a 36-months full-time employment contract. A competitive financial aid package will be offered to the successful candidate with a gross annual salary of approximately €38,318 (living allowance and mobility allowance). The exact amount may vary slightly depending on individual circumstances. In addition, there can be further allowances depending on family status and other needs, as per MSCA relevant provisions.

It is understood that failure to successfully continue the PhD program will result in immediate cancellation of the employment contract and the financial support provided.

Start date

The position is planned to start on 1st February 2025 or as otherwise agreed. The position is full-time, funded for a period of 36 months.

Application and selection

Application advisory: A pre-screening of the candidates will be made by the Dust-DN consortium as a first step prior to the formal recruitment process. Candidates should submit a CV and motivation letter on the Dust-DN website, together with their university transcripts and the name and contact information of two referees, and indicating up to 3 preferred doctoral projects (in order of preference) amongst the ones advertised within the whole Dust-DN (which includes the one in the present advert). It is very important that the motivation letter should recall each of the qualification requirements and preferred qualifications indicated in this advert, clearly justifying how the candidate is able to meet each of them, and providing evidence. After short-listing, the most suitable candidates will be called for an interview.

Formal recruitment phase: The most highly-ranked applicants interviewed during the application advisory phase will be re-directed for the formal application.

With the submission of the documents, applicants agree that the documents will be shared among all supervisors of the Dust-DN consortium and members of the respective shortlisting and interviewing panels.

Dust-DN respects and supports the compatibility of professional and private life and promotes development opportunities for its cohort of doctoral researchers. We promote equality of opportunity, value diversity and nurture a working and learning environment.

Deadlines:

Applications for the advisory phase must be submitted by 31 August 2024.

Deadline extended to 30 September 2024

The formal application deadline is planned to be 30 November 2024.

We reserve the possibility to extend the deadline(s).

Contact Information

For further information, please contact Dr. Martina Klose (e-mail: martina.klose@kit.edu).

Dust-DN doctoral network – DC13

Technical University Darmstadt (TUDa)

Supervisors: Konrad Kandler and Carlos Perez Garcia-Pando

The Dust-DN doctoral network

Atmospheric dust or mineral dust (or simply “dust”) is a major atmospheric aerosol, and it gives us one of the most visible and detectable aspects of transboundary transport of atmospheric constituents, impacting visibility, radiation and climate. What is less evident are its quantitative impacts on health, transportation and energy production. Atmospheric dust is not fully understood at the fundamental level (microphysical properties, dust emissions, source regions) and hence atmospheric models fail to fully reproduce its impacts. Moreover, dust observations using ground-based instrumentation, remote sensing and aircraft are abundant, but not evenly distributed; in particular they are missing near the major dust sources. Moreover, the techniques are still under development, with each giving a different picture of a phenomenon with multiple facets. For example, it is now known that super-coarse and giant dust particles have gone undetected for a long time due to limitations in the measurement and modelling tools that have been in use for decades, and this misdetection alters the understanding and the prediction of a number of processes. Finally, dust affects the environment, society, and several economic sectors, with impacts on the transportation and energy sectors for example, the nature and cost of which is not fully understood and quantified. Several methodologies exist to study mineral dust, each giving its own differing picture of a complex phenomenon: numerical modelling, remote sensing, in-situ observations, laboratory research.

We establish the Dust Doctoral Network (Dust-DN), in order to address gaps in the understanding of dust and its impacts by linking the different disciplines and methods. The aim is to train a team of early career scientists into overcoming compartmentalism in this field of science, and into developing a multi-disciplinary approach to mineral dust. Dust-DN will set up a network of academic and non-academic partners working on different aspects of dust research, and will coordinate a program of doctoral projects that will enhance knowledge across a broad range of fundamental, but linked, components of the atmospheric dust life cycle and its impacts. The projects will span across the disciplines of atmospheric sciences (dust processes, modelling, and remote sensing), geology (dust emissions and source regions), as well as the impacts on society and economic sectors. The knowledge will be shared among participating institutions and the wider public and scientific community. Common activities will be held, so as to enhance the network among the partner institutions and among the doctoral researchers, delivering an ambitious advanced training program for capacity building.

The Technical University Darmstadt (TUDa)

TUDa with enrolment of about 24,400 students, among them 19% foreign students, is one of Germany’s leading universities of technology, belonging to TU9 – the alliance of nine leading German universities of technology – in Germany and CLUSTER, a consortium of 12 elite European Universities in Science and Engineering. The EU Commission awarded TUDa, together with six European technical universities, as one of the first consortia, the title of “European University”. Ingenium, an umbrella organisation for promoting early career researchers, offers training in transferable skills. The Welcome Centre assists all international scientists in non-professional areas. TUDa bundles its excellent and globally visible research in three research fields. Research in these fields focuses on topics that are of high and lasting relevance for the economy and society.

The selected candidate will be working at the Institute of Applied Geosciences of the TUDa within a highly international environment. The Institute of Applied Geosciences covers a broad range of Earth sciences from geology and soil science over hydrology to atmospheric sciences.

The doctoral project

Doctoral Candidate 13 (DC13) – “Variability of dust composition, shape and size distribution across the Mediterranean, based on single-particle analysis”

The selected candidate has the central objective of characterising dust events in the Mediterranean and Western Africa for their composition and potential differences. Multi-year sample series are available for this purpose. The successful candidate will analyse samples by advanced electron microscopy. After an identification of major dust events in the last decade, identified events will be related to source regions using the state-of-the art atmospheric models run by the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC). Special focus will be put on characterization of variability in dust composition, size and shape for the dust events and, thus, source regions. An impact of variability on dust optical properties will be finally estimated.

The doctoral candidate will be based at the Institute for Applied Geosciences, TUDa, Germany and will be supervised by Prof. Konrad Kandler (TUDa) and Prof. Carlos Perez Garcia-Pando (Barcelona Supercomputing Centre). The project will include two month secondments at the Barcelona Supercomputing Centre (Spain) and the Cyprus Institute (Nicosia, Cyprus).

Details

The recruited doctoral candidate will be enrolled in TUDa’s PhD programme and included in the “Dust Doctoral Network”, which involves highly prestigious research groups on this scientific topic, and which will ensure that the cohort of doctoral candidates is integrated in a dynamic and enthusiastic scientific environment. The doctoral candidate will learn about the consortium partners’ unique facilities and research topics/methods, and will exploit these opportunities for their research. All Dust-DN doctoral candidates will work side-by-side with lead scientists at world-leading institutes, and they will:

• Take responsibility for the scientific project that they are involved in, and the instruments and/or software required.
• Collect scientific knowledge through experiments and/or numerical modelling, and data analysis.
• Develop tailor-made data processing methods.
• Advance the fields of research in atmospheric dust and/or the related measurement and/or modelling techniques.
• Participate in the Dust Doctoral Network training and networking activities.
• Publish research results in scientific peer reviewed journals, and present at conferences and workshops.

Qualification Requirements

• The candidates are required to have an master’s or similar degree equivalent to the German grade ‘good’ in a physical, mathematical, chemical or geo science subject and to not have any kind of PhD degree.
• Fluency in written and oral English is compulsory..
• Motivation for research on atmospheric dust.
• Experience or aptitude to develop scientific software (computer-based programming)
• Demonstrated ability in being a strong team player.
• Strong international mobility for the purpose of research, training, and dissemination is mandatory.

Preferred Qualifications

Additional appreciated skills and competencies are:

• Experience in applying broad scientific knowledge to a range of specific problems or scenarios.
• Previous research experience and/or previous interest in the atmospheric sciences, meteorology or closely related discipline will be appreciated.
• Experience with written or oral scientific communications.
• Publication record.

Eligibility Requirements

• Qualifications:  The candidate must hold a title satisfying the admission requirements for a doctoral candidate at the institution where they will be enrolled (see qualification requirements). A doctoral degree in any field is not compatible with these positions.
• Mobility: Transnational mobility is an essential requirement of MSCA Doctoral Networks. At the time of recruitment, the candidates must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in Germany for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior to the recruitment date. Applicants must be aware that seconding periods are planned for this position as described above. International applicants are welcomed. 

Rights and Responsibilities of Researchers Participating in Marie Skłodwska-Curie Actions
The European Charter for Researchers is a set of general principles and requirements which specify the roles, responsibilities and entitlements of both researchers and the employers and/or funders of researchers. The aim of the Charter is to ensure that the nature of the relationship between researchers and employers or funders is conducive to successful performance in generating, transferring, sharing and disseminating knowledge and technological development and to the career development of the researchers.

It is obligatory for applicants to read and understand the detailed information regarding the rights and responsibilities of researchers engaged in an MSCA Doctoral Network.

The European Charter for researchers can be accessed at: https://euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/charter/european-charter

Employment Contract and Financial Aid

The selected candidate will be appointed under a 36-months full-time employment contract. A competitive financial aid package will be offered to the successful candidate with a gross annual salary of €54,294. In addition, there can be further allowances depending on previous experience and family status.

It is understood that failure to successfully continue the PhD program will result in immediate cancellation of the employment contract and the financial support provided.

Start date

The position starts on 1 February 2025 and is a full-time position, funded for a period of 36 months.

Application and selection

Application advisory: A pre-screening of the candidates will be made by the Dust-DN consortium as a first step prior to the formal recruitment process. Candidates should submit a CV and motivation letter on the Dust-DN website, together with their university transcripts and the name and contact information of two referees, and indicating up to 3 preferred doctoral projects (in order of preference) amongst the ones advertised within the whole Dust-DN (which includes the one in the present advert). It is very important that the motivation letter should recall each of the qualification requirements and preferred qualifications indicated in this advert, clearly justifying how the candidate is able to meet each of them, and providing evidence. After short-listing, the most suitable candidates will be called for an interview.

Formal recruitment phase: The most highly-ranked applicants interviewed during the application advisory phase will be redirected for the formal application.

With the submission of the documents, applicants agree that the documents will be shared among all supervisors of the Dust-DN consortium and members of the respective shortlisting and interviewing panels.

Dust-DN respects and supports the compatibility of professional and private life and promotes development opportunities for its cohort of doctoral researchers. We promote equality of opportunity, value diversity and nurture a working and learning environment.

Deadlines:

Applications for the advisory phase must be submitted by 31 August 2024.

Deadline extended to 30 September 2024

Formal applications must be submitted by 30 November 2024.

We reserve the possibility to extend the deadline(s).

Contact Information
For further information, please contact  Prof. Konrad Kandler (e-mail: konrad.kandler@tu-darmstadt.de).

Dust-DN doctoral network – DC12

Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC)

Supervisors: María Gonçalves and Carlos Pérez García-Pando

The Dust-DN doctoral network

Atmospheric dust or mineral dust (or simply “dust”) is a major atmospheric aerosol, and it gives us one of the most visible and detectable aspects of transboundary transport of atmospheric constituents, impacting visibility, radiation and climate. What is less evident are its quantitative impacts on health, transportation and energy production. Atmospheric dust is not fully understood at the fundamental level (microphysical properties, dust emissions, source regions) and hence atmospheric models fail to fully reproduce its impacts. Moreover, dust observations using ground-based instrumentation, remote sensing and aircraft are abundant, but not evenly distributed; in particular they are missing near the major dust sources. Moreover, the techniques are still under development, with each giving a different picture of a phenomenon with multiple facets. For example, it is now known that super-coarse and giant dust particles have gone undetected for a long time due to limitations in the measurement and modelling tools that have been in use for decades, and this misdetection alters the understanding and the prediction of a number of processes. Finally, dust affects the environment, society, and several economic sectors, with impacts on the transportation and energy sectors for example, the nature and cost of which is not fully understood and quantified. Several methodologies exist to study mineral dust, each giving its own differing picture of a complex phenomenon: numerical modelling, remote sensing, in-situ observations, laboratory research.

We establish the Dust Doctoral Network (Dust-DN), in order to address gaps in the understanding of dust and its impacts by linking the different disciplines and methods. The aim is to train a team of early career scientists into overcoming compartmentalism in this field of science, and into developing a multi-disciplinary approach to mineral dust. Dust-DN will set up a network of academic and non-academic partners working on different aspects of dust research, and will coordinate a program of doctoral projects that will enhance knowledge across a broad range of fundamental, but linked, components of the atmospheric dust life cycle and its impacts. The projects will span across the disciplines of atmospheric sciences (dust processes, modelling, and remote sensing), geology (dust emissions and source regions), as well as the impacts on society and economic sectors. The knowledge will be shared among participating institutions and the wider public and scientific community. Common activities will be held, so as to enhance the network among the partner institutions and among the doctoral researchers, delivering an ambitious advanced training program for capacity building.

The Barcelona Supercomputing Center

The Barcelona Supercomputing Center – Centro Nacional de Supercomputación (BSC-CNS) is the leading supercomputing center in Spain. It houses MareNostrum, one of the most powerful supercomputers in Europe, was a founding and hosting member of the former European HPC infrastructure PRACE (Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe), and is now hosting entity for EuroHPC JU, the Joint Undertaking that leads large-scale investments and HPC provision in Europe. The mission of BSC is to research, develop and manage information technologies in order to facilitate scientific progress. BSC combines HPC service provision and R&D into both computer and computational science (life, earth and engineering sciences) under one roof, and currently has over 1000 staff from 60 countries.

Look at the BSC experience: BSC-CNS YouTube Channel

The BSC is particularly interested for this role in the strengths and lived experiences of women and underrepresented groups to help us avoid perpetuating biases and oversights in science and IT research. In instances of equal merit, the incorporation of the under-represented sex will be favoured.

The selected candidate will join the Atmospheric Composition (AC) group within the Earth Sciences Department of the BSC (BSC-ES). The AC group is composed of more than 40 scientists and engineers and seeks to understand the sources, sinks, atmospheric lifecycles, and effects of atmospheric pollutants across a broad range of spatiotemporal scales, from local to global and from short- (weather) to long-term (climate) scales. The group develops atmospheric chemistry and Earth System models, operates air quality forecasting systems, and applies its knowledge in cross-cutting research, addressing issues such as air quality policy, and socio-economic impacts such as health. The AC group hosts the WMO Sand and Dust Storm Warning Advisory and Assessment System Regional Center for North Africa, the Middle East and Europe, and an AXA Chair on Sand and Dust Storms. The group actively participates in the NASA’s EMIT (Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation) instrument mission, hosts an ERC Consolidator Grant (FRAGMENT) on the effects of dust mineralogy upon climate, and is involved in numerous European projects tackling aerosol effects on climate (e.g., FORCeS, FOCI, CERTAINTY).

The doctoral project

Doctoral Candidate 12 (DC12) – “Modelling the effects of dust upon regional climate with constrained dust-source mineralogy”

Enrolled in the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) PhD programme on “Environmental Engineering”, the doctoral candidate will develop the research at BSC-ES.

Soil dust aerosols are mixtures of different minerals, whose relative abundances, particle size distribution (PSD), shape, surface topography and mixing state influence their effect upon climate. However, most current models typically assume that dust aerosols have a globally uniform composition, neglecting the known regional variations in the mineralogy of the sources, and those which include composition variations use poorly constrained soils mineralogical atlases. This project has the objective of improving our knowledge on the effect of dust mineralogical composition in climate, a research field which still holds great uncertainty. The doctoral candidate will work with a model to represent spatially resolved mineralogy of dust sources based on novel EMIT satellite data. The model results will be evaluated against in-situ, remote and satellite observations. These new model developments will allow assessing the climate response to dust radiative effects at high resolution, with special emphasis in Northern Africa, the Middle East and Europe.

The doctoral candidate will be based at BSC in Barcelona, Spain and will be supervised by Dr. María Gonçalves Ageitos (BSC/UPC) and Prof. Carlos Pérez García-Pando (BSC). The project will include three planned secondments of 1 month each, consisting of one at the National Observatory of Athens (NOA), with Dr. Vassilis Amiridis, to explore the links between mineralogy and improved representation of dust transport in a modelling framework, one at Technical University of Darmstadt (TUDa), with Dr. Konrad Kandler, to bring in additional observational constraints on dust mineralogy, and one at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), with Dr. Martina Klose, to improve the representation of high resolution emission processes and link them to dust mineralogy.

Details

The recruited doctoral candidate will be enrolled in UPC PhD programme on “Environmental Engineering” and included in the “Dust Doctoral Network”, which involves highly prestigious research groups on this scientific topic, and which will ensure that the cohort of doctoral candidates is integrated in a dynamic and enthusiastic scientific environment. The doctoral candidate will learn about the consortium partners’ unique facilities and research topics/methods, and will exploit these opportunities for their research. All Dust-DN doctoral candidates will work side-by-side with lead scientists at world-leading institutes, and they will:

• Take responsibility for the scientific project that they are involved in, and the instruments and/or software required.
• Collect scientific knowledge through experiments and/or numerical modelling, and data analysis.
• Develop tailor-made data processing methods.
• Advance the fields of research in atmospheric dust and/or the related measurement and/or modelling techniques.
• Participate in the Dust Doctoral Network training and networking activities.
• Publish research results in scientific peer reviewed journals, and present at conferences and workshops.

Qualification Requirements

• The candidates are required to possess an excellent master’s degree (or equivalent) in a physical or mathematical science subject (or other natural science discipline) and to not have any kind of PhD degree.
• Fluency in written and oral English is compulsory .
• Motivation for research on atmospheric dust.
• Experience or aptitude to develop scientific software (computer-based programming)
• Demonstrated ability in being a strong team player.
• Strong international mobility for the purpose of research, training, and dissemination is mandatory.

Preferred Qualifications

Additional appreciated skills and competencies are:

• Experience in applying broad scientific knowledge to a range of specific problems or scenarios.
• Previous research experience and/or previous interest in the atmospheric sciences, meteorology or closely related discipline will be appreciated.
• Experience with written or oral scientific communications.
• Publication record.
• Driving licence.

Eligibility Requirements

• Qualifications:  The candidate must hold a title satisfying the admission requirements for a doctoral candidate at the institution where they will be enrolled (see qualification requirements). A doctoral degree in any field is not compatible with these positions.
• Mobility: Transnational mobility is an essential requirement of MSCA Doctoral Networks. At the time of recruitment, the candidates must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in Spain for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior to the recruitment date. Applicants must be aware that seconding periods are planned for this position as described above. International applicants are welcomed. 

Rights and Responsibilities of Researchers Participating in Marie Skłodwska-Curie Actions
The European Charter for Researchers is a set of general principles and requirements which specify the roles, responsibilities and entitlements of both researchers and the employers and/or funders of researchers. The aim of the Charter is to ensure that the nature of the relationship between researchers and employers or funders is conducive to successful performance in generating, transferring, sharing and disseminating knowledge and technological development and to the career development of the researchers.

It is obligatory for applicants to read and understand the detailed information regarding the rights and responsibilities of researchers engaged in an MSCA Doctoral Network.

The European Charter for researchers can be accessed at: https://euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/charter/european-charter 

Employment Contract and Financial Aid

The selected candidate will be appointed under a 36-month full-time employment contract. A competitive financial aid package will be offered to the successful candidate, with a gross annual salary of €33,300 (including living and mobility allowances, based on current social security rates). Additional allowances, up to €5,940 per year, may be available depending on family status and other needs, as per MSCA provisions. Additionally, a meal voucher card worth €675 per year will be provided. In addition to access to the public health system, there is an option to enroll in private health insurance, with BSC covering 80% of the cost, leaving the candidate responsible for only €8.22 per month. Candidates can also choose to allocate a portion of their gross salary towards products or services such as public transportation, childcare vouchers, and/or including family members in BSC’s private medical insurance, resulting in tax and economic savings. As per current Spanish law, upon completion of the contract, the candidate will receive compensation of €1,128.93 for each of the three years worked.

It is understood that failure to successfully continue the PhD program will result in immediate cancellation of the employment contract and the financial support provided.

Start date

The position starts on 3 February 2025 and is a full-time position (40 hours/week), funded for a period of 36 months.

Application and selection

Application advisory: A pre-screening of the candidates will be made by the Dust-DN consortium as a first step prior to the formal recruitment process. Candidates should submit a CV and motivation letter on the Dust-DN website, together with their university transcripts and the name and contact information of two referees, and indicating up to 3 preferred doctoral projects (in order of preference) amongst the ones advertised within the whole Dust-DN (which includes the one in the present advert). It is very important that the motivation letter should recall each of the qualification requirements and preferred qualifications indicated in this advert, clearly justifying how the candidate is able to meet each of them, and providing evidence. After short-listing, the most suitable candidates will be called for an interview.

Formal recruitment phase: The most highly-ranked applicants interviewed during the application advisory phase will be re-directed for the formal application.

With the submission of the documents, applicants agree that the documents will be shared among all supervisors of the Dust-DN consortium and members of the respective shortlisting and interviewing panels.

Dust-DN respects and supports the compatibility of professional and private life and promotes development opportunities for its cohort of doctoral researchers. We promote equality of opportunity, value diversity and nurture a working and learning environment.

Deadlines:

Applications for the advisory phase must be submitted by 31 August 2024.

Deadline extended to 30 September 2024

Formal applications must be submitted by 30 November 2024.

We reserve the possibility to extend the deadline(s).

Contact Information
For further information, please contact Dr. María Gonçalves (e-mail: maria.goncalves@bsc.es).

Dust-DN doctoral network – DC11

Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC)

Supervisors: Carlos Pérez García-Pando and María Gonçalves

The Dust-DN doctoral network

Atmospheric dust or mineral dust (or simply “dust”) is a major atmospheric aerosol, and it gives us one of the most visible and detectable aspects of transboundary transport of atmospheric constituents, impacting visibility, radiation and climate. What is less evident are its quantitative impacts on health, transportation and energy production. Atmospheric dust is not fully understood at the fundamental level (microphysical properties, dust emissions, source regions) and hence atmospheric models fail to fully reproduce its impacts. Moreover, dust observations using ground-based instrumentation, remote sensing and aircraft are abundant, but not evenly distributed; in particular they are missing near the major dust sources. Moreover, the techniques are still under development, with each giving a different picture of a phenomenon with multiple facets. For example, it is now known that super-coarse and giant dust particles have gone undetected for a long time due to limitations in the measurement and modelling tools that have been in use for decades, and this misdetection alters the understanding and the prediction of a number of processes. Finally, dust affects the environment, society, and several economic sectors, with impacts on the transportation and energy sectors for example, the nature and cost of which is not fully understood and quantified. Several methodologies exist to study mineral dust, each giving its own differing picture of a complex phenomenon: numerical modelling, remote sensing, in-situ observations, laboratory research.

We establish the Dust Doctoral Network (Dust-DN), in order to address gaps in the understanding of dust and its impacts by linking the different disciplines and methods. The aim is to train a team of early career scientists into overcoming compartmentalism in this field of science, and into developing a multi-disciplinary approach to mineral dust. Dust-DN will set up a network of academic and non-academic partners working on different aspects of dust research, and will coordinate a program of doctoral projects that will enhance knowledge across a broad range of fundamental, but linked, components of the atmospheric dust life cycle and its impacts. The projects will span across the disciplines of atmospheric sciences (dust processes, modelling, and remote sensing), geology (dust emissions and source regions), as well as the impacts on society and economic sectors. The knowledge will be shared among participating institutions and the wider public and scientific community. Common activities will be held, so as to enhance the network among the partner institutions and among the doctoral researchers, delivering an ambitious advanced training program for capacity building.

The Barcelona Supercomputing Center

The Barcelona Supercomputing Center – Centro Nacional de Supercomputación (BSC-CNS) is the leading supercomputing center in Spain. It houses MareNostrum, one of the most powerful supercomputers in Europe, was a founding and hosting member of the former European HPC infrastructure PRACE (Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe), and is now hosting entity for EuroHPC JU, the Joint Undertaking that leads large-scale investments and HPC provision in Europe. The mission of BSC is to research, develop and manage information technologies in order to facilitate scientific progress. BSC combines HPC service provision and R&D into both computer and computational science (life, earth and engineering sciences) under one roof, and currently has over 1000 staff from 60 countries.

Look at the BSC experience: BSC-CNS YouTube Channel

The BSC is particularly interested for this role in the strengths and lived experiences of women and underrepresented groups to help us avoid perpetuating biases and oversights in science and IT research. In instances of equal merit, the incorporation of the under-represented sex will be favoured.

The selected candidate will join the Atmospheric Composition (AC) group within the Earth Sciences Department of the BSC (BSC-ES). The AC group is composed of more than 40 scientists and engineers and seeks to understand the sources, sinks, atmospheric lifecycles, and effects of atmospheric pollutants across a broad range of spatiotemporal scales, from local to global and from short- (weather) to long-term (climate) scales. The group develops atmospheric chemistry and Earth System models, operates air quality forecasting systems, and applies its knowledge in cross-cutting research, addressing issues such as air quality policy, and socio-economic impacts such as health. The AC group hosts the WMO Sand and Dust Storm Warning Advisory and Assessment System Regional Center for North Africa, the Middle East and Europe, and an AXA Chair on Sand and Dust Storms. The group actively participates in the NASA’s EMIT (Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation) instrument mission, hosts an ERC Consolidator Grant (FRAGMENT) on the effects of dust mineralogy upon climate, and is involved in numerous European projects tackling aerosol effects on climate (e.g., FORCeS, FOCI, CERTAINTY).

The doctoral project

Doctoral Candidate 11 (DC11) – “Modelling super-coarse dust and its effects on climate”

Enrolled in the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) PhD programme on “Environmental Engineering”, the doctoral candidate will develop the research at BSC-ES.

Coarse and super coarse dust dominate the mass of dust in the atmosphere and are strongly underestimated in the current generation of climate models, representing one of the major uncertainties in the assessment of dust effects upon climate. This project will focus on better understanding and quantifying the abundance of coarse and super coarse dust particles and their effects upon climate. The doctoral candidate will work with climate models to better represent coarse and super-coarse dust by improving the description of the dust emitted Particle Size Distribution (PSD), sedimentation, and turbulent transport. The new developments will be constrained through a variety of field campaign observations. Tailored sensitivity tests will be conducted to quantify the relative abundance of coarse and super-coarse dust and the importance of the associated processes. Ultimately, this will result in a better estimate of the dust radiative forcing.

The doctoral candidate will be based at BSC in Barcelona, Spain and will be supervised by Prof. Carlos Pérez García-Pando (BSC) and Dr. María Gonçalves Ageitos (BSC/UPC). The project will include three planned secondments of 1 month each, consisting of one at the University of Reading (URED) with Dr. Claire Ryder, to bring in additional observational constraints to represent the super-coarse dust fractions, one at the National Observatory of Athens (NOA), with Dr. Vassilis Amiridis, to allow the transfer of knowledge for the modelling of super coarse spherical and non-spherical dust particles in climate models, and one at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), with Dr. Martina Klose, to allow the transfer of knowledge on the turbulence effects upon particle sedimentation.

Details

The recruited doctoral candidate will be enrolled in UPC PhD programme on “Environmental Engineering” and included in the “Dust Doctoral Network”, which involves highly prestigious research groups on this scientific topic, and which will ensure that the cohort of doctoral candidates is integrated in a dynamic and enthusiastic scientific environment. The doctoral candidate will learn about the consortium partners’ unique facilities and research topics/methods, and will exploit these opportunities for their research. All Dust-DN doctoral candidates will work side-by-side with lead scientists at world-leading institutes, and they will:

• Take responsibility for the scientific project that they are involved in, and the instruments and/or software required.
• Collect scientific knowledge through experiments and/or numerical modelling, and data analysis.
• Develop tailor-made data processing methods.
• Advance the fields of research in atmospheric dust and/or the related measurement and/or modelling techniques.
• Participate in the Dust Doctoral Network training and networking activities.
• Publish research results in scientific peer reviewed journals, and present at conferences and workshops.

Qualification Requirements

• The candidates are required to possess an excellent master’s degree (or equivalent) in a physical or mathematical science subject (or other natural science discipline) and to not have any kind of PhD degree.
• Fluency in written and oral English is compulsory .
• Motivation for research on atmospheric dust.
• Experience or aptitude to develop scientific software (computer-based programming)
• Demonstrated ability in being a strong team player.
• Strong international mobility for the purpose of research, training, and dissemination is mandatory.

Preferred Qualifications

Additional appreciated skills and competencies are:

• Experience in applying broad scientific knowledge to a range of specific problems or scenarios.
• Previous research experience and/or previous interest in the atmospheric sciences, meteorology or closely related discipline will be appreciated.
• Experience with written or oral scientific communications.
• Publication record.
• Driving licence.

Eligibility Requirements

• Qualifications: The candidate must hold a title satisfying the admission requirements for a doctoral candidate at the institution where they will be enrolled (see qualification requirements). A doctoral degree in any field is not compatible with these positions.
• Mobility: Transnational mobility is an essential requirement of MSCA Doctoral Networks. At the time of recruitment, the candidates must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in Spain for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior to the recruitment date. Applicants must be aware that seconding periods are planned for this position as described above. International applicants are welcomed. 

Rights and Responsibilities of Researchers Participating in Marie Skłodwska-Curie Actions
The European Charter for Researchers is a set of general principles and requirements which specify the roles, responsibilities and entitlements of both researchers and the employers and/or funders of researchers. The aim of the Charter is to ensure that the nature of the relationship between researchers and employers or funders is conducive to successful performance in generating, transferring, sharing and disseminating knowledge and technological development and to the career development of the researchers.

It is obligatory for applicants to read and understand the detailed information regarding the rights and responsibilities of researchers engaged in an MSCA Doctoral Network.

The European Charter for researchers can be accessed at: https://euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/charter/european-charter

Employment Contract and Financial Aid

The selected candidate will be appointed under a 36-month full-time employment contract. A competitive financial aid package will be offered to the successful candidate, with a gross annual salary of €33,300 (including living and mobility allowances, based on current social security rates). Additional allowances, up to €5,940 per year, may be available depending on family status and other needs, as per MSCA provisions. Additionally, a meal voucher card worth €675 per year will be provided. In addition to access to the public health system, there is an option to enroll in private health insurance, with BSC covering 80% of the cost, leaving the candidate responsible for only €8.22 per month. Candidates can also choose to allocate a portion of their gross salary towards products or services such as public transportation, childcare vouchers, and/or including family members in BSC’s private medical insurance, resulting in tax and economic savings. As per current Spanish law, upon completion of the contract, the candidate will receive compensation of €1,128.93 for each of the three years worked.

It is understood that failure to successfully continue the PhD program will result in immediate cancellation of the employment contract and the financial support provided.

Start date

The position starts on 3 February 2025 and is a full-time position (40 hours/week), funded for a period of 36 months.

Application and selection

Application advisory: A pre-screening of the candidates will be made by the Dust-DN consortium as a first step prior to the formal recruitment process. Candidates should submit a CV and motivation letter on the Dust-DN website, together with their university transcripts and the name and contact information of two referees, and indicating up to 3 preferred doctoral projects (in order of preference) amongst the ones advertised within the whole Dust-DN (which includes the one in the present advert). It is very important that the motivation letter should recall each of the qualification requirements and preferred qualifications indicated in this advert, clearly justifying how the candidate is able to meet each of them, and providing evidence. After short-listing, the most suitable candidates will be called for an interview.

Formal recruitment phase: The most highly-ranked applicants interviewed during the application advisory phase will be re-directed for the formal application.

With the submission of the documents, applicants agree that the documents will be shared among all supervisors of the Dust-DN consortium and members of the respective shortlisting and interviewing panels.

Dust-DN respects and supports the compatibility of professional and private life and promotes development opportunities for its cohort of doctoral researchers. We promote equality of opportunity, value diversity and nurture a working and learning environment.

Deadlines:

Applications for the advisory phase must be submitted by 31 August 2024.

Deadline extended to 30 September 2024

Formal applications must be submitted by 30 November 2024.

We reserve the possibility to extend the deadline(s).

Contact Information
For further information, please contact Professor Carlos Pérez García-Pando (e-mail: carlos.perez@bsc.es).

Dust-DN doctoral network – DC10

National Observatory of Athens (NOA) and Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH)

Supervisors: Alexandra Tsekeri, Vassilis Amiridis and Charikleia Meleti

The Dust-DN doctoral network

Atmospheric dust or mineral dust (or simply “dust”) is a major atmospheric aerosol, and it gives us one of the most visible and detectable aspects of transboundary transport of atmospheric constituents, impacting visibility, radiation and climate. What is less evident are its quantitative impacts on health, transportation and energy production. Atmospheric dust is not fully understood at the fundamental level (microphysical properties, dust emissions, source regions) and hence atmospheric models fail to fully reproduce its impacts. Moreover, dust observations using ground-based instrumentation, remote sensing and aircraft are abundant, but not evenly distributed; in particular they are missing near the major dust sources. Moreover, the techniques are still under development, with each giving a different picture of a phenomenon with multiple facets. For example, it is now known that super-coarse and giant dust particles have gone undetected for a long time due to limitations in the measurement and modelling tools that have been in use for decades, and this misdetection alters the understanding and the prediction of a number of processes. Finally, dust affects the environment, society, and several economic sectors, with impacts on the transportation and energy sectors for example, the nature and cost of which is not fully understood and quantified. Several methodologies exist to study mineral dust, each giving its own differing picture of a complex phenomenon: numerical modelling, remote sensing, in-situ observations, laboratory research.

We establish the Dust Doctoral Network (Dust-DN), in order to address gaps in the understanding of dust and its impacts by linking the different disciplines and methods. The aim is to train a team of early career scientists into overcoming compartmentalism in this field of science, and into developing a multi-disciplinary approach to mineral dust. Dust-DN will set up a network of academic and non-academic partners working on different aspects of dust research, and will coordinate a program of doctoral projects that will enhance knowledge across a broad range of fundamental, but linked, components of the atmospheric dust life cycle and its impacts. The projects will span across the disciplines of atmospheric sciences (dust processes, modelling, and remote sensing), geology (dust emissions and source regions), as well as the impacts on society and economic sectors. The knowledge will be shared among participating institutions and the wider public and scientific community. Common activities will be held, so as to enhance the network among the partner institutions and among the doctoral researchers, delivering an ambitious advanced training program for capacity building.

The Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and the National Observatory of Athens

The Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH) was founded in 1925 and it constitutes a comprehensive institution with Faculties and Schools serving a vast array of scientific fields, ranging from natural and technological to social and health sciences, arts and humanities.Ιt is the largest Higher Education Institution in Greece and Southeastern Europe. It comprises in total of 41 Schools organised into 11 Faculties. Every Faculty/School offers an undergraduate degree, postgraduate degrees (2nd cycle and PhD). In total 64.000 undergraduate and more than 10.000 postgraduate and PhD students, of which 3.966 are international students, are registered in the Faculties and Schools of AUTH. AUTH operates 41 bachelor’s degree programmes and 68 master degree programmes in individual Faculties and Schools, as well as interdisciplinary, inter-university and international. AUTH participates in 48 Research Networks, implements more than 1.400 national, European and international research projects per year and cooperates closely with many universities, research institutions and enterprises in Greece and abroad.

The National Observatory of Athens (NOA) is the first Research Institution created in modern Greece with a continuous presence in science and education activities at international level, for more than 170 years. NOA has been historically nominated by the Greek government as the sole institution in charge of environmental, atmosphere, Earth Observation, Geodynamics, Space, Astronomy and Astrophysics research and relevant studies, with a clear mandate to offer innovative services and support for the benefit of the Greek citizens. ΝΟΑ has important human capacity with high skills in the observation of the atmospheric environment and in particular the investigation of physical processes and interactions in the atmosphere based on atmospheric and meteorological observations and modelling with emphasis on extreme events and climate studies (past, present and future climate trends, assessment of impacts).

The selected applicant will be working at the Institute for Astronomy, Astrophysics, Space Applications and Remote Sensing (IAASARS) of NOA at the Remote sensing of Aerosols, Clouds and Trace gases (ReACT) group. ReACT/NOA activities are targeted towards understanding physical and chemical processes in the atmosphere, seizing the opportunity provided by the complex and vulnerable Mediterranean environment, utilising advanced ground-based and space-borne remote sensing observations and theoretical models. The group’s mission is to promote world-class atmospheric research in the area by shedding light on problems of compelling scientific interest and increasing social relevance. ReACT/NOA implements and operates the Remote Sensing National Facility of the Panhellenic Geophysical Observatory of Antikythera (PANGEA) Research Infrastructure (RI) funded by the European Investment Bank, an atmospheric, climate and geophysical RI being developed by NOA at Antikythera, Greece.

The doctoral project

Doctoral Candidate 10 (DC10) – “New scattering database for desert dust, with realistic size, shape and refractive index measured in-situ”

Enrolled in AUTH‘s PhD Program in “Environmental Physics”.

This project has the objective of generating a new scattering database for dust particles, using realistic representations of dust size, shape and refractive index, from in-situ measurements. The candidate will (a) review scattering databases of dust particles, (b) review in-situ datasets for microphysical properties (size, shape and mineralogy, grouped by location and air mass origin), (c) derive the refractive index of dust particles in shortwave and longwave, based on their mineralogy, (d) review available scattering codes for calculating the optical properties of dust particles, (e) improve available scattering codes to provide faster and more accurate scattering calculations, (f) compute the scattering of dust particles using realistic properties, using for larger dust particles fast scattering approximations in order to cover the full range of dust sizes, and (g) utilise mathematical and data science methods to harmonise the scattering calculations from different codes and methods into a unified, complete scattering database for dust covering the whole space of dust microphysical parameters, and including wavelengths from UV to IR, to be used in dust radiative transfer studies. The doctoral candidate will be based at IAASARS/NOA in Athens, Greece, and will be supervised by Dr. Alexandra Tsekeri (NOA), Dr. Vassilis Amiridis (NOA), Prof. Charikleia Meleti (AUTH), and Prof. Franco Marenco (CyI). The project will include planned secondments at the Barcelona Supercomputing Centre (Spain), the Technical University of Darmstadt (Germany), and the University of Reading (UK).

Details

The recruited doctoral candidate will be enrolled in AUTH‘s PhD Program in “Environmental Physics” and included in the “Dust Doctoral Network”, which involves highly prestigious research groups on this scientific topic, and which will ensure that the cohort of doctoral candidates is integrated in a dynamic and enthusiastic scientific environment. The doctoral candidate will learn about the consortium partners’ unique facilities and research topics/methods, and will exploit these opportunities for their research. All Dust-DN doctoral candidates will work side-by-side with lead scientists at world-leading institutes, and they will:

• Take responsibility for the scientific project that they are involved in, and the instruments and/or software required.
• Collect scientific knowledge through experiments and/or numerical modelling, and data analysis.
• Develop tailor-made data processing methods.
• Advance the fields of research in atmospheric dust and/or the related measurement and/or modelling techniques.
• Participate in the Dust Doctoral Network training and networking activities.
• Publish research results in scientific peer reviewed journals, and present at conferences and workshops.

Qualification Requirements

• The candidates are required to have an excellent master’s degree (or equivalent) in a physical, mathematical or computer science subject (or other natural science discipline) and to not have any kind of PhD degree.
• Fluency in written and oral English is compulsory.
• Motivation for research on atmospheric dust.
• Experience to develop scientific software (computer-based programming).
• Strong background in mathematics and data science.
• Demonstrated ability in being a strong team player.
• Strong international mobility for the purpose of research, training, and dissemination is mandatory.

Preferred Qualifications

Additional appreciated skills and competencies are:

• Experience in applying broad scientific knowledge to a range of specific problems or scenarios.
• Previous research experience and/or previous interest in the atmospheric sciences, meteorology or closely related discipline will be appreciated.
• Experience with written or oral scientific communications.
• Publication record.

Eligibility Requirements

• Qualifications:  The candidate must hold a title satisfying the admission requirements for a doctoral candidate at the institution where they will be enrolled (see qualification requirements). A doctoral degree in any field is not compatible with these positions.
• Mobility: Transnational mobility is an essential requirement of MSCA Doctoral Networks. At the time of recruitment, the candidates must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in Greece for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior to the recruitment date. Applicants must be aware that seconding periods are planned for this position as described above. International applicants are welcomed. 

Rights and Responsibilities of Researchers Participating in Marie Skłodwska-Curie Actions
The European Charter for Researchers is a set of general principles and requirements which specify the roles, responsibilities and entitlements of both researchers and the employers and/or funders of researchers. The aim of the Charter is to ensure that the nature of the relationship between researchers and employers or funders is conducive to successful performance in generating, transferring, sharing and disseminating knowledge and technological development and to the career development of the researchers.

It is obligatory for applicants to read and understand the detailed information regarding the rights and responsibilities of researchers engaged in an MSCA Doctoral Network.

The European Charter for researchers can be accessed at: https://euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/charter/european-charter

Employment Contract and Financial Aid

The selected candidate will be appointed under a 36-months full-time employment contract. A competitive financial aid package will be offered to the successful candidate with a gross annual salary of €33,112.08  (living allowance and mobility allowance). In addition, there can be further allowances depending on family status and other needs, as per MSCA relevant provisions.

It is understood that failure to successfully continue the PhD program will result in immediate cancellation of the employment contract and the financial support provided.

Start date

The position starts in June 2025 and is a full-time position (40 hours/week), funded for a period of 36 months.

Application and selection

Application advisory: A pre-screening of the candidates will be made by the Dust-DN consortium as a first step prior to the formal recruitment process. Candidates should submit a CV and motivation letter on the Dust-DN website, together with their university transcripts and the name and contact information of two referees, and indicating up to 3 preferred doctoral projects (in order of preference) amongst the ones advertised within the whole Dust-DN (which includes the one in the present advert). It is very important that the motivation letter should recall each of the qualification requirements and preferred qualifications indicated in this advert, clearly justifying how the candidate is able to meet each of them, and providing evidence. After short-listing, the most suitable candidates will be called for an interview.

Formal recruitment phase: The most highly-ranked applicants interviewed during the application advisory phase will be re-directed for the formal application.

With the submission of the documents, applicants agree that the documents will be shared among all supervisors of the Dust-DN consortium and members of the respective shortlisting and interviewing panels.

Dust-DN respects and supports the compatibility of professional and private life and promotes development opportunities for its cohort of doctoral researchers. We promote equality of opportunity, value diversity and nurture a working and learning environment.

Deadlines:

Applications for the advisory phase must be submitted by 31 August 2024.

Deadline extended to 30 September 2024

Formal applications must be submitted by 31 January 2025.

We reserve the possibility to extend the deadline(s).

Contact Information
For further information, please contact Dr. Alexandra Tsekeri (e-mail: atsekeri@noa.gr).

Dust-DN doctoral network – DC9

National Observatory of Athens (NOA) and National Technical University of Athens (NTUA)

Supervisors: Sotirios Mallios and Demetri Bouris

The Dust-DN doctoral network

Atmospheric dust or mineral dust (or simply “dust”) is a major atmospheric aerosol, and it gives us one of the most visible and detectable aspects of transboundary transport of atmospheric constituents, impacting visibility, radiation and climate. What is less evident are its quantitative impacts on health, transportation and energy production. Atmospheric dust is not fully understood at the fundamental level (microphysical properties, dust emissions, source regions) and hence atmospheric models fail to fully reproduce its impacts. Moreover, dust observations using ground-based instrumentation, remote sensing and aircraft are abundant, but not evenly distributed; in particular they are missing near the major dust sources. Moreover, the techniques are still under development, with each giving a different picture of a phenomenon with multiple facets. For example, it is now known that super-coarse and giant dust particles have gone undetected for a long time due to limitations in the measurement and modelling tools that have been in use for decades, and this misdetection alters the understanding and the prediction of a number of processes. Finally, dust affects the environment, society, and several economic sectors, with impacts on the transportation and energy sectors for example, the nature and cost of which is not fully understood and quantified. Several methodologies exist to study mineral dust, each giving its own differing picture of a complex phenomenon: numerical modelling, remote sensing, in-situ observations, laboratory research.

We establish the Dust Doctoral Network (Dust-DN), in order to address gaps in the understanding of dust and its impacts by linking the different disciplines and methods. The aim is to train a team of early career scientists into overcoming compartmentalism in this field of science, and into developing a multi-disciplinary approach to mineral dust. Dust-DN will set up a network of academic and non-academic partners working on different aspects of dust research, and will coordinate a program of doctoral projects that will enhance knowledge across a broad range of fundamental, but linked, components of the atmospheric dust life cycle and its impacts. The projects will span across the disciplines of atmospheric sciences (dust processes, modelling, and remote sensing), geology (dust emissions and source regions), as well as the impacts on society and economic sectors. The knowledge will be shared among participating institutions and the wider public and scientific community. Common activities will be held, so as to enhance the network among the partner institutions and among the doctoral researchers, delivering an ambitious advanced training program for capacity building.

The National Technical University of Athens and the National Observatory of Athens

The School of Mechanical Engineering of the National Technical University of Athens excels both in Greece and internationally, thanks to its advanced level of studies and to its internationally acclaimed research. Mechanical engineering covers a broad range of areas such as energy, the environment, transportation, machine design and the automatic control of technological systems. The School is organised into 6 sections: Industrial Management and Operational Research, Thermal Engineering, Mechanical Design and Automatic Control, Nuclear Engineering, Fluids, Manufacturing Technology. There are 27 laboratories in the sections, which are equipped with a wide variety of cutting edge experimental and computational facilities and infrastructure, including a large scale wind tunnel with an environmental test section and several computer clusters for high performance computing.

The National Observatory of Athens (NOA) is the first Research Institution created in modern Greece with a continuous presence in science and education activities at international level, for more than 170 years. NOA has been historically nominated by the Greek government as the sole institution in charge of environmental, atmosphere, Earth Observation, Geodynamics, Space, Astronomy and Astrophysics research and relevant studies, with a clear mandate to offer innovative services and support for the benefit of the Greek citizens. ΝΟΑ has important human capacity with high skills in the observation of the atmospheric environment and in particular the investigation of physical processes and interactions in the atmosphere based on atmospheric and meteorological observations and modelling with emphasis on extreme events and climate studies (past, present and future climate trends, assessment of impacts).

The selected applicant will be working at the Institute for Astronomy, Astrophysics, Space Applications and Remote Sensing (IAASARS) of NOA) at the Remote sensing of Aerosols, Clouds and Trace gases (ReACT) group. ReACT/NOA activities are targeted towards understanding physical and chemical processes in the atmosphere, seizing the opportunity provided by the complex and vulnerable Mediterranean environment, utilising advanced ground-based and space-borne remote sensing observations and theoretical models. The group’s mission is to promote world-class atmospheric research in the area by shedding light on problems of compelling scientific interest and increasing social relevance. ReACT/NOA implements and operates the Remote Sensing National Facility of the Panhellenic Geophysical Observatory of Antikythera (PANGEA) Research Infrastructure (RI) funded by the European Investment Bank, an atmospheric, climate and geophysical RI being developed by NOA at Antikythera, Greece.

The doctoral project

Doctoral Candidate 9 (DC9) – “Modelling of dust transport processes. Bridging the gap between theory, observations and models”

Enrolled in the PhD programme of the School of Mechanical Engineering of the National Technical University of Athens.

This project has the objective of improving the understanding of gaps between theory, modelling and observations regarding the dust transport processes, by developing new mathematical formulations and implementing new parameterizations for transport models. The candidate will review formulations for the physical processes that influence dust particle transport (phoretic forces and thermodynamic interactions, particle shape); review parameterizations for mineral dust transport modelling; develop improved formulations for settling process; enhance understanding of the lifetime of dust particles in the atmosphere; improve the WRF-CHEM model by incorporating the newly developed parameterizations; and review the impact of these parameterizations on climate projections. The doctoral candidate will be based at NOA in Athens, Greece and will be supervised by Dr. Sotirios Mallios (NOA), and Prof. Demetri Bouris (NTUA). The project will include planned secondments  at the Barcelona Supercomputing Centre (Spain), and the University of Reading (UK).

Details

The recruited doctoral candidate will be enrolled in the PhD programme of the School of Mechanical Engineering of the National Technical University of Athens and included in the “Dust Doctoral Network”, which involves highly prestigious research groups on this scientific topic, and which will ensure that the cohort of doctoral candidates is integrated in a dynamic and enthusiastic scientific environment. The doctoral candidate will learn about the consortium partners’ unique facilities and research topics/methods, and will exploit these opportunities for their research. All Dust-DN doctoral candidates will work side-by-side with lead scientists at world-leading institutes, and they will:

• Take responsibility for the scientific project that they are involved in, and the instruments and/or software required.
• Collect scientific knowledge through experiments and/or numerical modelling, and data analysis.
• Develop tailor-made data processing methods.
• Advance the fields of research in atmospheric dust and/or the related measurement and/or modelling techniques.
• Participate in the Dust Doctoral Network training and networking activities.
• Publish research results in scientific peer reviewed journals, and present at conferences and workshops.

Qualification Requirements

• The candidates are required to have a master’s degree (or equivalent) in a physical or mathematical science subject (or other natural science discipline) or engineering.
• Fluency in written and oral English is compulsory (a certificate will be required in the second step of the application procedure).
• Motivation for research on atmospheric dust.
• Experience in developing scientific software (computer-based programming).
• Experience in numerical methods and specifically the numerical solution of differential equations.
• Strong background in fluid dynamics.
• Demonstrated ability in being a strong team player.
• Strong international mobility for the purpose of research, training, and dissemination is mandatory.

Preferred Qualifications

Additional appreciated skills and competencies are:

• Experience in applying broad scientific knowledge to a range of specific problems or scenarios.
• Previous research experience and/or previous interest in the atmospheric sciences, meteorology or closely related discipline will be appreciated.
• Previous experience in using Weather Prediction Models, and specifically WRF-CHEM will be appreciated.
• Experience with written or oral scientific communications.
• Publication record.

Eligibility Requirements

• Qualifications:  The candidate must hold a title satisfying the admission requirements for a doctoral candidate at the institution where they will be enrolled (see qualification requirements). A doctoral degree in any field is not compatible with these positions.
• Mobility: Transnational mobility is an essential requirement of MSCA Doctoral Networks. At the time of recruitment, the candidates must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in Greece for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior to the recruitment date. Applicants must be aware that seconding periods are planned for this position as described above. International applicants are welcomed. 

Rights and Responsibilities of Researchers Participating in Marie Skłodwska-Curie Actions
The European Charter for Researchers is a set of general principles and requirements which specify the roles, responsibilities and entitlements of both researchers and the employers and/or funders of researchers. The aim of the Charter is to ensure that the nature of the relationship between researchers and employers or funders is conducive to successful performance in generating, transferring, sharing and disseminating knowledge and technological development and to the career development of the researchers.

It is obligatory for applicants to read and understand the detailed information regarding the rights and responsibilities of researchers engaged in an MSCA Doctoral Network.

The European Charter for researchers can be accessed at: https://euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/charter/european-charter

Employment Contract and Financial Aid

The selected candidate will be appointed under a 36-months full-time employment contract. A competitive financial aid package will be offered to the successful candidate with a gross annual salary of €33,112.08 (living allowance and mobility allowance). In addition, there can be further allowances depending on family status and other needs, as per MSCA relevant provisions.

It is understood that failure to successfully continue the PhD program will result in immediate cancellation of the employment contract and the financial support provided.

Start date

The position starts in June 2025 and is a full-time position (40 hours/week), funded for a period of 36 months.

Application and selection

Application advisory: A pre-screening of the candidates will be made by the Dust-DN consortium as a first step prior to the formal recruitment process. Candidates should submit a CV and motivation letter on the Dust-DN website, together with their university transcripts and the name and contact information of two referees, and indicating up to 3 preferred doctoral projects (in order of preference) amongst the ones advertised within the whole Dust-DN (which includes the one in the present advert). It is very important that the motivation letter should recall each of the qualification requirements and preferred qualifications indicated in this advert, clearly justifying how the candidate is able to meet each of them, and providing evidence. After short-listing, the most suitable candidates will be called for an interview.

Formal recruitment phase: The most highly-ranked applicants interviewed during the application advisory phase will be re-directed for the formal application.

With the submission of the documents, applicants agree that the documents will be shared among all supervisors of the Dust-DN consortium and members of the respective shortlisting and interviewing panels.

Dust-DN respects and supports the compatibility of professional and private life and promotes development opportunities for its cohort of doctoral researchers. We promote equality of opportunity, value diversity and nurture a working and learning environment.

Deadlines:

Applications for the advisory phase must be submitted by 31 August 2024.

Deadline extended to 30 September 2024

Formal applications must be submitted by 31 March 2025.

We reserve the possibility to extend the deadline(s).

Contact Information
For further information, please contact Dr. Sotirios Mallios (e-mail: smallios@noa.gr).

Dust-DN doctoral network – DC8

University of Évora (UÉ)

Supervisors: Célia Antunes and Inga Wessels

The Dust-DN doctoral network

Atmospheric dust or mineral dust (or simply “dust”) is a major atmospheric aerosol, and it gives us one of the most visible and detectable aspects of transboundary transport of atmospheric constituents, impacting visibility, radiation and climate. What is less evident are its quantitative impacts on health, transportation and energy production. Atmospheric dust is not fully understood at the fundamental level (microphysical properties, dust emissions, source regions) and hence atmospheric models fail to fully reproduce its impacts. Moreover, dust observations using ground-based instrumentation, remote sensing and aircraft are abundant, but not evenly distributed; in particular they are missing near the major dust sources. Moreover, the techniques are still under development, with each giving a different picture of a phenomenon with multiple facets. For example, it is now known that super-coarse and giant dust particles have gone undetected for a long time due to limitations in the measurement and modelling tools that have been in use for decades, and this misdetection alters the understanding and the prediction of a number of processes. Finally, dust affects the environment, society, and several economic sectors, with impacts on the transportation and energy sectors for example, the nature and cost of which is not fully understood and quantified. Several methodologies exist to study mineral dust, each giving its own differing picture of a complex phenomenon: numerical modelling, remote sensing, in-situ observations, laboratory research.

We established the Dust Doctoral Network (Dust-DN), in order to address gaps in the understanding of dust and its impacts by linking the different disciplines and methods. The aim is to train a team of early career scientists into overcoming compartmentalism in this field of science, and into developing a multi-disciplinary approach to mineral dust. Dust-DN will set up a network of academic and non-academic partners working on different aspects of dust research, and will coordinate a program of doctoral projects that will enhance knowledge across a broad range of fundamental, but linked, components of the atmospheric dust life cycle and its impacts. The projects will span across the disciplines of atmospheric sciences (dust processes, modelling, and remote sensing), geology (dust emissions and source regions), as well as the impacts on society and economic sectors. The knowledge will be shared among participating institutions and the wider public and scientific community. Common activities will be held, so as to enhance the network among the partner institutions and among the doctoral researchers, delivering an ambitious advanced training program for capacity building.

The University of Évora

The University of Évora (UÉ) in Portugal is a public institution organized into five schools: Fine Arts, Sciences and Technology, Social Sciences, Health and Human Development, and Nursing. Within UÉ, the Institute for Advanced Studies and Research (IIFA) serves as a crucial unit, merging teaching with research to foster interdisciplinary knowledge and support existing R&D units. IIFA coordinates 35 PhD programs and two Erasmus Mundus Master programs, ensuring an integrated advanced training environment and offering a wide range of soft skill training. IIFA also oversees 19 research centres, funded by the PT Foundation for Science and Technology. One of these R&D units is the Institute of Earth Sciences (ICT), a multidisciplinary team focusing on Earth System Science and Energy. This team is transitioning to the newly established Centre for Sci-Tech Research in Earth System and Energy (CREATE). CREATE emphasizes integrated research on critical Earth System and Energy challenges, along with technological innovation. It comprises 121 members, including 48 integrated PhD researchers and 39 PhD students.

The selected candidate will be working at the ICT/CREATE R&D units of UÉ, gaining access to several observational platforms for atmospheric research in southern Portugal. These platforms include the Évora Atmospheric Sciences Observatory, the Alqueva Lake floating station, oceanic sites at Cabo da Roca and Sines, a mobile air quality platform, and regional networks of weather and solar radiation (BSRN compliant) stations. The team also coordinates specialized research labs in Precision Optics, Atmospheric Physics, Solar Radiation Sensors, Thermofluids & Energy, Bioaerosol & Aerobiology, and Health & Environment. Additionally, a computational cluster with 512 processing cores and 1TB of RAM distributed over eight nodes is available for research purposes. Researchers at all stages of their careers find at ICT/CREATE a dynamic and friendly environment, where personal relationships easily thrive in an inclusive atmosphere, and flexible work planning promotes a life beyond work.

The PhD project

Doctoral Candidate 8 (DC8) – “Assessment of the respiratory health impact of atmospheric dust”

Enrolled in the University of Évora’s PhD programme on “Earth and Space Sciences”.

This project has the objective of evaluating the impact of different dust conditions simulating reality on lung epithelial layer function, with a focus on its relation to the concentration and physical and chemical features of the dust. The candidate will prepare and characterize the dust samples in terms of particle size and composition and will expose the lung epithelial cells in air-lift culture to controlled dust conditions, simulating real atmospheric aerosol concentrations. The candidate will also assess the integrity of the epithelial barrier by TEER (Trans-epithelial Electrical Resistances) measurements and histomorphology evaluation, as well as evaluate the epithelial cell activation and inflammation biomarkers (proinflammatory cytokines IL-18, IL-6, IL-8, TNF alpha and fibrotic chemokines, e.g. TGF beta;) and epithelial responses (mucus production; Reactive Oxygen species – ROS). The doctoral candidate will be based at UÉ in Évora, Portugal and will be supervised by Prof. Célia Antunes (UÉ) and Doctor Inga Wessels (ZAUM). Prof. Daniele Bortoli (UÉ) will also contribute to the supervision. The project will include a planned secondment at the Center of Allergy and Environment – Technical University of Munich (Germany) (7 months in the beginning of the second year).

Details

The recruited PhD candidate will be enrolled in UÉ’s PhD programme on “Earth and Space Sciences” and is included in the “Dust Doctoral Network”, which involves highly prestigious research groups on this scientific topic, and which will ensure that the cohort of doctoral candidates is integrated in a dynamic and enthusiastic scientific environment. The doctoral candidate will learn about the consortium partners’ unique facilities and research topics/methods, and will exploit these opportunities for their research. All Dust-DN doctoral candidates will work side-by-side with lead scientists at world-leading institutes, and they will:

●     Take responsibility for the scientific project that they are involved in, and the instruments and/or softwares required.

●     Collect scientific knowledge through experiments and/or numerical modelling.

●     Develop tailor-made data processing methods.

●     Advance the fields of research in atmospheric dust and/or the related measurement techniques.

●     Participate in the Dust Doctoral Network training and networking activities

●     Publish the results of the research in scientific peer reviewed journals, and present at conferences and workshops.

Qualification Requirements

·         The candidates are required to possess an excellent master’s degree (or equivalent) in natural or life sciences and to not have any kind of PhD degree.

·         Motivation for research on atmospheric dust.

·         Experience or aptitude to develop scientific software (computer-based programming)

·         Demonstrated ability in being a strong team player.

·         Strong international mobility for the purpose of research, training, and dissemination is mandatory.

Preferred Qualifications

Additional appreciated skills and competencies are:

●     Experience in applying broad scientific knowledge to a range of specific problems or scenarios.

●     Previous research experience and/or previous interest in the natural or life sciences or closely related discipline will be appreciated.

●     Experience with written or oral communications.

  ●     Fluency in written and oral English is highly valued.

●     Publication record.

●     Driving licence.

Eligibility Requirements

·         Qualifications:  The candidate must hold a title satisfying the admission requirements for a doctoral candidate at the institution where they will be enrolled (see qualification requirements). A doctoral degree in any field is not compatible with these positions.

·         Mobility: Transnational mobility is an essential requirement of MSCA Doctoral Networks. At the time of recruitment, the candidates must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in Portugal for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior to the recruitment date. Applicants must be aware that seconding periods are planned for this position as described above. International applicants are welcomed. 

Rights and Responsibilities of Researchers Participating in Marie Skłodwska-Curie Actions
The European Charter for Researchers is a set of general principles and requirements which specify the roles, responsibilities and entitlements of both researchers and the employers and/or funders of researchers. The aim of the Charter is to ensure that the nature of the relationship between researchers and employers or funders is conducive to successful performance in generating, transferring, sharing and disseminating knowledge and technological development and to the career development of the researchers.

It is obligatory for applicants to read and understand the detailed information regarding the rights and responsibilities of researchers engaged in an MSCA Doctoral Network.

The European Charter for researchers can be accessed at: https://euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/charter/european-charter

Employment Contract and Financial Aid

The selected candidate will be appointed under a 36-months full-time employment contract. A competitive financial aid package will be offered to the successful candidate with a gross annual salary of €35,246  (living allowance and mobility allowance). In addition, there can be further allowances depending on family status and other needs, as per MSCA relevant provisions.

It is understood that failure to successfully continue the PhD program will result in immediate cancellation of the employment contract and the financial support provided.

Start date

The position starts on 3 February 2025 and is a full-time position (40 hours/week), funded for a period of 36 months.

Application and selection

Application advisory: A pre-screening of the candidates will be made by the Dust-DN consortium as a first step prior to the formal recruitment process. Candidates should submit a CV and motivation letter on the Dust-DN website, together with their university transcripts and the name and contact information of two referees, and indicating up to 3 preferred doctoral projects (in order of preference) amongst the ones advertised within the whole Dust-DN (which includes the one in the present advert). It is very important that the motivation letter should recall each of the qualification requirements and preferred qualifications indicated in this advert, clearly justifying how the candidate is able to meet each of them, and providing evidence. After short-listing, the most suitable candidates will be called for an interview.

Formal recruitment phase: The most highly-ranked applicants interviewed during the application advisory phase will be re-directed for the formal application.

With the submission of the documents, applicants agree that the documents will be shared among all supervisors of the Dust-DN consortium and members of the respective shortlisting and interviewing panels.

Dust-DN respects and supports the compatibility of professional and private life and promotes development opportunities for its cohort of doctoral researchers. We promote equality of opportunity, value diversity and nurture a working and learning environment.

Deadlines:

Applications for the advisory phase must be submitted by 31 August 2024.

Deadline extended to 30 September 2024

Formal applications must be submitted by 30 November 2024.

We reserve the possibility to extend the deadline(s) if not enough candidates apply.

 Contact Information

 For further information, please contact Professor Célia Antunes (e-mail: cmma@uevora.pt).

Dust-DN doctoral network – DC7

University of Evora and the University of Reading

Supervisors: Maria João Costa and Claire Ryder

The Dust-DN doctoral network

Atmospheric dust or mineral dust (or simply “dust”) is a major atmospheric aerosol, and it gives us one of the most visible and detectable aspects of transboundary transport of atmospheric constituents, impacting visibility, radiation and climate. What is less evident are its quantitative impacts on health, transportation and energy production. Atmospheric dust is not fully understood at the fundamental level (microphysical properties, dust emissions, source regions) and hence atmospheric models fail to fully reproduce its impacts. Moreover, dust observations using ground-based instrumentation, remote sensing and aircraft are abundant, but not evenly distributed; in particular they are missing near the major dust sources. Moreover, the techniques are still under development, with each giving a different picture of a phenomenon with multiple facets. For example, it is now known that super-coarse and giant dust particles have gone undetected for a long time due to limitations in the measurement and modelling tools that have been in use for decades, and this misdetection alters the understanding and the prediction of a number of processes. Finally, dust affects the environment, society, and several economic sectors, with impacts on the transportation and energy sectors for example, the nature and cost of which is not fully understood and quantified. Several methodologies exist to study mineral dust, each giving its own differing picture of a complex phenomenon: numerical modelling, remote sensing, in-situ observations, laboratory research.

We establish the Dust Doctoral Network (Dust-DN), in order to address gaps in the understanding of dust and its impacts by linking the different disciplines and methods. The aim is to train a team of early career scientists into overcoming compartmentalism in this field of science, and into developing a multi-disciplinary approach to mineral dust. Dust-DN will set up a network of academic and non-academic partners working on different aspects of dust research, and will coordinate a program of doctoral projects that will enhance knowledge across a broad range of fundamental, but linked, components of the atmospheric dust life cycle and its impacts. The projects will span across the disciplines of atmospheric sciences (dust processes, modelling, and remote sensing), geology (dust emissions and source regions), as well as the impacts on society and economic sectors. The knowledge will be shared among participating institutions and the wider public and scientific community. Common activities will be held, so as to enhance the network among the partner institutions and among the doctoral researchers, delivering an ambitious advanced training program for capacity building.

The University of Évora and the University of Reading

The University of Évora (UÉ) in Portugal is a public institution organized into five schools: Fine Arts, Sciences and Technology, Social Sciences, Health and Human Development, and Nursing. Within UÉ, the Institute for Advanced Studies and Research (IIFA) serves as a crucial unit, merging teaching with research to foster interdisciplinary knowledge and support existing R&D units. IIFA coordinates 35 PhD programs and two Erasmus Mundus Master programs, ensuring an integrated advanced training environment and offering a wide range of soft skill training. IIFA also oversees 19 research centres, funded by the PT Foundation for Science and Technology. One of these R&D units is the Institute of Earth Sciences (ICT), a multidisciplinary team focusing on Earth System Science and Energy. This team is transitioning to the newly established Centre for Sci-Tech Research in Earth System and Energy (CREATE). CREATE emphasizes integrated research on critical Earth System and Energy challenges, along with technological innovation. It comprises 121 members, including 48 integrated PhD researchers and 39 PhD students.

The Department of Meteorology at the University of Reading is a thriving community of over 200 academics and research scientists and more than 150 students. The University of Reading is ranked 5th in the world for Atmospheric Science. In the most recent Research Excellence Framework (REF 2021) our research environment was classified as world leading. We ranked 3rd in the UK for research power in Earth Systems and Environmental Sciences, while 100% of our research impact has been classed as world leading or internationally excellent. The status of our dynamic and productive research environment is reflected in the long-standing presence of staff from the UK Met Office, and major elements of the NERC funded National Centre for Atmospheric Science (NCAS) and the National Centre for Earth Observation (NCEO). We work closely with the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), the headquarters of which are moving onto the University of Reading campus.

The University of Reading has a dedicated Doctoral and Researcher College which supports PhD students throughout their studies and coordinates local training. The Department of Meteorology hosts several doctoral training programmes, including SCENARIO (Science of the Environment), AFESP (Advancing the Frontiers of Earth System Prediction) delivered in partnership with the ECMWF, UK Met Office and the National Centre for Atmospheric Science, and Mathematics for Future Climate, resulting in a large cohort of around 50 PhD students with extensive training and career development activities.

The selected candidate will be working at the University of Évora, within the ICT/CREATE Atmospheric Physics group, and at the Department of Meteorology at the University of Reading. There are several observational platforms for atmospheric research managed by the ICT/CREATE group, in southern Portugal. Besides atmospheric sciences, the research unit covers various earth science areas, from internal and applied geophysics, to geology, energy, water and environment. The Department of Meteorology at the University of Reading is leading the way in understanding and tackling the world’s environmental challenges in weather, climate and Earth observation. Our pioneering research informs how governments, organisations, industries and communities respond to complex issues such as climate change, ozone depletion, atmospheric pollution and space weather.

The doctoral project

Doctoral Candidate 7 (DC7) – “Enhancing the Understanding of the Dust Direct Radiative Effect”

A double degree between the University of Evora (Portugal) and the University of Reading (UK). The student will be enrolled in the University of Reading’s Department of Meteorology PhD programme in “Atmosphere, Oceans and Climate” as well as the PhD programme in ‘Earth and Space Sciences’ at the University of Evora.

Through the interaction of mineral dust particles with both shortwave and longwave radiation, dust causes a radiative effect on climate. This can be both positive (a warming effect) or negative (cooling effect) at the top-of-atmosphere, and can heat or cool the atmospheric column, depending on the dust (and surface) properties. The presence and quantity of super-coarse and giant dust particles can also influence this effect. Recent work shows that super-coarse dust particles cause a net climate warming, and that radiative closure cannot be achieved without their inclusion. This project will focus on the radiative balance over the Sahara using data from field campaigns, in order to explore these sensitivities and the extent to which super-coarse and giant dust influences warming/cooling of the planet. 

In year 1, the student will be based at the University of Reading, UK, and will analyse measurements already collected by a research aircraft over the Sahara. This will comprise airborne spectral shortwave and longwave measurements, which they will combine with lidar observations, in-situ size distributions (including super-coarse and giant particles) and shape assumptions for different case studies involving dust, generating optical properties. They will develop skills in running radiative transfer models. 

In years 2-3, the student will be based at the University of Evora, Portugal. They will format the observational data for application in the radiative transfer model(s), in order to confront the radiative observations with model simulations. They will test assumptions needed for radiative closure in shortwave and longwave by confronting radiative transfer computations with observations, including dust vertical distribution, size distribution, refractive index and shape, as well as generating atmospheric heating rates.

This is a double degree between the two universities. The work will be supervised by Prof. Maria João Costa (UÉ) and Dr. Claire Ryder (UoR), with additional support from Dr Vanda Salgueiro (UÉ) will also contribute to the supervision. The student will undertake a 2 week secondment in year 1 to the Cyprus Institute, to take advantage of Dr Marenco’s airborne lidar expertise.

Details

The recruited PhD candidate will be enrolled in the PhD programmes on “Earth and Space Sciences” of University of Evora and “Atmosphere, Oceans and Climate” of the University of Reading. It is included in the “Dust Doctoral Network”, which involves highly prestigious research groups on this scientific topic, and which will ensure that the cohort of doctoral candidates is integrated in a dynamic and enthusiastic scientific environment. The doctoral candidate will learn about the consortium partners’ unique facilities and research topics/methods, and will exploit these opportunities for their research. All Dust-DN doctoral candidates will work side-by-side with lead scientists at world-leading institutes, and they will:

• Take responsibility for the scientific project that they are involved in, and the instruments and/or software required.
• Collect scientific knowledge through experiments and/or numerical modelling, and data analysis.
• Develop tailor-made data processing methods.
• Advance the fields of research in atmospheric dust and/or the related measurement and/or modelling techniques.
• Participate in the Dust Doctoral Network training and networking activities.
• Publish research results in scientific peer reviewed journals, and present at conferences and workshops.

Qualification Requirements

• The candidates are required to have, or expect to complete soon, an excellent undergraduate or master’s degree (or equivalent) in a physical or mathematical science subject (or other natural science discipline) and must not have any kind of PhD degree.
• Fluency in written and oral English is compulsory. If English is not a first language, in the second step of the application procedure applicants must demonstrate a minimum IELTS score of 6.5, with no less than 5.5 in any individual section.
• Motivation for research on atmospheric dust.
• Experience or aptitude to develop scientific software (computer-based programming)
• Demonstrated ability in being a strong team player.
• Strong international mobility for the purpose of research, training, and dissemination is mandatory.

Preferred Qualifications

Additional appreciated skills and competencies are:

• Experience in applying broad scientific knowledge to a range of specific problems or scenarios.
• Previous research experience and/or previous interest in the atmospheric sciences, meteorology or closely related discipline will be appreciated.
• Experience with written or oral scientific communications.
• Publication record.

Eligibility Requirements

• Qualifications:  The candidate must hold a title satisfying the admission requirements for a doctoral candidate at the institution where they will be enrolled (see qualification requirements). A doctoral degree in any field is not compatible with these positions.
• Mobility: Transnational mobility is an essential requirement of MSCA Doctoral Networks. At the time of recruitment, the candidates must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in the UK for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior to the recruitment date. Applicants must be aware that seconding periods are planned for this position as described above. International applicants are welcomed. 

Rights and Responsibilities of Researchers Participating in Marie Skłodwska-Curie Actions
The European Charter for Researchers is a set of general principles and requirements which specify the roles, responsibilities and entitlements of both researchers and the employers and/or funders of researchers. The aim of the Charter is to ensure that the nature of the relationship between researchers and employers or funders is conducive to successful performance in generating, transferring, sharing and disseminating knowledge and technological development and to the career development of the researchers.

It is obligatory for applicants to read and understand the detailed information regarding the rights and responsibilities of researchers engaged in an MSCA Doctoral Network.

The European Charter for researchers can be accessed at: https://euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/charter/european-charter

Employment Contract and Financial Aid

The selected candidate will be appointed for 36-months under full-time employment contract: during year 1 they will employed by the University of Reading and during years 2-3 by the University of Evora. A competitive financial aid package will be offered to the successful candidate with a gross annual salary of £42,691 while at Reading, and with a gross annual salary of €35,246 while in Portugal (living allowance and mobility allowance).

It is understood that failure to successfully continue the PhD program will result in immediate cancellation of the employment contract and the financial support provided.

During year 1, University of Reading Home fees will be covered by the grant and the University of Reading will cover the difference between the Home and International fees. https://www.reading.ac.uk/essentials/Money_matters/Tuition-fees/Fee-Tables. The grant can also be used to cover University of Evora student fees as per https://www.uevora.pt/en/study/UE-Students/academic-services-and-procedures/Tuition-Fees for years 2 and 3. 

Start date

A start date will be negotiated with the successful candidate. Ideally start dates would be between 3 February 2025 and June 2025, with a potential to extend the start date to early October 2025 for an exceptional candidate. The position is full-time (35 hours/week), funded for a period of 36 months.

Application and selection

Application advisory: A pre-screening of the candidates will be made by the Dust-DN consortium as a first step prior to the formal recruitment process. Candidates should submit a CV and motivation letter on the Dust-DN website, together with their university transcripts and the name and contact information of two referees, and indicating up to 3 preferred doctoral projects (in order of preference) amongst the ones advertised within the whole Dust-DN (which includes the one in the present advert). It is very important that the motivation letter should recall each of the qualification requirements and preferred qualifications indicated in this advert, clearly justifying how the candidate is able to meet each of them, and providing evidence. After short-listing, the most suitable candidates will be called for an interview.

Formal recruitment phase: The most highly-ranked applicants interviewed during the application advisory phase will be re-directed for the formal application.

With the submission of the documents, applicants agree that the documents will be shared among all supervisors of the Dust-DN consortium and members of the respective shortlisting and interviewing panels.

Dust-DN respects and supports the compatibility of professional and private life and promotes development opportunities for its cohort of doctoral researchers. We promote equality of opportunity, value diversity and nurture a working and learning environment.

Deadlines:

Applications for the advisory phase must be submitted by 31 August 2024.

Deadline extended to 30 September 2024

Formal applications must be submitted by 30 November 2024.

We reserve the possibility to extend the deadline(s).

Contact Information
For further information, please contact Dr Maria João Costa (mjcosta@uevora.pt) and/or Dr Claire Ryder (c.l.ryder@reading.ac.uk).

Dust-DN doctoral network – DC6

University of Évora (UÉ)

Supervisors: Paulo Canhoto and Stelios Kazadzis

The Dust-DN doctoral network

Atmospheric dust or mineral dust (or simply “dust”) is a major atmospheric aerosol, and it gives us one of the most visible and detectable aspects of transboundary transport of atmospheric constituents, impacting visibility, radiation and climate. What is less evident are its quantitative impacts on health, transportation and energy production. Atmospheric dust is not fully understood at the fundamental level (microphysical properties, dust emissions, source regions) and hence atmospheric models fail to fully reproduce its impacts. Moreover, dust observations using ground-based instrumentation, remote sensing and aircraft are abundant, but not evenly distributed; in particular they are missing near the major dust sources. Moreover, the techniques are still under development, with each giving a different picture of a phenomenon with multiple facets. For example, it is now known that super-coarse and giant dust particles have gone undetected for a long time due to limitations in the measurement and modelling tools that have been in use for decades, and this misdetection alters the understanding and the prediction of a number of processes. Finally, dust affects the environment, society, and several economic sectors, with impacts on the transportation and energy sectors for example, the nature and cost of which is not fully understood and quantified. Several methodologies exist to study mineral dust, each giving its own differing picture of a complex phenomenon: numerical modelling, remote sensing, in-situ observations, laboratory research.

We establish the Dust Doctoral Network (Dust-DN), in order to address gaps in the understanding of dust and its impacts by linking the different disciplines and methods. The aim is to train a team of early career scientists into overcoming compartmentalism in this field of science, and into developing a multi-disciplinary approach to mineral dust. Dust-DN will set up a network of academic and non-academic partners working on different aspects of dust research, and will coordinate a program of doctoral projects that will enhance knowledge across a broad range of fundamental, but linked, components of the atmospheric dust life cycle and its impacts. The projects will span across the disciplines of atmospheric sciences (dust processes, modelling, and remote sensing), geology (dust emissions and source regions), as well as the impacts on society and economic sectors. The knowledge will be shared among participating institutions and the wider public and scientific community. Common activities will be held, so as to enhance the network among the partner institutions and among the doctoral researchers, delivering an ambitious advanced training program for capacity building.

The University of Évora

The University of Évora (UÉ) in Portugal is a public institution organized into five schools: Sciences and Technology, Fine Arts, Social Sciences, Health and Human Development, and Nursing. Also, within the UÉ, the Institute for Advanced Studies and Research (IIFA) serves as a crucial unit, merging teaching with research to foster interdisciplinary knowledge and support existing R&D units. IIFA coordinates 35 PhD programs and two Erasmus Mundus Master programs, ensuring an integrated advanced training environment and offering a wide range of soft skill training. IIFA also oversees 19 research centres, funded by the PT Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT). One of these R&D units is the Institute of Earth Sciences (ICT), a multidisciplinary team focusing on Earth System Science and Energy. This team is transitioning to the newly established Centre for Sci-Tech Research in Earth System and Energy (CREATE) also supported by the FCT. CREATE emphasizes integrated research on critical Earth System and Energy challenges, along with technological innovation. It comprises 121 members, including 48 integrated PhD researchers and 39 PhD students.

The selected candidate will be working at the ICT/CREATE R&D units of UÉ, gaining access to several observational platforms for atmospheric research in southern Portugal. These platforms include the Évora Atmospheric Sciences Observatory, the Alqueva Lake floating station, oceanic sites at Cabo da Roca and Sines, a mobile air quality platform, and regional networks of weather and solar radiation (BSRN compliant) stations. The team also coordinates specialized research labs in Precision Optics, Atmospheric Physics, Solar Radiation Sensors, Thermofluids & Energy, Bioaerosol & Aerobiology, and Health & Environment. Additionally, a computational cluster with 512 processing cores and 1TB of RAM distributed over eight nodes is available for research purposes. Researchers at all stages of their careers find at ICT/CREATE a dynamic and friendly environment, where personal relationships easily thrive in an inclusive atmosphere, and flexible work planning promotes a life beyond work.

The PhD project

Doctoral Candidate 6 (DC6) – “Modelling and assessment of the impact of atmospheric dust on solar resource for energy applications”

Enrolled in the University of Évora’s PhD programme on “Earth and Space Sciences”.

This project has the objective of developing new parameterizations for Direct Normal Irradiance (DNI) and Circumsolar Normal Irradiance (CSNI) under extreme atmospheric dust conditions, for assessment of power generation impact. The candidate will make use of radiative transfer codes and dust properties obtained from remote sensing methods (e.g. AERONET), to model the DNI and CSNI. On the other hand, the candidate is expected to develop a prototype pyrheliometer with variable field of view (FOV) for quantification of CSNI. Results will be validated at PMOD/WRC and against Baseline Surface Radiation Network (BSRN) data. The work includes the evaluation of transposition models for Global Tilted Irradiance (GTI) and the proposal of enhanced parametrizations for CSNI and GTI. Finally, the candidate will assess the impact of extreme dust events on solar energy generation, including a financial risk analysis for selected regions in the Mediterranean and Middle East. The doctoral candidate will be based at UÉ in Évora, Portugal and will be supervised by Prof. Paulo Canhoto (UÉ) and Doctor Stelios Kazadzis (PMODWRC). Prof. Maria João Costa (UÉ) will also contribute to the supervision. The project will include planned secondments at the Physikalisch-Meteorologisches Observatorium Davos/World Radiation Center (Switzerland) (7 months in the beginning of the second year), the Ciemat – Plataforma Solar de Almería (PSA) (Spain) (1 month in the beginning of the third year), and Earnst and Young (EY) (Cyprus) (2 weeks in the middle of the third year).

Details

The recruited PhD candidate will be enrolled in UÉ’s PhD programme on “Earth and Space Sciences” and is included in the “Dust Doctoral Network”, which involves highly prestigious research groups on this scientific topic, and which will ensure that the cohort of doctoral candidates is integrated in a dynamic and enthusiastic scientific environment. The doctoral candidate will learn about the consortium partners’ unique facilities and research topics/methods, and will exploit these opportunities for their research. All Dust-DN doctoral candidates will work side-by-side with lead scientists at world-leading institutes, and they will:

● Take responsibility for the scientific project that they are involved in, and the instruments and/or softwares required.

● Collect scientific knowledge through experiments and/or radiative transfer modelling.

● Develop tailor-made data processing methods.

● Advance the fields of research in atmospheric dust and/or the related measurement techniques.

● Participate in the Dust Doctoral Network training and networking activities

● Publish the results of the research in scientific peer reviewed journals, and present at conferences and workshops.

● Participate in field experimental campaigns.

Qualification Requirements

● The candidates are required to have an excellent master’s degree (or equivalent) in physical, engineering or mathematical sciences or other related subjects (e.g. natural science disciplines) and to not have any kind of PhD degree

● Motivation for research on atmospheric dust.

● Experience or aptitude to develop scientific software (computer-based programming)

● Demonstrated ability in being a strong team player.

● Strong international mobility for the purpose of research, training, and dissemination is mandatory.

Preferred Qualifications

Additional appreciated skills and competencies are:

● Experience in applying broad scientific knowledge to a range of specific problems or scenarios.

● Previous research experience and/or previous interest in the atmospheric sciences, meteorology, solar energy or closely related disciplines will be appreciated.

● Experience with written or oral communications.

● Fluency in written and oral English is highly valued.

● Publication record.

● Driving licence.

Eligibility Requirements

· Qualifications:  The candidate must hold a title satisfying the admission requirements for a doctoral candidate at the institution where they will be enrolled (see qualification requirements). A doctoral degree in any field is not compatible with these positions.

· Mobility: Transnational mobility is an essential requirement of MSCA Doctoral Networks. At the time of recruitment, the candidates must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in Portugal for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior to the recruitment date. Applicants must be aware that seconding periods are planned for this position as described above. International applicants are welcomed. 

Rights and Responsibilities of Researchers Participating in Marie Skłodwska-Curie Actions
The European Charter for Researchers is a set of general principles and requirements which specify the roles, responsibilities and entitlements of both researchers and the employers and/or funders of researchers. The aim of the Charter is to ensure that the nature of the relationship between researchers and employers or funders is conducive to successful performance in generating, transferring, sharing and disseminating knowledge and technological development and to the career development of the researchers.

It is obligatory for applicants to read and understand the detailed information regarding the rights and responsibilities of researchers engaged in an MSCA Doctoral Network.

The European Charter for researchers can be accessed at: https://euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/charter/european-charter

Employment Contract and Financial Aid

The selected candidate will be appointed under a 36-months full-time employment contract. A competitive financial aid package will be offered to the successful candidate with a gross annual salary of €35,246  (living allowance and mobility allowance). In addition, there can be further allowances depending on family status and other needs, as per MSCA relevant provisions.

It is understood that failure to successfully continue the PhD program will result in immediate cancellation of the employment contract and the financial support provided.

Start date

The position starts on 3 February 2025 and is a full-time position (40 hours/week), funded for a period of 36 months.

Application and selection

Application advisory: A pre-screening of the candidates will be made by the Dust-DN consortium as a first step prior to the formal recruitment process. Candidates should submit a CV and motivation letter on the Dust-DN website, together with their university transcripts and the name and contact information of two referees, and indicating up to 3 preferred doctoral projects (in order of preference) amongst the ones advertised within the whole Dust-DN (which includes the one in the present advert). It is very important that the motivation letter should recall each of the qualification requirements and preferred qualifications indicated in this advert, clearly justifying how the candidate is able to meet each of them, and providing evidence. After short-listing, the most suitable candidates will be called for an interview.

Formal recruitment phase: The most highly-ranked applicants interviewed during the application advisory phase will be re-directed for the formal application.

With the submission of the documents, applicants agree that the documents will be shared among all supervisors of the Dust-DN consortium and members of the respective shortlisting and interviewing panels.

Dust-DN respects and supports the compatibility of professional and private life and promotes development opportunities for its cohort of doctoral researchers. We promote equality of opportunity, value diversity and nurture a working and learning environment.

Deadlines:

Applications for the advisory phase must be submitted by 31 August 2024.

Deadline extended to 30 September 2024

Formal applications must be submitted by 30 November 2024.

We reserve the possibility to extend the deadline(s) if not enough candidates apply.

 Contact Information

For further information, please contact Professor Paulo Canhoto (e-mail: canhoto@uevora.pt).

Dust-DN doctoral network – DC5

University of Reading

Supervisors: Claire Ryder, Helen Dacre and Rory Clarkson

The Dust-DN doctoral network

Atmospheric dust or mineral dust (or simply “dust”) is a major atmospheric aerosol, and it gives us one of the most visible and detectable aspects of transboundary transport of atmospheric constituents, impacting visibility, radiation and climate. What is less evident are its quantitative impacts on health, transportation and energy production. Atmospheric dust is not fully understood at the fundamental level (microphysical properties, dust emissions, source regions) and hence atmospheric models fail to fully reproduce its impacts. Moreover, dust observations using ground-based instrumentation, remote sensing and aircraft are abundant, but not evenly distributed; in particular they are missing near the major dust sources. Moreover, the techniques are still under development, with each giving a different picture of a phenomenon with multiple facets. For example, it is now known that super-coarse and giant dust particles have gone undetected for a long time due to limitations in the measurement and modelling tools that have been in use for decades, and this misdetection alters the understanding and the prediction of a number of processes. Finally, dust affects the environment, society, and several economic sectors, with impacts on the transportation and energy sectors for example, the nature and cost of which is not fully understood and quantified. Several methodologies exist to study mineral dust, each giving its own differing picture of a complex phenomenon: numerical modelling, remote sensing, in-situ observations, laboratory research.

We establish the Dust Doctoral Network (Dust-DN), in order to address gaps in the understanding of dust and its impacts by linking the different disciplines and methods. The aim is to train a team of early career scientists into overcoming compartmentalism in this field of science, and into developing a multi-disciplinary approach to mineral dust. Dust-DN will set up a network of academic and non-academic partners working on different aspects of dust research, and will coordinate a program of doctoral projects that will enhance knowledge across a broad range of fundamental, but linked, components of the atmospheric dust life cycle and its impacts. The projects will span across the disciplines of atmospheric sciences (dust processes, modelling, and remote sensing), geology (dust emissions and source regions), as well as the impacts on society and economic sectors. The knowledge will be shared among participating institutions and the wider public and scientific community. Common activities will be held, so as to enhance the network among the partner institutions and among the doctoral researchers, delivering an ambitious advanced training program for capacity building.

The Department of Meteorology at the University of Reading

The Department of Meteorology at the University of Reading is leading the way in understanding and tackling the world’s environmental challenges in weather, climate and Earth observation. Our pioneering research informs how governments, organisations, industries and communities respond to complex issues such as climate change, ozone depletion, atmospheric pollution and space weather.

We are a thriving community of over 200 academics and research scientists and more than 150 students. The University of Reading is ranked 5th in the world for Atmospheric Science. In the most recent Research Excellence Framework (REF 2021) our research environment was classified as world leading. We ranked 3rd in the UK for research power in Earth Systems and Environmental Sciences, while 100% of our research impact has been classed as world leading or internationally excellent. The status of our dynamic and productive research environment is reflected in the long-standing presence of staff from the UK Met Office, and major elements of the NERC funded National Centre for Atmospheric Science (NCAS) and the National Centre for Earth Observation (NCEO). We work closely with the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), the headquarters of which are moving onto the University of Reading campus.

The University of Reading has a dedicated Doctoral and Researcher College which supports PhD students throughout their studies and coordinates local training. The Department of Meteorology hosts several doctoral training programmes, including SCENARIO (Science of the Environment), AFESP (Advancing the Frontiers of Earth System Prediction) delivered in partnership with the ECMWF, UK Met Office and the National Centre for Atmospheric Science, and Mathematics for Future Climate, resulting in a large cohort of around 50 PhD students with extensive training and career development activities.

The doctoral project

Doctoral Candidate 5 (DC5) – “The impact of mineral dust on Aircraft Engines in the Middle East”

Enrolled in the University of Reading’s Department of Meteorology PhD programme in “Atmosphere, Oceans and Climate”.

Supervisors: Dr Claire Ryder (University of Reading), Professor Helen Dacre (University of Reading), Dr Rory Clarkson (Rolls-Royce)

Mineral dust is considered an atmospheric contaminant in aviation, due to its ability to erode and degrade components of aircraft engines over time, and also engine sensitivity to dust chemical composition. Increased air traffic through the Middle East region and greater susceptibility of engine parts to damage mean that dust hazards to aviation are becoming more significant. 

In this project, the student will firstly quantify the magnitude and variability of aircraft engine dust ingestion in the Middle East, using ground-based remote sensing measurements from a ceilometer. Ceilometers use lasers to detect backscatter from atmospheric particles and thus can provide detailed information about the vertical structure of dust in the atmosphere. The impact of extreme versus weaker ground dust events on airport closures and aircraft engine dust dose will be evaluated, as will the impact of dust vertical variability. The student will use these results to compare with a wide range of dust data sources, such as satellite-lidar (e.g. CALIOP, LIVAS, EarthCare) and to evaluate the accuracy of model dust forecasts (e.g. CAMS, UK Met Office Limited Area Model). Using this ensemble of models, the student will calculate the probability of high impact dust events and generate geographical risk maps to communicate information of dust hazard risk in the Middle East region to the aviation industry. Finally, using newly available data from the EMIT satellite project combined with model data, the student will quantify the contribution and variability from different dust minerals to assess the importance of dust composition.

The student will be based at the University of Reading, and will be co-supervised by Rory Clarkson at Rolls-Royce, Derby, UK, and will undertake regular secondments at Rolls-Royce for 1 week every 4 months to receive supervision, experience industry perspectives and communicate methods and results. This will include opportunities to visit aircraft affected by operations in dusty environments. In addition, other secondments include 2 weeks at Khalifa University, UAE (Dr Francis) for expertise in UAE ceilometer observations, 1 month at the National Observatory of Athens, Greece, with Dr Amiridis, expert in LIVAS data, 1 week at the UK Met Office, Exeter, UK with Dr Brooks (expertise in NWP modelling of dust), and 2 months at the Barcelona Supercomputer Centre, Madrid, Spain with Dr Perez for analysis of composition-resolved model data.

Details

The recruited doctoral candidate will be enrolled in the University of Reading’s PhD programme and included in the “Dust Doctoral Network”, which involves highly prestigious research groups on this scientific topic, and which will ensure that the cohort of doctoral candidates is integrated in a dynamic and enthusiastic scientific environment. The doctoral candidate will learn about the consortium partners’ unique facilities and research topics/methods, and will exploit these opportunities for their research. All Dust-DN doctoral candidates will work side-by-side with lead scientists at world-leading institutes, and they will:

• Take responsibility for the scientific project that they are involved in, and the instruments and/or software required.
• Collect scientific knowledge through experiments and/or numerical modelling, and data analysis.
• Develop tailor-made data processing methods.
• Advance the fields of research in atmospheric dust and/or the related measurement and/or modelling techniques.
• Participate in the Dust Doctoral Network training and networking activities.
• Publish research results in scientific peer reviewed journals, and present at conferences and workshops.

Qualification Requirements

• The candidates are required to have, or expect to complete soon, an excellent undergraduate or master’s degree (or equivalent) in a physical or mathematical science subject (or other natural science discipline) and must not have any kind of PhD degree.
• Fluency in written and oral English is compulsory. If English is not a first language, in the second step of the application procedure applicants must demonstrate a minimum IELTS score of 6.5, with no less than 5.5 in any individual section

• Motivation for research on atmospheric dust.
• Experience or aptitude to develop scientific software (computer-based programming)
• Demonstrated ability in being a strong team player.
• Strong international mobility for the purpose of research, training, and dissemination is mandatory.

Preferred Qualifications

Additional appreciated skills and competencies are:

• Experience in applying broad scientific knowledge to a range of specific problems or scenarios.
• Previous research experience and/or previous interest in the atmospheric sciences, meteorology or closely related discipline will be appreciated.
• Experience with written or oral scientific communications.
• Publication record.

Eligibility Requirements

• Qualifications:  The candidate must hold a title satisfying the admission requirements for a doctoral candidate at the institution where they will be enrolled (see qualification requirements). A doctoral degree in any field is not compatible with these positions.
• Mobility: Transnational mobility is an essential requirement of MSCA Doctoral Networks. At the time of recruitment, the candidates must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in the UK for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior to the recruitment date. Applicants must be aware that seconding periods are planned for this position as described above. International applicants are welcomed. 

Rights and Responsibilities of Researchers Participating in Marie Skłodwska-Curie Actions
The European Charter for Researchers is a set of general principles and requirements which specify the roles, responsibilities and entitlements of both researchers and the employers and/or funders of researchers. The aim of the Charter is to ensure that the nature of the relationship between researchers and employers or funders is conducive to successful performance in generating, transferring, sharing and disseminating knowledge and technological development and to the career development of the researchers.

It is obligatory for applicants to read and understand the detailed information regarding the rights and responsibilities of researchers engaged in an MSCA Doctoral Network.

The European Charter for researchers can be accessed at: https://euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/charter/european-charter

Employment Contract and Financial Aid

The selected candidate will be appointed under a 36-months full-time employment contract. A competitive financial aid package will be offered to the successful candidate with a gross annual salary of £42,691 (living allowance and mobility allowance).

It is understood that failure to successfully continue the PhD program will result in immediate cancellation of the employment contract and the financial support provided.

University of Reading Home fees will be covered by the grant and the University of Reading will cover the difference between the Home and International fees. https://www.reading.ac.uk/essentials/Money_matters/Tuition-fees/Fee-Tables.

Start date

A start date will be negotiated with the successful candidate. Ideally start dates would be between 3 February 2025 and June 2025. The candidate must start by early October 2025. The position is full-time (35 hours/week), funded for a period of 36 months.

Application and selection

Application advisory: A pre-screening of the candidates will be made by the Dust-DN consortium as a first step prior to the formal recruitment process. Candidates should submit a CV and motivation letter on the Dust-DN website, together with their university transcripts and the name and contact information of two referees, and indicating up to 3 preferred doctoral projects (in order of preference) amongst the ones advertised within the whole Dust-DN (which includes the one in the present advert). It is very important that the motivation letter should recall each of the qualification requirements and preferred qualifications indicated in this advert, clearly justifying how the candidate is able to meet each of them, and providing evidence. After short-listing, the most suitable candidates will be called for an interview.

Formal recruitment phase: The most highly-ranked applicants interviewed during the application advisory phase will be re-directed for the formal application.

With the submission of the documents, applicants agree that the documents will be shared among all supervisors of the Dust-DN consortium and members of the respective shortlisting and interviewing panels.

Dust-DN respects and supports the compatibility of professional and private life and promotes development opportunities for its cohort of doctoral researchers. We promote equality of opportunity, value diversity and nurture a working and learning environment.

Deadlines:

Applications for the advisory phase must be submitted by 31 August 2024.

Deadline extended to 30 September 2024

Formal applications must be submitted by 30 November 2024.

We reserve the possibility to extend the deadline(s).

Contact Information
For further information, please contact Dr Claire Ryder (c.l.ryder@reading.ac.uk).

Dust-DN doctoral network – DC4

University of Reading

Supervisors: Chris Westbrook, Claire Ryder and Konrad Kandler

The Dust-DN doctoral network

Atmospheric dust or mineral dust (or simply “dust”) is a major atmospheric aerosol, and it gives us one of the most visible and detectable aspects of transboundary transport of atmospheric constituents, impacting visibility, radiation and climate. What is less evident are its quantitative impacts on health, transportation and energy production. Atmospheric dust is not fully understood at the fundamental level (microphysical properties, dust emissions, source regions) and hence atmospheric models fail to fully reproduce its impacts. Moreover, dust observations using ground-based instrumentation, remote sensing and aircraft are abundant, but not evenly distributed; in particular they are missing near the major dust sources. Moreover, the techniques are still under development, with each giving a different picture of a phenomenon with multiple facets. For example, it is now known that super-coarse and giant dust particles have gone undetected for a long time due to limitations in the measurement and modelling tools that have been in use for decades, and this misdetection alters the understanding and the prediction of a number of processes. Finally, dust affects the environment, society, and several economic sectors, with impacts on the transportation and energy sectors for example, the nature and cost of which is not fully understood and quantified. Several methodologies exist to study mineral dust, each giving its own differing picture of a complex phenomenon: numerical modelling, remote sensing, in-situ observations, laboratory research.

We establish the Dust Doctoral Network (Dust-DN), in order to address gaps in the understanding of dust and its impacts by linking the different disciplines and methods. The aim is to train a team of early career scientists into overcoming compartmentalism in this field of science, and into developing a multi-disciplinary approach to mineral dust. Dust-DN will set up a network of academic and non-academic partners working on different aspects of dust research, and will coordinate a program of doctoral projects that will enhance knowledge across a broad range of fundamental, but linked, components of the atmospheric dust life cycle and its impacts. The projects will span across the disciplines of atmospheric sciences (dust processes, modelling, and remote sensing), geology (dust emissions and source regions), as well as the impacts on society and economic sectors. The knowledge will be shared among participating institutions and the wider public and scientific community. Common activities will be held, so as to enhance the network among the partner institutions and among the doctoral researchers, delivering an ambitious advanced training program for capacity building.

The Department of Meteorology at the University of Reading

The Department of Meteorology at the University of Reading is leading the way in understanding and tackling the world’s environmental challenges in weather, climate and Earth observation. Our pioneering research informs how governments, organisations, industries and communities respond to complex issues such as climate change, ozone depletion, atmospheric pollution and space weather.

We are a thriving community of over 200 academics and research scientists and more than 150 students. The University of Reading is ranked 5th in the world for Atmospheric Science. In the most recent Research Excellence Framework (REF 2021) our research environment was classified as world leading. We ranked 3rd in the UK for research power in Earth Systems and Environmental Sciences, while 100% of our research impact has been classed as world leading or internationally excellent. The status of our dynamic and productive research environment is reflected in the long-standing presence of staff from the UK Met Office, and major elements of the NERC funded National Centre for Atmospheric Science (NCAS) and the National Centre for Earth Observation (NCEO). We work closely with the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), the headquarters of which are moving onto the University of Reading campus.

The University of Reading has a dedicated Doctoral and Researcher College which supports PhD students throughout their studies and coordinates local training. The Department of Meteorology hosts several doctoral training programmes, including SCENARIO (Science of the Environment), AFESP (Advancing the Frontiers of Earth System Prediction) delivered in partnership with the ECMWF, UK Met Office and the National Centre for Atmospheric Science, and Mathematics for Future Climate, resulting in a large cohort of around 50 PhD students with extensive training and career development activities.

The doctoral project

Doctoral Candidate 4 (DC4) – “Atmospheric Sedimentation of Non-Spherical Dust Particles: Developing knowledge for improvement of models”

Enrolled in the University of Reading’s Department of Meteorology PhD programme in “Atmosphere, Oceans and Climate”.

Supervisors: Dr Chris Westbrook (University of Reading), Dr Claire Ryder (University of Reading), Dr Konrad Kandler (TUDa)

In-situ observations of dust show that super-coarse (diameter > 10 microns) and giant (diameter > 63 microns) are prevalent in dusty regions of the planet and have a significant impact on the climate through radiative, cloud microphysics and biogeochemical interactions. However, recent work shows that models are unable to represent transport of these super-coarse dust particles without significant adjustments to particle sedimentation velocity, for which there is currently no viable physical explanation. 

In this studentship the student will perform lab experiments with a particle settling tank to improve our understanding of how non-spherical dust particles of various shapes and sizes fall through the atmosphere. The student will create a bank of ‘atmospheric analogues’ of dust particles made from a 3D printer of realistic sizes and shapes, from simple to complex. These will be informed by the creation of a database of dust size and shape properties, using data from airborne campaigns and also from using stereogram analysis from filter samples. The student will then perform laboratory experiments with the analogues in a glycerine tank, where the fluid density and particle size are adjusted to retain dynamic similarity to the atmosphere at realistic Reynolds numbers for the atmosphere. The results will be assessed for the impact of dust shape and size on settling velocity and fall orientation. These results are expected to provide information for dust transport models on realistic adjustments to settling velocity which may occur as a result of dust non-sphericity, impacting dust lifetime in models. 

The student will be based at the University of Reading, and will undertake a 5 month secondment to TUDa (Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany) to develop design inputs of 3D dust analogues using stereogrammetry. Additional secondments include 3 weeks at the National Observatory of Athens, Greece, (Dr Mallios) for knowledge exchange of the results to model simulations and 2 weeks to the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany (Dr Klose) for application of results to climate modelling.

Details

The recruited doctoral candidate will be enrolled in the University of Reading’s PhD programme and included in the “Dust Doctoral Network”, which involves highly prestigious research groups on this scientific topic, and which will ensure that the cohort of doctoral candidates is integrated in a dynamic and enthusiastic scientific environment. The doctoral candidate will learn about the consortium partners’ unique facilities and research topics/methods, and will exploit these opportunities for their research. All Dust-DN doctoral candidates will work side-by-side with lead scientists at world-leading institutes, and they will:

• Take responsibility for the scientific project that they are involved in, and the instruments and/or software required.
• Collect scientific knowledge through experiments and/or numerical modelling, and data analysis.
• Develop tailor-made data processing methods.
• Advance the fields of research in atmospheric dust and/or the related measurement and/or modelling techniques.
• Participate in the Dust Doctoral Network training and networking activities.
• Publish research results in scientific peer reviewed journals, and present at conferences and workshops.

Qualification Requirements

• The candidates are required to have, or expect to complete soon, an excellent undergraduate or master’s degree (or equivalent) in a physical or mathematical science subject (or other natural science discipline) and must not have any kind of PhD degree.
• Fluency in written and oral English is compulsory. If English is not a first language, in the second step of the application procedure applicants must demonstrate a minimum IELTS score of 6.5, with no less than 5.5 in any individual section
• Motivation for research on atmospheric dust.
• Experience or aptitude to develop scientific software (computer-based programming)
• Demonstrated ability in being a strong team player.
• Strong international mobility for the purpose of research, training, and dissemination is mandatory.

Preferred Qualifications

Additional appreciated skills and competencies are:

• Experience of laboratory work
• Self-motivated with an aptitude for experimentation and problem solving
• Willingness to liaise with technical staff and other researchers to achieve goals
• Experience in applying broad scientific knowledge to a range of specific problems or scenarios.
• Previous research experience and/or previous interest in the atmospheric sciences, meteorology/climate, fluid dynamics or closely related discipline.
• Experience in scientific written and/or oral communication.
• Publication record.

Eligibility Requirements

• Qualifications:  The candidate must hold a title satisfying the admission requirements for a doctoral candidate at the institution where they will be enrolled (see qualification requirements). A doctoral degree in any field is not compatible with these positions.
• Mobility: Transnational mobility is an essential requirement of MSCA Doctoral Networks. At the time of recruitment, the candidates must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in the UK for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior to the recruitment date. Applicants must be aware that seconding periods are planned for this position as described above. International applicants are welcomed. 

Rights and Responsibilities of Researchers Participating in Marie Skłodwska-Curie Actions
The European Charter for Researchers is a set of general principles and requirements which specify the roles, responsibilities and entitlements of both researchers and the employers and/or funders of researchers. The aim of the Charter is to ensure that the nature of the relationship between researchers and employers or funders is conducive to successful performance in generating, transferring, sharing and disseminating knowledge and technological development and to the career development of the researchers.

It is obligatory for applicants to read and understand the detailed information regarding the rights and responsibilities of researchers engaged in an MSCA Doctoral Network.

The European Charter for researchers can be accessed at: https://euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/charter/european-charter

Employment Contract and Financial Aid

The selected candidate will be appointed under a 36-months full-time employment contract. A competitive financial aid package will be offered to the successful candidate with a gross annual salary of £42,691 (living allowance and mobility allowance). 

It is understood that failure to successfully continue the PhD program will result in immediate cancellation of the employment contract and the financial support provided.

University of Reading Home fees will be covered by the grant and the University of Reading will cover the difference between the Home and International fees. https://www.reading.ac.uk/essentials/Money_matters/Tuition-fees/Fee-Tables.

Start date

A start date will be negotiated with the successful candidate. Ideally start dates would be between 3 February 2025 and June 2025. The candidate must start by early October 2025. The position is full-time (35 hours/week), funded for a period of 36 months.

Application and selection

Application advisory: A pre-screening of the candidates will be made by the Dust-DN consortium as a first step prior to the formal recruitment process. Candidates should submit a CV and motivation letter on the Dust-DN website, together with their university transcripts and the name and contact information of two referees, and indicating up to 3 preferred doctoral projects (in order of preference) amongst the ones advertised within the whole Dust-DN (which includes the one in the present advert). It is very important that the motivation letter should recall each of the qualification requirements and preferred qualifications indicated in this advert, clearly justifying how the candidate is able to meet each of them, and providing evidence. After short-listing, the most suitable candidates will be called for an interview.

Formal recruitment phase: The most highly-ranked applicants interviewed during the application advisory phase will be re-directed for the formal application.

With the submission of the documents, applicants agree that the documents will be shared among all supervisors of the Dust-DN consortium and members of the respective shortlisting and interviewing panels.

Dust-DN respects and supports the compatibility of professional and private life and promotes development opportunities for its cohort of doctoral researchers. We promote equality of opportunity, value diversity and nurture a working and learning environment.

Deadlines:

Applications for the advisory phase must be submitted by 31 August 2024.

Deadline extended to 30 September 2024

Formal applications must be submitted by 30 November 2024.

We reserve the possibility to extend the deadline(s).

Contact Information
For further information, please contact Dr Chris Westbrook (c.d.westbrook@reading.ac.uk).

Dust-DN doctoral network – DC3

The Cyprus Institute (CyI)

Supervisors: Franco Marenco and Vassilis Amiridis

The Dust-DN doctoral network

Atmospheric dust or mineral dust (or simply “dust”) is a major atmospheric aerosol, and it gives us one of the most visible and detectable aspects of transboundary transport of atmospheric constituents, impacting visibility, radiation and climate. What is less evident are its quantitative impacts on health, transportation and energy production. Atmospheric dust is not fully understood at the fundamental level (microphysical properties, dust emissions, source regions) and hence atmospheric models fail to fully reproduce its impacts. Moreover, dust observations using ground-based instrumentation, remote sensing and aircraft are abundant, but not evenly distributed; in particular they are missing near the major dust sources. Moreover, the techniques are still under development, with each giving a different picture of a phenomenon with multiple facets. For example, it is now known that super-coarse and giant dust particles have gone undetected for a long time due to limitations in the measurement and modelling tools that have been in use for decades, and this misdetection alters the understanding and the prediction of a number of processes. Finally, dust affects the environment, society, and several economic sectors, with impacts on the transportation and energy sectors for example, the nature and cost of which is not fully understood and quantified. Several methodologies exist to study mineral dust, each giving its own differing picture of a complex phenomenon: numerical modelling, remote sensing, in-situ observations, laboratory research.

We establish the Dust Doctoral Network (Dust-DN), in order to address gaps in the understanding of dust and its impacts by linking the different disciplines and methods. The aim is to train a team of early career scientists into overcoming compartmentalism in this field of science, and into developing a multi-disciplinary approach to mineral dust. Dust-DN will set up a network of academic and non-academic partners working on different aspects of dust research, and will coordinate a program of doctoral projects that will enhance knowledge across a broad range of fundamental, but linked, components of the atmospheric dust life cycle and its impacts. The projects will span across the disciplines of atmospheric sciences (dust processes, modelling, and remote sensing), geology (dust emissions and source regions), as well as the impacts on society and economic sectors. The knowledge will be shared among participating institutions and the wider public and scientific community. Common activities will be held, so as to enhance the network among the partner institutions and among the doctoral researchers, delivering an ambitious advanced training program for capacity building.

The Cyprus Institute

The Cyprus Institute (CyI) is a no-profit research and educational institution with a strong scientific and technological orientation, emphasizing international collaborations, cross-disciplinary research, innovation, and post-graduate education. CyI, through its established research centres, addresses challenging issues that are important at both the regional and international levels. Many of its research activities are being carried out in partnership with leading institutions in respective thematic areas. The Cyprus Institute actuates its educational mission through its Graduate School. It is a fully accredited, degree-granting institution of higher education offering exclusively postgraduate programs. It maintains a small number of students that are fully integrated into the research activities of the institute. This provides the students with the opportunity to acquire hands-on training in the use of the latest methods and techniques, have access to state-of-the-art infrastructure, and conduct research with internationally recognized research teams.

The selected candidate will be working at the Climate and Atmosphere Research Centre (CARE-C) of the Cyprus Institute within a highly international environment. CARE-C is a regional Centre of Excellence focused on addressing urgent climate change and air pollution challenges and impacts. The establishment of CARE-C was sponsored through funding received from the European Union’s research and innovation program (grant no. 856612) and the Cyprus Government, within the framework of Teaming project EMME-CARE. It comprises four departments: Environmental Observations, Environmental Predictions, Impact and policy, and Environmental Technologies. Moreover, it comprises a number of facilities for atmospheric research such as the Cyprus Atmospheric Observatory and the Unmanned Systems Research Laboratory.

The doctoral project

Doctoral Candidate 3 (DC3) – “Global dust estimation from novel space missions”

Enrolled in the Cyprus Institute’s PhD programme on “Energy, Environment and Atmospheric Sciences”.

This project has the objective of improving the methods for dust quantification from remote sensing and for establishing a global 4D distribution of dust in the atmosphere. The candidate will perform ground-based lidar estimates of the pure-dust atmospheric component, with consideration of key assumptions and dependencies on microphysical parameters to determine the concentration, the cloud concentration nuclei, and the ice nuclei; evaluate the pure dust estimates using available datasets from different regions, in particular from airborne in-situ campaigns co-located with lidar; re-evaluate the LIdar climatology of Vertical Aerosol Structure (LIVAS); extend the LIVAS database to the novel spaceborne missions EarthCARE; and globally assess the pure-dust product. The doctoral candidate will be based at CyI in Nicosia, Cyprus and will be supervised by Prof. Franco Marenco (CyI) and Dr. Vassilis Amiridis (National Observatory of Athens). The project will include a planned secondment of more than 6 months at the National Observatory of Athens (Greece) during the second year of the PhD.

Details

The recruited doctoral candidate will be enrolled in CyI’s PhD programme on “Energy, Environment and Atmospheric Sciences” and included in the “Dust Doctoral Network”, which involves highly prestigious research groups on this scientific topic, and which will ensure that the cohort of doctoral candidates is integrated in a dynamic and enthusiastic scientific environment. The doctoral candidate will learn about the consortium partners’ unique facilities and research topics/methods, and will exploit these opportunities for their research. All Dust-DN doctoral candidates will work side-by-side with lead scientists at world-leading institutes, and they will:

• Take responsibility for the scientific project that they are involved in, and the instruments and/or software required.
• Collect scientific knowledge through experiments and/or numerical modelling, and data analysis.
• Develop tailor-made data processing methods.
• Advance the fields of research in atmospheric dust and/or the related measurement and/or modelling techniques.
• Participate in the Dust Doctoral Network training and networking activities.
• Publish research results in scientific peer reviewed journals, and present at conferences and workshops.

Qualification Requirements

• The candidates are required to possess an excellent master’s degree (or equivalent) in a physical or mathematical science subject (or other natural science discipline) and to not have any kind of PhD degree.
• Fluency in written and oral English is compulsory (as per the admission requirements of the CyI Graduate School, a certificate will be required in the second step of the application procedure).
• Motivation for research on atmospheric dust.
• Experience or aptitude to develop scientific software (computer-based programming)
• Demonstrated ability in being a strong team player.
• Strong international mobility for the purpose of research, training, and dissemination is mandatory.

Preferred Qualifications

Additional appreciated skills and competencies are:

• Experience in applying broad scientific knowledge to a range of specific problems or scenarios.
• Previous research experience and/or previous interest in the atmospheric sciences, meteorology or closely related discipline will be appreciated.
• Experience with written or oral scientific communications.
• Publication record.
• Driving licence.

Eligibility Requirements

• Qualifications:  The candidate must hold a title satisfying the admission requirements for a doctoral candidate at the institution where they will be enrolled (see qualification requirements). A doctoral degree in any field is not compatible with these positions.
• Mobility: Transnational mobility is an essential requirement of MSCA Doctoral Networks. At the time of recruitment, the candidates must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in Cyprus for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior to the recruitment date. Applicants must be aware that seconding periods are planned for this position as described above. International applicants are welcomed. 

Rights and Responsibilities of Researchers Participating in Marie Skłodwska-Curie Actions
The European Charter for Researchers is a set of general principles and requirements which specify the roles, responsibilities and entitlements of both researchers and the employers and/or funders of researchers. The aim of the Charter is to ensure that the nature of the relationship between researchers and employers or funders is conducive to successful performance in generating, transferring, sharing and disseminating knowledge and technological development and to the career development of the researchers.

It is obligatory for applicants to read and understand the detailed information regarding the rights and responsibilities of researchers engaged in an MSCA Doctoral Network.

The European Charter for researchers can be accessed at: https://euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/charter/european-charter

Employment Contract and Financial Aid

The selected candidate will be appointed under a 36-months full-time employment contract. A competitive financial aid package will be offered to the successful candidate with a gross annual salary of €33,640  (living allowance and mobility allowance). In addition, there can be further allowances depending on family status and other needs, as per MSCA relevant provisions.

It is understood that failure to successfully continue the PhD program will result in immediate cancellation of the employment contract and the financial support provided.

Start date

The position starts on 3 February 2025 and is a full-time position (40 hours/week), funded for a period of 36 months.

Application and selection

Application advisory: A pre-screening of the candidates will be made by the Dust-DN consortium as a first step prior to the formal recruitment process. Candidates should submit a CV and motivation letter on the Dust-DN website, together with their university transcripts and the name and contact information of two referees, and indicating up to 3 preferred doctoral projects (in order of preference) amongst the ones advertised within the whole Dust-DN (which includes the one in the present advert). It is very important that the motivation letter should recall each of the qualification requirements and preferred qualifications indicated in this advert, clearly justifying how the candidate is able to meet each of them, and providing evidence. After short-listing, the most suitable candidates will be called for an interview.

Formal recruitment phase: The most highly-ranked applicants interviewed during the application advisory phase will be re-directed for the formal application.

With the submission of the documents, applicants agree that the documents will be shared among all supervisors of the Dust-DN consortium and members of the respective shortlisting and interviewing panels.

Dust-DN respects and supports the compatibility of professional and private life and promotes development opportunities for its cohort of doctoral researchers. We promote equality of opportunity, value diversity and nurture a working and learning environment.

Deadlines:

Applications for the advisory phase must be submitted by 31 August 2024.

Deadline extended to 30 September 2024

Formal applications must be submitted by 30 November 2024.

We reserve the possibility to extend the deadline(s).

Contact Information
For further information, please contact Professor Franco Marenco (e-mail: f.marenco@cyi.ac.cy).

Dust-DN doctoral network – DC2

The Cyprus Institute (CyI) and the Technical University Darmstadt (TUDa)

Supervisors: Franco Marenco and Konrad Kandler

The Dust-DN doctoral network

Atmospheric dust or mineral dust (or simply “dust”) is a major atmospheric aerosol, and it gives us one of the most visible and detectable aspects of transboundary transport of atmospheric constituents, impacting visibility, radiation and climate. What is less evident are its quantitative impacts on health, transportation and energy production. Atmospheric dust is not fully understood at the fundamental level (microphysical properties, dust emissions, source regions) and hence atmospheric models fail to fully reproduce its impacts. Moreover, dust observations using ground-based instrumentation, remote sensing and aircraft are abundant, but not evenly distributed; in particular they are missing near the major dust sources. Moreover, the techniques are still under development, with each giving a different picture of a phenomenon with multiple facets. For example, it is now known that super-coarse and giant dust particles have gone undetected for a long time due to limitations in the measurement and modelling tools that have been in use for decades, and this misdetection alters the understanding and the prediction of a number of processes. Finally, dust affects the environment, society, and several economic sectors, with impacts on the transportation and energy sectors for example, the nature and cost of which is not fully understood and quantified. Several methodologies exist to study mineral dust, each giving its own differing picture of a complex phenomenon: numerical modelling, remote sensing, in-situ observations, laboratory research.

We establish the Dust Doctoral Network (Dust-DN), in order to address gaps in the understanding of dust and its impacts by linking the different disciplines and methods. The aim is to train a team of early career scientists into overcoming compartmentalism in this field of science, and into developing a multi-disciplinary approach to mineral dust. Dust-DN will set up a network of academic and non-academic partners working on different aspects of dust research, and will coordinate a program of doctoral projects that will enhance knowledge across a broad range of fundamental, but linked, components of the atmospheric dust life cycle and its impacts. The projects will span across the disciplines of atmospheric sciences (dust processes, modelling, and remote sensing), geology (dust emissions and source regions), as well as the impacts on society and economic sectors. The knowledge will be shared among participating institutions and the wider public and scientific community. Common activities will be held, so as to enhance the network among the partner institutions and among the doctoral researchers, delivering an ambitious advanced training program for capacity building.

The Cyprus Institute and the Technical University Darmstadt

The Cyprus Institute (CyI) is a non-profit research and educational institution with a strong scientific and technological orientation, emphasizing international collaborations, cross-disciplinary research, innovation, and post-graduate education. CyI, through its established research centres, addresses challenging issues that are important at both the regional and international levels. Many of its research activities are being carried out in partnership with leading institutions in respective thematic areas. The Cyprus Institute actuates its educational mission through its Graduate School. It is a fully accredited, degree-granting institution of higher education offering exclusively postgraduate programs. It maintains a small number of students that are fully integrated into the research activities of the institute. This provides the students with the opportunity to acquire hands-on training in the use of the latest methods and techniques, have access to state-of-the-art infrastructure, and conduct research with internationally recognized research teams.

TU Darmstadt with enrolment of about 24,400 students, among them 19% foreign students, is one of Germany’s leading universities of technology, belonging to TU9 – the alliance of nine leading German universities of technology – in Germany and CLUSTER, a consortium of 12 elite European Universities in Science and Engineering. The EU Commission awarded TU Darmstadt, together with six European technical universities, as one of the first consortia, the title of “European University”. Ingenium, an umbrella organisation for promoting early career researchers, offers training in transferable skills. The Welcome Centre assists all international scientists in non-professional areas. TU Darmstadt bundles its excellent and globally visible research in three research fields. Research in these fields focuses on topics that are of high and lasting relevance for the economy and society.

The selected candidate will be working at the Climate and Atmosphere Research Centre (CARE-C) of the Cyprus Institute and at the Institute of Applied Geosciences of the Technical University Darmstadt, within a highly international environment. CARE-C is a regional Centre of Excellence focused on addressing urgent climate change and air pollution challenges and impacts. The establishment of CARE-C was sponsored through funding received from the European Union’s research and innovation program (grant no. 856612) and the Cyprus Government, within the framework of Teaming project EMME-CARE. It comprises four departments: Environmental Observations, Environmental Predictions, Impact and policy, and Environmental Technologies. Moreover, it comprises a number of facilities for atmospheric research such as the Cyprus Atmospheric Observatory and the Unmanned Systems Research Laboratory. The Institute of Applied Geosciences of TUDa covers a broad range of Earth sciences from geology and soil science over hydrology to atmospheric sciences.

The doctoral project

Doctoral Candidate 2 (DC2) – “Dust particle shape, aspect ratio and orientation: new information from UAV campaigns”

Enrolled in the Cyprus Institute’s PhD programme on “Energy, Environment and Atmospheric Sciences” and the Technical University Darmstadt’s PhD programme (double PhD degree).

This project has the objective of developing a methodology to retrieve combined shape/size/orientation from field observations, collect new UAV-based datasets on dust particle shape, aspect ratio, internal structure and orientation, and fill the gaps in our understanding and global observational capability, with the formulation of recommendations. The candidate will review the uncertainties in understanding dust particle shape, aspect ratio and orientation in the free troposphere, and their impact on dust transport and radiative effects; review and advance learnings from the new airborne observations with UAVs, with the dual-FOV COBALD backscatter sonde and the collection of airborne dust samples for Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM); enhance the existing datasets through a dedicated campaign using CyI scientific infrastructure (USRL); analyse the collected samples with state-of-the art electron microscopy; develop the optimal methods to exploit the collected datasets to derive information on dust particle shape, aspect ratio and orientation; and report on findings and on their impact on dust predictions and remote sensing. This project leads to a double degree delivered by CyI and the Technical University of Darmstadt (TUDa) and the doctoral candidate will be based at both institutions (first year at CyI, Nicosia, Cyprus; second year at TUDa, Darmstadt, Germany; and third year at CyI again). The project will be supervised by Prof. Franco Marenco (CyI) and Prof. Konrad Kandler (TUDa). Frank G. Wienhold (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich) will also contribute to the supervision.

Details

The recruited PhD candidate will be enrolled in CyI’s PhD programme on “Energy, Environment and Atmospheric Sciences” and TUDa’s PhD programme. It is included in the “Dust Doctoral Network”, which involves highly prestigious research groups on this scientific topic, and which will ensure that the cohort of doctoral candidates is integrated in a dynamic and enthusiastic scientific environment. The doctoral candidate will learn about the consortium partners’ unique facilities and research topics/methods, and will exploit these opportunities for their research. All Dust-DN doctoral candidates will work side-by-side with lead scientists at world-leading institutes, and they will:

• Take responsibility for the scientific project that they are involved in, and the instruments and/or software required.
• Collect scientific knowledge through experiments and/or numerical modelling, and data analysis.
• Develop tailor-made data processing methods.
• Advance the fields of research in atmospheric dust and/or the related measurement and/or modelling techniques.
• Participate in the Dust Doctoral Network training and networking activities.
• Publish research results in scientific peer reviewed journals, and present at conferences and workshops.

Qualification Requirements

• The candidates are required to possess an excellent master’s degree (or equivalent) in a physical, mathematical, chemical or geo science subject (or other natural science discipline) and to not have any kind of PhD degree.
• Fluency in written and oral English is compulsory (as per the admission requirements of the CyI Graduate School, a certificate will be required in the second step of the application procedure).
• Motivation for research on atmospheric dust.
• Experience or aptitude to develop scientific software (computer-based programming)
• Demonstrated ability in being a strong team player.
• Strong international mobility for the purpose of research, training, and dissemination is mandatory.

Preferred Qualifications

Additional appreciated skills and competencies are:

• Experience in applying broad scientific knowledge to a range of specific problems or scenarios.
• Previous research experience and/or previous interest in the atmospheric sciences, meteorology or closely related discipline will be appreciated.
• Experience with written or oral scientific communications.
• Publication record.
• Driving licence.

Eligibility Requirements

• Qualifications:  The candidate must hold a title satisfying the admission requirements for a doctoral candidate at the institution where they will be enrolled (see qualification requirements). A doctoral degree in any field is not compatible with these positions.
• Mobility: Transnational mobility is an essential requirement of MSCA Doctoral Networks. At the time of recruitment, the candidates must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in Cyprus for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior to the recruitment date. Applicants must be aware that seconding periods are planned for this position as described above. International applicants are welcomed. 

Rights and Responsibilities of Researchers Participating in Marie Skłodwska-Curie Actions
The European Charter for Researchers is a set of general principles and requirements which specify the roles, responsibilities and entitlements of both researchers and the employers and/or funders of researchers. The aim of the Charter is to ensure that the nature of the relationship between researchers and employers or funders is conducive to successful performance in generating, transferring, sharing and disseminating knowledge and technological development and to the career development of the researchers.

It is obligatory for applicants to read and understand the detailed information regarding the rights and responsibilities of researchers engaged in an MSCA Doctoral Network.

The European Charter for researchers can be accessed at: https://euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/charter/european-charter

Employment Contract and Financial Aid

The selected candidate will be appointed for 36 months, full-time under separate employment contracts in Cyprus and Germany. In Cyprus (first and third year) the competitive financial aid package comprises a gross annual salary of €33,640 (living allowance and mobility allowance). In Germany (second year), employment will comprise a gross annual salary of €54,294. In addition, there can be further allowances depending on previous experience, family status and other needs, as per MSCA relevant provisions and/or provisions of the hiring institution.

It is understood that failure to successfully continue the PhD program will result in immediate cancellation of the employment contract and the financial support provided.

Start date

The position starts on 3 February 2025 and is a full-time position (40 hours/week), funded for a period of 36 months.

Application and selection

Application advisory: A pre-screening of the candidates will be made by the Dust-DN consortium as a first step prior to the formal recruitment process. Candidates should submit a CV and motivation letter on the Dust-DN website, together with their university transcripts and the name and contact information of two referees, and indicating up to 3 preferred doctoral projects (in order of preference) amongst the ones advertised within the whole Dust-DN (which includes the one in the present advert). It is very important that the motivation letter should recall each of the qualification requirements and preferred qualifications indicated in this advert, clearly justifying how the candidate is able to meet each of them, and providing evidence. After short-listing, the most suitable candidates will be called for an interview.

Formal recruitment phase: The most highly-ranked applicants interviewed during the application advisory phase will be re-directed for the formal application.

With the submission of the documents, applicants agree that the documents will be shared among all supervisors of the Dust-DN consortium and members of the respective shortlisting and interviewing panels.

Dust-DN respects and supports the compatibility of professional and private life and promotes development opportunities for its cohort of doctoral researchers. We promote equality of opportunity, value diversity and nurture a working and learning environment.

Deadlines:

Applications for the advisory phase must be submitted by 31 August 2024.

Deadline extended to 30 September 2024

Formal applications must be submitted by 30 November 2024.

We reserve the possibility to extend the deadline(s).

Contact Information
For further information, please contact Professor Franco Marenco (e-mail: f.marenco@cyi.ac.cy).