Utrecht University, Faculty of Geosciences, Department of Earth Sciences

Utrecht University’s Faculty of Geosciences studies the Earth: from the Earth’s core to its surface, including man’s spatial and material utilisation of the Earth – always with a focus on sustainability and innovation. With a population of 3,400 students (BSc and MSc) and 720 staff, the Faculty is a strong and challenging organisation. The Faculty is organised in four Departments: Earth Sciences, Physical Geography, Sustainable Development, and Human Geography & Spatial Planning.

The Department of Earth Sciences conducts teaching and research across the full range of the solid Earth and environmental Earth sciences, with activities in almost all areas of geology, geochemistry, geophysics, biogeology and hydrogeology. The department hosts a highly international tenured staff of over 50 scientists and more than 110 PhD students and postdoctoral researchers. We house or have access to a wide variety of world-class laboratories, among which are UU’s Electron Microscopy Centre, the Geolab, and the Earth Simulation Lab. We also have excellent High- Performance Computing facilities and organise a warm welcome for every new member.

About Utrecht
Utrecht is the fourth largest city in the Netherlands with a population of nearly 360,000 and forms a hub in the middle of the country. Its historical city centre and its modern central station can easily be reached from our campus in Utrecht Science Park by public transport or by a 15-minute bicycle ride. Utrecht boasts beautiful canals with extraordinary wharf cellars housing cafés and terraces by the water, as well as a broad variety of shops and boutiques.

Homepage: https://www.uu.nl/geo/aw

The Department of Earth Sciences and Physical Geography are looking for a highly motivated and versatile PhD candidate with a MSc background in Earth Sciences, Environmental sciences, Geochemistry or other appropriate fields. You will work on the project Impacts of changes in the Indian Summer Monsoon on Himalayan precipitation.

Precipitation in the Himalaya is both a vital water resource for millions of people downstream and a frequent cause of disasters such as flood, landslide, debris-flows and avalanches. Ongoing warming impacts the large-scale atmospheric circulation systems, such as the Indian Summer Monsoon (ISM) that regulates the Himalayan precipitation patterns. However, instrumental records of precipitation changes in the Himalaya are scarce due to the challenging observational conditions in this area. In this 4-year study, you will reconstruct ISM precipitation changes over the past ~100-1000 years, based on lipid biomarkers and their isotopic composition stored in lake sediments along an elevation transect in the central Himalaya in Nepal. The biomarker records should reveal changes in precipitation amount and source over time and space, and provide unique insights in historical precipitation changes in the central Himalaya and the potential impact of global warming on large-scale circulation patterns such as the ISM.

A personalised training programme will be set up, reflecting your training needs and career objectives. About 20% of your time will be dedicated to this training component, which includes following workshops and/or courses, as well as training on the job in assisting in the Bachelor’s and Master’s programmes of the department at Utrecht University.

The position is part of a Dutch National consortium centre called EMBRACER, with the aim to investigate feedbacks within carbon and water cycles in the climate system. EMBRACER includes 23 PIS from 6 institutions and with a wide variety of disciplines, from physics, environmental, earth and social sciences. The EMBRACER community of students and staff will have regular cross-disciplinary meetings, events and lots of opportunities to get in contact with the wide spectrum of climate science.

Qualifications
We welcome a motivated team-player who recognizes themselves in the following description:

You must have completed your MSc degree in Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Geochemistry or a related discipline by the time the position starts. Preferably, you will also have:

• Experience with working in a (wet chemistry) laboratory;
• Experience with programming in Python, R, or a similar language;
• Motivated and capable of organising and carrying out fieldwork in high elevation, mountainous terrain;
• Motivation to cooperate in a diverse and multidisciplinary research team;
• Strong social and communication skills.

Due to the international character of our research, good command of spoken and written English is essential. We highly encourage applicants from all members of our community and of diverse backgrounds to join us.

Terms of employment
You will be offered a full-time PhD position, initially for one year with extension to four years in total upon a successful assessment in the first year, and with the specific intent that it results in a doctorate within this period. The gross monthly salary starts with € 2,901 in the first year and increases to € 3,707 in the fourth year of employment with a full-time appointment. Salaries are supplemented with a holiday bonus of 8% and an end-of-year bonus of 8,3% per year. A pension scheme, partially paid parental leave, and flexible employment conditions are based on the Collective Labour Agreement of Dutch Universities.

In addition to the collective employment conditions, Utrecht University has a number of its own arrangements. These include agreements on professional development, leave arrangements, sports and cultural schemes, and you get discounts on software and other IT products. We also give you the opportunity to expand your terms of employment through the Employment Conditions Selection Model. This is how we encourage you to grow. For more information, please visit Working at Utrecht University.

For informal questions (not for application), contact the project leader Dr Francien Peterse via f.peterse@uu.nl.

To apply, please follow the link tot the corresponding advertisement on our own website and follow the guidelines mentioned there. The application deadline is March 14th, 2025. The preferred starting date is Summer 2025 or as soon as possible thereafter.

Note that international candidates that need a visa/work permit for the Netherlands require at least four months processing time after selection and acceptance. This will be arranged with help of the International Service Desk of our university. Finding appropriate housing in or near Utrecht is your own responsibility and, unfortunately, we must warn that it is a tight market at the moment. In case of general questions about working and living in The Netherlands, please consult the Dutch Mobility Portal.

Online screening may be part of the selection. Commercial response to this ad is not appreciated.