Vacancies at the IMAU

Postdoc position in Computer simulation of calving glaciers (0.8 – 1.0 FTE)

Postdoc position in Computer simulation of calving glaciers (0.8 – 1.0 FTE) for 1.5 to 2 years, at Utrecht University (IMAU)

Calving glaciers have complex behaviour and their response to climate change is not well understood. Many calving glaciers are surge-type glaciers which makes diagnosis of their current state difficult. Using computer simulation with a variety of models offers the possibility to integrate existing data and to get more insight into the dynamics of these glaciers, and to make projections of their future behaviour.

We are looking for a post-doctoral researcher that is interested to work on adaptation of existing ice-flow models to the glaciers that will be studied. 

The work is part of the project ‘Modelling of the Mueller Ice Cap’, which supports the planning for ice-core drilling on the ice cap, and is funded by the Balzan Foundation. The targets are outlets from the Mueller Ice Cap in northern Canada, Iceland and/or Tunabreen in central Spitsbergen. The project is carried out in collaboration with the Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen.

Scientists involved at Utrecht University: Johannes Oerlemans (supervisor), Faezeh Nick, and Roderik van de Wal.

For more information and application procedure use this link.

Postdoc position in the field of climate dynamics (1.0 FTE)

In this postdoc position you will focus on the Atlantic Ocean Circulation, in particular its zonally averaged component called the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), which is one of the tipping elements in the climate system. The AMOC is sensitive to freshwater perturbations and may undergo a transition to a climate disrupting state within a few decades under continuing greenhouse gas emissions. The potential climate impacts of such a collapse are enormous and hence reliable estimates of the probability of its occurrence before the year 2100 are crucial information for policy makers.

The work in this position will focus on the simulation of an AMOC collapse under climate change in one of the state-of-the-art climate models and investigate the climate impacts of such a collapse. Read more

PhD position in measuring how plastic items in the North Sea are transported by ocean currents (1.0 FTE)

PhD position in measuring how plastic items in the North Sea are transported by ocean currents (1.0 FTE)

Plastic items larger than a few centimeters (macroplastics) are a clear visible testament of the pollution in the ocean. These macroplastics have an impact on marine organisms and even more so when they fragment into microplastics. However, the amount of macroplastic can vary by orders of magnitude per day and per kilometer. In a large project funded by an NWO Vici grant, our team will develop a new numerical tool to understand this variation and predict the amount of macroplastic on Northwest European seas and coasts. Such a tool could be used to optimize beach clean-ups and thereby prevent these macroplastics from fragmenting into larger numbers of microplastics.

We are looking for a PhD candidate to support this project. You will measure the transport of macroplastic between coast and ocean with a dedicated process-based observational field campaign. In this field campaign, we will build 1000 custom-built GPS-tracked drifters and deploy them at strategic locations throughout the North Sea to unravel the physical oceanographic processes that drive the accumulation of macroplastic items, and to quantify beaching probability when macroplastic is in the coastal zone. Read more.

PhD/Postdoc position in Cloud-Aerosol interaction (1.0 FTE)

PhD/Postdoc position in Cloud-Aerosol interaction (1.0 FTE)

For the CAINA (cloud-aerosol reactions in a nitrogen dominated atmosphere) project we are looking for a PhD/Postdoc candidate to join our endeavors.

Reactive nitrogen is quickly becoming the dominant pollutant in many regions in the world, with important consequences for ecosystems, human health and climate. This leads to changes in atmospheric chemistry and physics that need to be understood. The CAINA project investigates how aerosols and clouds interact in this new chemical regime by combining field experiments, chamber studies and modeling. The project is located mainly in the Netherlands, where nitrogen pollution evolved to be a serious problem. We make extensive use of the Ruisdael atmospheric observatory with its advanced in-situ and remote sensing infrastructure.

The CAINA team consists of atmospheric scientists from 4 Dutch Universities (University of Groningen, Wageningen University, TU Delft, and Utrecht University) in collaboration with project partners from Germany (MPIC-Mainz, Leibnitz Institute for Tropospheric research, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology) and from Cyprus (The Cyprus Institute). We closely collaborate on the project, combining our expertise in atmospheric and aerosol physics, atmospheric chemistry, cloud remote sensing, and atmospheric modeling. Read more.