About the PhD position
We have a full-time cross-disciplinary PhD position available in the fields of marine microbial ecology, paleogenomics and bioinformatics at NORCE Climate & Environment in Bergen, Norway.
The position is for a fixed-term period of 3 years at NORCE, and you will be enrolled as a PhD student at the Department of Earth Science at the University of Bergen (UiB).
The position is within an interdisciplinary research project “Reconstructing the biological carbon pump with ancient plankton DNA (BIOCAP)”, funded by the Research Council of Norway.
We are seeking a highly motivated candidate to strengthen our enthusiastic and cross-disciplinary research group in Molecular Ecology and Paleogenomics (MEP), working at the forefront of environmental genomics, marine biomonitoring, bioinformatics, paleogenomics and paleoceanography.
The position is available from 01.01.2024.
About the research trainning
As a PhD Research Fellow, you must participate in an approved educational program for a PhD degree within a period of 3 years.
The deadline for applying for admission to the PhD program at The Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences is 2 months after you start your research project that will lead to the PhD degree.
It is a necessary that you satisfy the enrolment requirements for the PhD program at the University of Bergen
The supervisory team for this PhD position will be Dr Tristan Cordier (NORCE), Dr Stijn De Schepper (NORCE).
Starting salary in PhD position is NOK 532 200 pr annum before taxes.
Project Background and work tasks
The position is within an interdisciplinary research project “Reconstructing the biological carbon pump with ancient plankton DNA (BIOCAP)”, funded by the Research Council of Norway.
The biological carbon pump refers to the series of ecological processes by which atmospheric CO2 is transformed into organic carbon by phytoplankton, repackaged by pelagic biota, exported through sinking particles (i.e. the marine snow) and sequestered in deep waters for centuries or buried in sediments for thousands of years. This ecosystem process regulates the ocean carbon cycle and by extension the climate system, but little is known on its potential response to climate change. The project aims to reconstruct the functioning of the biological carbon pump over the last 130,000 years, and asses its responses to past climate transitions, a knowledge that will inform on its possible future functioning. We will use large-scale plankton and sediment samples, as well as several sediment cores collected in the North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans to address this question.
Your role will be to produce high-throughput sequencing data from modern and ancient DNA samples to reconstruct the biological carbon pump. Specifically, you will work in our molecular biology and in our ancient DNA laboratories, to extract environmental DNA from seafloor surface sediments and from sediment cores. You will then use metabarcoding and shotgun metagenomics to recover ancient ocean biodiversity, and analyse the data with state-of-the-art bioinformatics, multivariate statistics, and machine learning to reconstruct the biological carbon pump. Finally, you will disseminate the results of your research by publishing articles in relevant peer-reviewed journals, by presenting in international conference and by attending projects meetings. A research stay with international project partners is envisioned. Field work at sea during research cruises may also be organized.
Your profile, qualifications and skills
Applicants must hold a MSc degree or equivalent education in one of the following fields: molecular ecology, environmental microbiology, paleoceanography, bioinformatics, or other relevant field.
In case your MSc degree has not been awarded, you must have submitted your master’s thesis for assessment prior to the application deadline. It is a condition of employment that the master’s degree has been awarded.
Applicants are expected to have:
- A previous experience in working in a molecular biology laboratory (e.g., DNA extraction, PCR amplification, sequencing).
- A previous experience in high-throughput sequencing data analysis (metabarcoding, metagenomics, metatranscriptomics) is a clear advantage, but not mandatory.
- A previous experience in scripting languages for data processing and data visualization (e.g., R, python).
- A previous experience in multivariate statistics and/or machine learning is a clear advantage, but not mandatory.
- Background in microbial community ecology, marine biology, paleoceanography is an advantage.
Applicants must also have:
- Excellent abilities to work in a structured and autonomous manner, and to collaborate with others.
- Excellent abilities for critical thinking and writing.
- Proficiency in both written and spoken English.
Offer
For the right candidate we offer:
- Exciting tasks and good colleagues in an internationally leading and recognized professional environment
- Collaboration with academic staff and students at universities and colleges
- Involvement in the Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research, with around 200 scientists from 37 countries, it is one of the leading climate research centres in Europe.
- Enrolment in the research school CHESS for PhD-students studying all aspects of climate.
- Starting annual salary of NOK 532 200 before taxes.
- Flexible working hours arrangements and good pension and insurance schemes.
Application procedure
Your application must include:
- Curriculum vitae
- A cover letter outlining your motivation for applying for this position (max. 1 page)
- A summary/abstract of your MSc thesis (max. 1 page)
- Names and contact information of at least two references. One of these should be the main advisor for the master’s thesis or equivalent thesis.
- Transcripts and diplomas showing completion of the bachelor’s and master’s degrees. If you have not yet completed your master’s degree, please submit a statement from your institution confirming that the master’s thesis has been submitted.
- Relevant certificates/references.
The application and appendices with certified translations into English or a Scandinavian language must be uploaded at our recruitment portal Jobbnorge.
Application deadline: August 18th, 2023
Candidates are expected to openly offer all relevant information about themselves during the recruitment process. Furthermore, one can expect that background checks can be conducted on all final candidates who may be checked against relevant lists to ensure compliance with applicable export control and sanctions rules. Candidates will be asked to provide information about affiliation to high-risk countries for a security assessment.
Contact Information
The supervisory team for this PhD position will be Dr Tristan Cordier (NORCE), Dr Stijn De Schepper (NORCE).
If you have any questions about the position, please contact Dr Tristan Cordier (+47 56107513, trco@norceresearch.no) or Dr Stijn De Schepper (+47 56107550, stde@norceresearch.no). Questions about the application process can be directed to Senior HR advisor Julia Dale (jdal@norceresearch.no). For more information about NORCE and BCCR, please refer to www.norceresearch.no and www.bjerknes.uib.no.
More information about this opportunity via this link.