The scholarships will have their base at Aarhus and Aalborg Universities, within the frame of a major new research project funded by the Danish Research Council for Technology and Production Sciences: “Soil Infrastructure, Interfaces & Translocation Processes in Inner Space” (“Soil-it-is”):
The upper few meters of the soil (the vadose zone) sustain our life and society, but we only have an empirical knowledge of how soil behaves. In the “Soil-it-is” project, a group of internationally recognized soil scientists at University of Aarhus (AU) and Aalborg University (AAU), Denmark, join forces with partner universities in the USA, UK and Japan to explore how soil architecture and infrastructure (pore and particle networks) control and are controlled by newly recognized soil-physical phenomena. Our project vision is a holistic understanding of architecture and processes in soil inner space that will provide the basis for solutions to protect groundwater resources, improve clean-up technologies at polluted sites, enhance the health and productivity of cultivated soil, and improve the understanding of the soil vadose zone and its role in climate change. For more information on the project please visit our web-site: http://www.agrsci.dk/soil-it-is/
The project currently has two openings for Ph.D. scholarships with start by February 1, 2008. The scholarships are open to both Danish and international applicants. The subject areas of the two studies are briefly described:
Ph.D. 1: Soil Architecture: “Degraded soil architecture reduces soil functionality”
Inadequate management of urban and cultivated land violently challenges the self-organized system of biotic and abiotic soil constituents. This creates poor soil quality in terms of reduced productivity and buffering of environmental impact Understanding the controlling mechanisms for soil self-organization at the cluster-, aggregate-, and bulk soil scale will allow us to influence soil architecture in a positive way with respect to soil functionality and health. As an integral part of this, the interactive links between soil architecture and mobility and transport of colloidal particles, water, and gases need to be revealed. The Ph.D. work will be in close cooperation with the SIMBIOS center at University of Abertay Dundee, Scotland. The successful candidate will be employed and enrolled as a Ph.D. student at University of Aarhus, Department of Agroecology and Environment, with work place at Research Centre Foulum.
Ph.D. 2: Water-Solids Interfaces: “Water transport in soil is often erratic, causing poor water distribution and accelerated chemical transport”
A major reason for this problem is the recognition of interface processes that affect water flow throughout the soil profile. Both surface and sub-critical water repellency due to hydrophobic coatings (films) on soil particles and aggregates occur and both phenomena need to be quantified and incorporated in existing models for water and chemical transport. The Ph.D. work will be in close cooperation with Saitama University, Tokyo, Japan. The successful candidate will be employed and enrolled as a Ph.D. student at Aalborg University, Department of Biotechnology, Chemistry, and Environmental Engineering.
Should a candidate apply for more than one position, then each application must be submitted separately. Closing date for applications is November 1, 2007 at 12:00 noon.
More detailed information and specifics on the application procedure is given on our homepage http://www.agrsci.dk/soil-it-is/ , please note that the requirements vary between Ph.D. 1 and Ph.D. 2.
For further information please contact:
Senior scientist Lis Wollesen de Jonge, University of Aarhus, Department of Agroecology and Environment, Research Centre Foulum, 8830 Tjele, Denmark. Lis.W.de.Jonge@agrsci.dk Phone: +45 89991752
or
Professor Per Moldrup, Aalborg University, Department of Biotechnology, Chemistry, and Environmental Engineering, Sohngaardsholmsvej 57, 9000 Aalborg, Denmark. pm@bio.aau.dk Phone: +45 96358460,
The upper few meters of the soil (the vadose zone) sustain our life and society, but we only have an empirical knowledge of how soil behaves. In the “Soil-it-is” project, a group of internationally recognized soil scientists at University of Aarhus (AU) and Aalborg University (AAU), Denmark, join forces with partner universities in the USA, UK and Japan to explore how soil architecture and infrastructure (pore and particle networks) control and are controlled by newly recognized soil-physical phenomena. Our project vision is a holistic understanding of architecture and processes in soil inner space that will provide the basis for solutions to protect groundwater resources, improve clean-up technologies at polluted sites, enhance the health and productivity of cultivated soil, and improve the understanding of the soil vadose zone and its role in climate change. For more information on the project please visit our web-site: http://www.agrsci.dk/soil-it-is/
The project currently has two openings for Ph.D. scholarships with start by February 1, 2008. The scholarships are open to both Danish and international applicants. The subject areas of the two studies are briefly described:
Ph.D. 1: Soil Architecture: “Degraded soil architecture reduces soil functionality”
Inadequate management of urban and cultivated land violently challenges the self-organized system of biotic and abiotic soil constituents. This creates poor soil quality in terms of reduced productivity and buffering of environmental impact Understanding the controlling mechanisms for soil self-organization at the cluster-, aggregate-, and bulk soil scale will allow us to influence soil architecture in a positive way with respect to soil functionality and health. As an integral part of this, the interactive links between soil architecture and mobility and transport of colloidal particles, water, and gases need to be revealed. The Ph.D. work will be in close cooperation with the SIMBIOS center at University of Abertay Dundee, Scotland. The successful candidate will be employed and enrolled as a Ph.D. student at University of Aarhus, Department of Agroecology and Environment, with work place at Research Centre Foulum.
Ph.D. 2: Water-Solids Interfaces: “Water transport in soil is often erratic, causing poor water distribution and accelerated chemical transport”
A major reason for this problem is the recognition of interface processes that affect water flow throughout the soil profile. Both surface and sub-critical water repellency due to hydrophobic coatings (films) on soil particles and aggregates occur and both phenomena need to be quantified and incorporated in existing models for water and chemical transport. The Ph.D. work will be in close cooperation with Saitama University, Tokyo, Japan. The successful candidate will be employed and enrolled as a Ph.D. student at Aalborg University, Department of Biotechnology, Chemistry, and Environmental Engineering.
Should a candidate apply for more than one position, then each application must be submitted separately. Closing date for applications is November 1, 2007 at 12:00 noon.
More detailed information and specifics on the application procedure is given on our homepage http://www.agrsci.dk/soil-it-is/ , please note that the requirements vary between Ph.D. 1 and Ph.D. 2.
For further information please contact:
Senior scientist Lis Wollesen de Jonge, University of Aarhus, Department of Agroecology and Environment, Research Centre Foulum, 8830 Tjele, Denmark. Lis.W.de.Jonge@agrsci.dk Phone: +45 89991752
or
Professor Per Moldrup, Aalborg University, Department of Biotechnology, Chemistry, and Environmental Engineering, Sohngaardsholmsvej 57, 9000 Aalborg, Denmark. pm@bio.aau.dk Phone: +45 96358460,
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