As PhD student, you will be responsible for using available data, such as sensor data, for predicting how the quality of each fruit and vegetable in a refrigerated truck or trailer evolves. For that purpose, we will develop a digital, lab-scale twins (experimental simulations) of the cargo in the laboratory facilities. These data are fed into a combined physiological-physics-based model to understand better how fruits mature and what the drivers for quality loss are in large batches of fruits.

The work will enable us to better identify how perishable products react inside a cargo in cold chain unit operations and to pinpoint why some products decay faster than others. This information will be used to quantify the environmental impact of optimized cold chain solutions.

Your duties and responsibilities include:

• develop a lab-based, emulated twin of all fruit in a shipment that age in the lab facility together with the real fruit from farm to fork. Sensor data are feeding these emulated twins. In essence, you record real transport conditions and perform lab-scale experiments where the fruit is subjected to those conditions. You also measure food quality attributes, such as weight loss, thermally-driven softening, and microbiological decay;
• process measured sensor data of commercial cold chains and lab scale experiments, analyze data for variability and reformat data in databases to set up a dashboard that allows visualizing and manipulating conditions within the cargo;
• extensive data analytics of existing and newly acquired datasets of berry quality evolution;
• develop a physiological-physics-based model for the postharvest fruit supply chain of berries. This includes advanced kinetic quality modeling of multiple correlated physical and biochemical quality attributes of berries, driven by environmental conditions of the fruit (temperature, humidity, gas conditions, …);
• use the gained knowledge to understand better and steer refrigeration processes by optimizing for berry food waste.

You are an enthusiastic and curious researcher with a strong interest in sensor data, data analytics, postharvest fruit pathology/physiology, and HVAC systems.

You also bring:

• completed Master's degree, preferably in engineering, food technology or physics or materials science;
• knowledge of heat and mass transport processes in materials and data analytics;
• experience in thermal measurements and lab work on (non-destructive) fresh fruit and vegetable quality measurements is advantageous (temperature, infrared, airspeed);
• excellent communication skills and fluency in English (both written and oral) are mandatory;
• you have a flair for communicating with industrial partners;
• you are flexible in occasionally traveling between Switzerland and the Netherlands;
• you are motivated to supervise BSc and MSc students.

For this position, your command of the English language is expected to be at C1 level. Sometimes submitting an internationally recognised Certificate of Proficiency in the English Language is necessary. More information can be found here.

Wageningen University & Research offers excellent terms of employment. A few highlights from our Collective Labour Agreement include:

• sabbatical leave, study leave, and partially paid parental leave;
• working hours that can be discussed and arranged so that they allow for the best possible work-life balance;
• the option to accrue additional compensation / holiday hours by working more, up to 40 hours per week;
• there is a strong focus on vitality and you can make use of the sports facilities available on campus for a small fee;
• a fixed December bonus of 8.3%;
• excellent pension scheme.

In addition to these first-rate employee benefits, you will receive a fully funded PhD position and you will be offered a course program tailored to your needs and the research team.

The gross salary for the first year is € 2.541,- per month rising to € 3.247,- in the fourth year in according to the Collective Labour Agreements for Dutch Universities (CAO-NU) (scale P). This is based on a full-time working week of 38 hours. We offer a temporary contract for 18 months which will be extended for the duration of the project if you perform well.

There are plenty of options for personal initiative in a learning environment, and we provide excellent training opportunities. We are offering a unique position in an international environment with a pleasant and open working atmosphere.

You are going to work at the greenest and most innovative campus in Holland, and at a university that has been chosen as the “ Best University ” in the Netherlands for the 18th consecutive time.

Coming from abroad
Wageningen University & Research is the university and research centre for life sciences. The themes we deal with are relevant to everyone around the world and Wageningen, therefore, has a large international community and a lot to offer to international employees.

Our team of advisors on Dutch immigration procedures will help you with the visa application procedures for yourself and, if applicable, for your family.

Feeling welcome also has everything to do with being well informed. Wageningen University & Research's International Community page contains practical information about what we can do to support international employees and students coming to Wageningen. Furthermore, we can assist you with any additional advice and information about helping your partner to find a job, housing, schooling. For instance under the "30% rule", certain categories of international staff can receive tax exemption on approximately 30% of their gross salary.

Wageningen University & Research

The mission of Wageningen University & Research is “To explore the potential of nature to improve the quality of life”. Under the banner Wageningen University & Research, Wageningen University and the specialised research institutes of the Wageningen Research Foundation have joined forces in contributing to finding solutions to important questions in the domain of healthy food and living environment. With its roughly 30 branches, 7.200 employees (6.400 fte) and 13.200 students and over 150.000 participants to WUR’s Life Long Learning, Wageningen University & Research is one of the leading organisations in its domain. The unique Wageningen approach lies in its integrated approach to issues and the collaboration between different disciplines.

You will work here
The research is embedded within the Chair Food Quality and Design, and led by Prof. Thijs Defraeye. You will be co-supervised by Rob Schouten. This position also entails a close collaboration with Empa (Swiss Federal Labs for Materials Science and Technology) in Switzerland. The research will be carried out at Wageningen Food & Biobased Research, specifically in the Postharvest Technology group) that has excellent postharvest facilities:

The group consists of 25 postharvest specialists, some focussing on physiological aspects, some focussing on technological aspects, and most on both.

Up to one-third of the world's plant-based foods are lost on their way from farm to consumer. We still have a limited understanding when or why these postharvest quality losses occur within each of the hundreds of shipments in a supply chain, let alone how to reduce it. A challenge is that no two shipments evolve the same in the cold chain, due to (yet) unpredictable physiological, technical and logistical conditions and stakeholder handling. Cultivation and postharvest factors affect the physical, biochemical, physiological, and microbiological processes in these heat-sensitive products. As a result, the quality of each fruit inside each shipment evolves uniquely before landing on the consumer's table. The extensive temperature and relative humidity monitoring that is done during postharvest cooling, transport, and storage provide a part of the answer. Another part is the available information around the moment of harvest. We currently miss the link between these data and the resulting quality loss for every single fruit inside each cargo. The available information is thus not yet optimally used to quantify how the fruit's quality evolves throughout the cold chain. Linking the measured sensor data with the fruit quality decay is the key objective of this project. This project is performed in close collaboration with a sensor company, a berry producer and a retailer. The project focuses on strawberries as a key crop.

Read the 5 reasons why your future colleagues enjoy working at WUR and watch this video to get an idea of our green campus!

We will recruit for the vacancy ourselves, so no employment agencies please. However, sharing in your network is appreciated.