The Department of Earth Sciences currently seeks a highly-motivated, high-potential applicant for a position as a Postdoctoral Researcher to work within the research project ‘Paleoceanography of the ice-proximal Southern Ocean during past warm climates’, in short ‘OceaNice’. OceaNice is a research project funded by the European Research Council.

Antarctic ice sheets are destabilizing because Southern Ocean (SO) warming causes basal melt. It is unknown how these processes will develop during future climate warming, which creates an inability to project ice sheet melt and thus global sea level rise scenarios into the future. Studying past geologic episodes, during which atmospheric carbon dioxide levels (CO2) were similar to those projected for this century and beyond, is the only way to achieve mechanistic understanding of long-term ice sheet- and ocean dynamics in warm climates.

OceaNice will provide an integral understanding of the role of oceanography in ice sheet behavior during past warm climates. Until now, OceaNice focused on generateing proxy-based reconstructions of sea ice, paleotemperature, nutrient conditions, and the position of SO frontal systems during the Pleistocene, Pliocene and Miocene. The newly appointed postdoc will co-develop and use high-resolution ocean model simulations under realistic boundary conditions for these time slices. Fully coupled simulations run in collaborative project will be used as input. The postdoc will apply lagrangian particle trace simulations as a means to compare model simulations with the sedimentary records of plankton microfossils generated in other workpackages in OceaNice. Finally, the postdoc will integrate model simulations with sedimentary data for an integral image of past SO ocean conditions. The postdoc will be hired and based at Utrecht University, in the department of Earth Sciences, and will work in close collaboration with physical oceanographers based at the Institute of marine and atmospheric research, Utrecht, in the faculty of Sciences, Utrecht University, and many collaborators worldwide. The project leader and daily supervisor will be Dr Peter Bijl (p.k.bijl@uu.nl), and close collaboration in this project will be with Dr Anna von der Heydt and Dr Dr Erik van Sebille, and technical support for model simulations at the IMAU.

We seek a postdoctoral candidate with:

• a PhD degree with a background in paleoceanography or physical oceanography with an interest in the geologic past.
• experience in crossing research disciplines or demonstrates eagerness and ability to learn this. This is crucial given the versatility of the project, involving both writing/revising code, interpreting numerical model results, and critical interpretation of paleoceanographic/-geographic/-bathymetric reconstructions.
• excellent written and spoken English skills.
• motivation to work in an international, multidisciplinary team with a common research objective.
• abilities to be an independent thinker, with a collaborative mindset.

You will be involved in:

• helping develop and use state-of-the-art high-resolution ocean-only model simulations;
• using and further developing code to simulate plankton in these model runs;
• working with OceaNice team members and international partners to integrate your results with paleoceanographic reconstructions from sediment cores;
• Writing and presenting your results to scientific peers and the general public;
• an active and inviting Antarctic science community.

By the end of the project, you will have:

• a deep understanding of the state of the art of past ocean flow simulations, and the role of warm oceans for the stability of the Antarctic ice sheet during past warm climates;
• appreciated the value and opportunity of multi-disciplinary research;
• a broad network in Paleo-Antarctic and Southern Ocean science community;
• advanced skills in model-data inter-comparison;
• further developed skills in communicating science to a wide scientific and public audience.

We offer a temporary position (1.0 FTE) for three years. The gross salary - depending on previous qualifications and experience  - ranges between €2,790 and €3,491 (scale 10 according to the Collective Labour Agreement Dutch Universities) gross per month for a full-time employment.

Salaries are supplemented with a holiday bonus of 8 % and a year-end bonus of 8.3 % per year. We offer a pension scheme, (partly paid) parental leave, collective insurance schemes and flexible employment conditions (multiple choice model). More information is available at: working at Utrecht University.

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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 3,400 students (BSc and MSc) and 720 staff, the Faculty is a strong and challenging organisation. The Faculty of Geosciences is organised in four Departments: Earth Sciences, Human Geography & Spatial Planning, Physical Geography, and Sustainable Development.

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 group of more than 100 PhD students and Postdoctoral Researchers and houses a wide variety of world-class laboratories.