PhD position on Land-ocean interaction across the K/Pg boundary

The Department of Earth Sciences is looking for a highly motivated PhD candidate with an MSc background in Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Biology, Chemistry, or other appropriate fields. You will work on the project: Land-ocean interaction across the K/Pg boundary.

Your job
The Cretaceous/Paleogene (K/Pg) boundary marks a period of major environmental perturbation and one of the biggest five mass extinctions in Earth history. Intriguingly, a shift in facies occurs in many sedimentary sections worldwide, in both marine and terrestrial settings. Why environments changed and remained different for more than a million years following the Chicxulub asteroid impact, the end-Cretaceous mass extinction and Deccan Trap volcanism, is not resolved. This project aims to investigate a land-ocean transect, to better constrain the position of the boundary, and to connect observed changes on land with changes in the marine realm during the recovery of ecosystems in the early Paleogene.

Marine and continental sections in Spain record sharp and lasting changes in environmental conditions following the asteroid impact. This research will address the questions:

• Does lithological change coincide with the K/Pg boundary and what mechanisms led to the shift in lithologies?
• How do terrestrial and marine environments recover from the end-Cretaceous mass extinction?

The research will initially focus on improving age control by magnetostratigraphy and chemostratigraphy, after which the project can follow different routes, including but not limited to sedimentology, orbital forcing and palynology, based on preliminary results and research interests of the candidate.

Training
A personalised training programme will be set up reflecting your training needs and career objectives. About 20% of your time will be dedicated to this training component, which includes following courses and/or workshops (some of which are mandatory), as well as training on the job in assisting in the bachelor’s and master’s degrees programmes of the department at Utrecht University.

We seek candidates who are motivated by the proposed research, take initiative to develop ideas, are self-driven and can work independently and within a team. Applicants should hold a MSc degree in Earth Sciences, Biology, Environmental Sciences, Chemistry, or a related discipline by the time the position starts. Non-Dutch MSc diploma’s may be subjected to specific approval by the Board for Conferral of Doctoral Degrees before the candidate can be accepted in the PhD programme.

Furthermore, you should have:

• Experience in processing geological samples
• A theoretical background in sedimentology, stratigraphy and paleoclimate
• Statistics and/or coding experience
• A willingness to do fieldwork as well as work in a laboratory
• A flair for written, graphical and oral communication.
• And above all, creativity and curiosity

Due to the international character of our research, good command of spoken and written English is essential. We highly encourage applicants from all members of our community and of diverse backgrounds to join us.

We offer:

• a position (1.0 FTE) for 1 year, with an extension to a total of four years upon a successful assessment in the first year, and with the specific intent that it results in a doctorate within this period;
• a working week of 36 - 40 hours and a gross monthly salary between € 3.059 and €3.881 in the case of full-time employment (salary scale P under the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities (CAO NU));
• 8% holiday pay and 8.3% year-end bonus;
• a pension scheme, partially paid parental leave and flexible terms of employment based on the CAO NU.

In addition to the terms of employment laid down in the CAO NU, Utrecht University also offers a range of its own schemes for employees. This includes arrangements for professional development, various types of leave, and options for sports and cultural activities. You can also tailor your employment conditions through our Terms of Employment Options Model. In this way, we encourage you to keep investing in your personal and professional development. For more information, please visit Working at Utrecht University.

A better future for everyone. This ambition motivates our scientists in executing their leading research and inspiring teaching. At Utrecht University, the various disciplines collaborate intensively towards major strategic themes. Our focus is on Dynamics of Youth, Institutions for Open Societies, Life Sciences and Pathways to Sustainability. Sharing science, shaping tomorrow.

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. Our key research themes are Earth & Planetary Processes, Sustainable Use of the Subsurface, Planetary Health & (the) Environment, and Climate & Life. The department hosts a highly international tenured staff of over 50 scientists and more than 110 PhD students and postdoctoral researchers. We house or have access to a wide variety of world-class laboratories, among which are UU’s Electron Microscopy Centre, the Geolab, and the Earth Simulation Lab. We also have excellent High- Performance Computing facilities.

The position is embedded in the Stratigraphy & Paleontology group. The group is engaged in multidisciplinary research on the interaction between climate, the oceans, the lithosphere and biosphere. Using chemical and biological proxies, we reconstruct paleoclimates, ecosystem dynamics and evolutionary processes, and refine the geologic time scale by applying an integrated stratigraphic approach. We are particularly interested in constraining the causes of abrupt and cyclic, (sub)orbital-scale, climate change in the past and its relation to life on earth.

About Utrecht
The department and its facilities are located at Utrecht Science Park. Utrecht is the fourth largest city in the Netherlands with a population of nearly 360,000 and forms a hub in the middle of the country. Its historical city centre and its modern central station can easily be reached from the Science Park by public transport or by a 15-minute bicycle ride. Utrecht boasts beautiful canals with extraordinary wharf cellars housing cafés and terraces by the water, as well as a broad variety of shops and boutiques.

For informal information (not for application) about this position, please contact the project leader Dr Sietske Batenburg at s.j.batenburg@uu.nl

Candidates for this vacancy will be recruited by Utrecht University.