PhD Position Cyanobacterial Engineered Living Materials for High Carbon Capture

Job description

The TU Delft Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, department of Sustainable Design Engineering is seeking a highly motivated PhD candidate to join our research group for an innovative project on developing Cyanobacterial Engineered Living Materials with High Carbon Capture Potential.

Global warming and climate change, driven by increasing atmospheric CO2 concentrations, are one of the key challenges of the 21st century. Despite the urgency of decarbonization efforts, economically sustainable solutions for the decrease of atmospheric CO2 are still lacking. With the increased awareness for sustainability, Engineered Living Materials (ELMs) - which integrate living systems to perform specific functions - present a promising opportunity to address these challenges through the combination of biology, materials science, and design. Among integrated living systems, cyanobacteria offer promising opportunities for the development of ELMs, specifically due to their mechanisms for carbon capture.

As a PhD candidate at Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), you will conduct novel research in the processes that involve CO2 capture in cyanobacteria for the design and development of ELMs with high carbon capture efficiency. You will join the Materializing Futures Section, where you will find an exciting environment in which microbiologists, design researchers, and material scientists collaborate to create innovative, sustainable materials within the field of Biodesign.

This project is financed by the Dutch Research Council (NWO) Open Competition Domain Science - M

Requirements

The candidate should have:

• A MSc degree in biotechnology, biodesign, bioengineering, microbiology, materials science, or a related field
• A strong interest in the intersection of biology, design, and biobased materials
• Experience with microbiological techniques, photosynthetic organisms, biodesign, or materials science is advantageous but not required
• Doing a PhD at TU Delft requires English proficiency at a certain level to ensure that the candidate is able to communicate and interact well, participate in English-taught Doctoral Education courses, and write scientific articles and a final thesis.

Conditions of employment

Doctoral candidates will be offered a 4-year period of employment in principle, but in the form of 2 employment contracts. An initial 1,5 year contract with an official go/no go progress assessment within 15 months. Followed by an additional contract for the remaining 2,5 years assuming everything goes well and performance requirements are met.

Salary and benefits are in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities, increasing from € 2872 per month in the first year to € 3670 in the fourth year. As a PhD candidate you will be enrolled in the TU Delft Graduate School. The TU Delft Graduate School provides an inspiring research environment with an excellent team of supervisors, academic staff and a mentor. The Doctoral Education Programme is aimed at developing your transferable, discipline-related and research skills.

The TU Delft offers a customisable compensation package, discounts on health insurance, and a monthly work costs contribution. Flexible work schedules can be arranged.

For international applicants, TU Delft has the Coming to Delft Service. This service provides information for new international employees to help you prepare the relocation and to settle in the Netherlands. The Coming to Delft Service offers a Dual Career Programme for partners and they organise events to expand your (social) network.

TU Delft (Delft University of Technology)

Delft University of Technology is built on strong foundations. As creators of the world-famous Dutch waterworks and pioneers in biotech, TU Delft is a top international university combining science, engineering and design. It delivers world class results in education, research and innovation to address challenges in the areas of energy, climate, mobility, health and digital society. For generations, our engineers have proven to be entrepreneurial problem-solvers, both in business and in a social context.

At TU Delft we embrace diversity as one of our core values and we actively engage to be a university where you feel at home and can flourish. We value different perspectives and qualities. We believe this makes our work more innovative, the TU Delft community more vibrant and the world more just. Together, we imagine, invent and create solutions using technology to have a positive impact on a global scale. That is why we invite you to apply. Your application will receive fair consideration.

Challenge. Change. Impact!

Faculty Industrial Design Engineering

Matching the evolution of people with the speed of the revolution of technology. This is the focus of the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering (IDE). Delft designers act as a bridge between advances in technology and the needs of people, organisations and society to create products, services and systems with purpose.

IDE is a leader in design research across the application areas of mobility, sustainability and health, as well as its development of design tools and methods. A 350-strong research team and over 2,000 students work together in our inspiring hall, labs and studios.

In close cooperation with industry, the public sector and NGOs we rehearse possible futures in research and education to design for a complex future.