If you are intrigued by study of past climate, enjoy having your hands on samples in the lab and generating new geochemical data, and are a quantitative thinker, you might be interested in this PhD project. The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) is a major artery of global heat transport affecting European and global climate, which has substantially weakened dozens of times in the last several hundred thousand years and then recovered within centuries to millennial. This PhD position contributes to our ongoing research to diagnose the causes for these abrupt weakenings and the factors which allowed AMOC to recover. The project is generating new geochemical records from stalagmites which grew in coastal caves, to reconstruct the phasing of changes in the North Atlantic salinity relative to AMOC variations, and interpreting them with the aid of process models and experiments with tracers in atmosphere-ocean general circulation experiments.
Job description - As a PhD student, you will plan, generate, and interpret new research data; you will present data to scientific colleagues in workshops and conferences, and you will prepare your research findings for publication in scientific journals
- You will collaborate with a research team at ETH and at other institutions
- For the research, you will travel abroad for research stays to conduct U/Th dating of stalagmites, and for training in model-data comparisons
- Additionally, you will increase your training by taking the required courses (12KP) in disciplinary and transversal skills
- Finally, a department requirement is that all PhD students must dedicate up to 10% of employment time to service to the department, generally by contributing to department teaching activities; this responsibility also builds communication and management skills of PhD students
Profile - You have completed a Master's Degree relevant to Paleoclimate study (e.g Earth Science, or Atmosphere and Climate study in Physics or Geography realm)
- You have prior course experience in paleoclimate
- You have prior course and research experience in geochemistry laboratory analysis, including generating isotopic or trace element data
- You have strong quantitative skills and comfort with coding, and good analytical thinking
- You are committed to working in an interdisciplinary team blending climate modelling, geochemical process models, and new geochemical data
- You have strong skills and commitment to growth in academic writing
We offer This PhD project provides the opportunity to gain a broad training in leading geochemistry laboratory, developing and working with process models, and working with results from general circulation models of climate, as part of an international team working on pioneering methodology. ETH offers access to outstanding analytical resources with excellent technical support. Regular co-writing and writing retreats provide support in the challenging tasks of original scientific writing.
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