PhD positions in Food Web Ecophysiology

The goals of the PhD projects are to understand: 1) how the species composition of aquatic insects along thermal gradients influences subsidy timing, magnitude, and nutritional content, and 2) intraspecific variation in aquatic insect phenology, biomass, and nutritional content along thermal gradients. Intensive seasonal fieldwork to capture phenological data will be conducted along elevational thermal gradients within Central Switzerland as well as either an urban heat island gradient in Belgium or a geothermal gradient in Iceland. Captive-rearing experiments will allow us to understand finer scale intraspecific variation due to temperature and food quality. Future PhD students are invited to learn more about the overall goals of project at https://cornelia-twining.squarespace.com/nutriphenol. 

Students will be housed within the Department of Fish Ecology and Evolution (FishEc), located on the shores of Lake Lucerne in Kastanienbaum, Switzerland, and will receive degrees from ETH Zürich in the department of Environmental Systems Science (USYS).

Necessary qualifications for an ideal candidateare to be able to work independently as well as part of a small team, being self-motivated when it comes to developing new skills or exploring new topics, and you should having a resilient, growth-based mindset. Ideally, you should also have some prior wet lab experience and comfort with performing lab work independently. You also need excellent communication and data analysis skills. The lab and departmental working languages are English.

Eawag isa modern employer and offers an excellent working environment where staff can contribute their strengths, experience and ways of thinking. We promote gender equality and are committed to staff diversity and inclusion. The compatibility of career and family is of central importance to us. For more information about Eawag and our work conditions please consult www.eawag.ch and www.eawag.ch/en/aboutus/working/employment.

Evaluation of applications starts 1 March 2024 and continues until the position is filled. The start date is flexible, but ideally would begin by 1 September 2024. Your application should include a letter of motivation, CV, the names and email addresses of two references and one pdf containing a representative scientific writing sample (e.g., a final report for a class, thesis, manuscript draft, and/or published paper).

For questions, please email Dr Lily Twining.

We look forward to receiving your application. Please send it through this webpage, as any other way of applying will not be considered. A click on the button below will take you directly to the application form.