The Centre for Past Climate Studies, Department of Earth Sciences, Aarhus University, Denmark offers a PhD position on the above project  

Project goal
The main goal of the project is to investigate ocean circulation, in particular bottom-water and subsurface water conditions, in the North Atlantic Subpolar Gyre sector throughout the Holocene. Multiproxy studies of marine sediment cores from the Labrador Sea, Baffin Bay, and the larger North Atlantic will be included in the project. We expect to be able to resolve centennial to millennial scale climate variability through the Holocene and, in addition, to detect multi-decadal variability of the last 1-2000 years. Though the collaboration with the TROPOLINK project, focussing on polar-tropical linkage in the ocean-climate system, results from the present PhD project are also expected to shed new light on the polar-tropical heat exchange, as we hope to test the significance of this heat exchange on the strength of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation.

The project receives, amongst others, financial support through the European Union FP7 project Past4Future.

PhD Task
The main task of the Ph.D. student will be the study of late Glacial to Holocene ocean circulation mainly based on analyses of marine sediment cores. He/she will have the opportunity to use widely different analytical methods, but main focus will be on micropalaeontology (benthic foraminifera) and geochemical parameters. The student will carry out his/her project at the Department of Earth Sciences, University of Aarhus, Denmark. The successful candidate will partake in an international, multidisciplinary team focussing on the combination of proxy data and modelling studies.

Qualifications
The applicant is expected to hold a university degree (minimum B.Sc. – for further information see ‘Ph.D. education at Aarhus University’ below) in Earth Sciences with a strong focus on Quaternary Geology, Marine Geology, Geochemistry and/or Palaeontology. A degree in Biology, Chemistry or Physics may also be considered; but in this case the student will be required to partake in additional courses in Quaternary/Marine Geology. Experience with scientific publication in English is an asset, as is experience with marine geochemistry and/or micropaleontological work, especially benthic foraminifera. Laboratory and/or sea-going experience is of advantage although not required.

How to apply 
Applications must be in English and include curriculum vitae including possible publications and university transcripts. Letters of reference from present or former supervisors/teachers are required. The student may include any additional material that the candidate would like to be taken into account.

Applications are submitted electronically at the AGSoS website: http://science.au.dk/en/studies/phd-studies/for-applicants/

Please see the Applicant’s Guide on how to apply. For this specific position you must choose the current reference number, and choose the field “Earth Science” and “Department of Earth Sciences”.

Please note that we reserve the right to evaluate your application on the available material received when deadline has passed, and will not necessarily ask for further documentation.

Application deadline: May 1, 2011.

Ph.D. education at Aarhus University 
In Denmark, and hence also at AGSoS, the total time of university studies for a PhD degree is 8 years (480 ECTS) following the Bologna Framework. Admission to the PhD studies at AGSoS is based on either

• a five year (300 ECTS) MSc degree, in which case the student is admitted for a PhD programme of study only, or 
• a three year (180 ECTS) BSc degree, in which case the student is admitted in parallel to a PhD- and an  MSc Honours programme of study.

In both cases, a student may be admitted with transfer of merits, based on an individual assessment. As an example, a student may be admitted based on four years of full time study for a 4 year PhD programme (the well established "4+4 model").

For further information see: http://science.au.dk/en/studies/phd-studies/for-applicants/current-call/ 

Contact information:

• Marit-Solveig Seidenkrantz, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Aarhus, Denmark
  phone + 45 8942 9454, mobile +45 2778 2897
  Email: mss@geo.au.dk