Utrecht University, Faculty of Geosciences, Department of Earth Sciences

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 a population of 3,400 students (BSc and MSc) and 720 staff, the Faculty is a strong and challenging organisation. The Faculty is organised in four Departments: Earth Sciences, Physical Geography, Sustainable Development, and Human Geography & Spatial Planning.

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 & 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.

About Utrecht
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 our campus in Utrecht 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.

Homepage: https://www.uu.nl/geo/aw

The Department of Earth Sciences is looking for a highly motivated PhD candidate with an MSc background in Earth Sciences, Marine Sciences or other appropriate field. You will work on the project Coupling biological pump changes to variations in the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) during rapid climate transitions.

The AMOC transports warm saline waters from the tropics to the high northern latitudes of the North Atlantic where they cool and sink. This part of the density-driven global “conveyor belt” may be losing its strength due to ongoing global warming, with potential large-scale climate repercussions. Even more so since the AMOC brings CO₂ from the surface to the deep ocean during deepwater formation (physical pump), and variations in the AMOC strength will change the ability of the ocean to absorb CO₂. The magnitude of this impact and the processes involved remain however difficult to predict. Also in the past, the strength of the AMOC varied and abrupt shifts between cold and warm periods have been recorded in marine sediments on geological timescales. The North Atlantic Ocean is also a key region for carbon sequestration by the biological carbon pump. Hence, the transfer of both organic carbon and inorganic carbon from the surface to the deep ocean is locally promoted. The aim of the project is to investigate interaction between changes in the AMOC and the physical and biological pumps during rapid climate transitions (e.g., the last glacial period and Holocene) using sediment records. Our data will be used in marine carbon cycle models to predict (future) carbon sequestration upon changes in the AMOC strength.

During this four-year PhD project, you will apply a multiproxy (biogeochemical and micropaleontological/palynological) approach to sediment records from selected locations in the North Atlantic collected along a present-day temperature and salinity latitudinal transect. You will reconstruct surface and deep-water temperatures and salinity, and the (efficiency) of the organic and inorganic biological carbon pump via proxies indicative of primary productivity, CO₂/pH in a surface deep-water gradient at times of known major past climate shifts and AMOC changes at decadal to millennial timescales. This project may include participation in seagoing expeditions.

This project is part of the 10-year EMBRACER research programme funded by the Dutch Research Council (NWO). At EMBRACER, we work at the very frontiers of knowledge on climate change, Earth’s climate system and climate feedbacks. The programme brings together a wide range of world-leading climate experts with the aim to address existing uncertainties about climate feedbacks at the boundaries between oceans, land, ice, and atmosphere. Our interdisciplinary approach and state-of-the-art infrastructure will bring us forward in our understanding of the impact of climate feedbacks emerging over the next decades to centuries.

The project leader and daily supervisor will be Dr Francesca Sangiorgi and close collaboration in the project will be with Prof. Gert-Jan Reichart, Dr Martin Ziegler, and Dr Lennart de Nooijer. Multiple others will be involved for specific aspects of the project. Foreseeable international collaborators include Profs. Stijn de Schepper and Ulysses Ninnemann (University of Bergen, Norway).

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 workshops and/or courses, as well as training on the job in assisting in the Bachelor’s and Master’s programmes of the department at Utrecht University.

Qualifications
Your are an independent, enthusiastic and highly motivated team player who has a keen interest in marine biogeochemistry, micropaleontology/palynology, and paleoceanography and who is eager to perform multiproxy research in a collaborative (international) group. You have completed your MSc degree in Earth Sciences, Marine Sciences or a related discipline by the time the position starts. Furthermore, you have:

• experience and affinity with paleoceanography and/or marine palynology/micropaleontology, and/or biogeochemistry, and marine research
  passion for chemical laboratory work and data analysis:
• an open, communicative and collaborative attitude:
• willingness and ability to join sea-going expeditions should occasions arise and to spend short visits to other universities and research institutes in the Netherlands and abroad;
• excellent communication skills.

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

Terms of employment
You will be offered a full-time PhD position, initially for one year with extension to four years in total upon a successful assessment in the first year, and with the specific intent that it results in a doctorate within this period. The gross monthly salary starts with € 2,901 in the first year and increases to € 3,707 in the fourth year of employment with a full-time appointment. Salaries are supplemented with a holiday bonus of 8% and an end-of-year bonus of 8,3% per year. A pension scheme, partially paid parental leave, and flexible employment conditions are based on the Collective Labour Agreement of Dutch Universities.

In addition to the collective employment conditions, Utrecht University has a number of schemes and facilities of its own for employees. These include agreements on professional development, leave arrangements, sports and cultural schemes, and you get discounts on software and other IT products. We also give you the opportunity to expand your terms of employment through the Employment Conditions Selection Model. This is how we encourage you to grow. For more information, please visit Working at Utrecht University.

For informal questions (not for application), contact Dr Francesca Sangiorgi at f.sangiorgi@uu.nl, Dr Martin Ziegler at m.ziegler@uu.nl, or Prof. Gert-Jan Reichart at Gert-Jan.Reichchart@nioz.nl.

To apply, please follow the link tot the corresponding advertisement on our own website and follow the guidelines mentioned there. The application deadline is August 30th, 2025. The preferred starting date is December 2025 or as soon as possible thereafter.

Note that international candidates that need a visa/work permit for the Netherlands require at least four months processing time after selection and acceptance. This will be arranged with help of the International Service Desk of our university. Finding appropriate housing in or near Utrecht is your own responsibility and, unfortunately, we must warn that it is a tight market at the moment. In case of general questions about working and living in The Netherlands, please consult the Dutch Mobility Portal.

Online screening may be part of the selection. Commercial response to this ad is not appreciated.