Utrecht University, 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. 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 and organise a warm welcome for every new member.

The position is embedded in the Stratigraphy & Paleontology group. The group is engaged in multidisciplinary research on the interaction between climate, the oceans, the lithosphere and biosphere. Using chemical and biological proxies, we reconstruct paleoclimates, ecosystem dynamics and evolutionary processes, and refine the geologic time scale by applying an integrated stratigraphic approach. We are particularly interested in constraining the causes of abrupt and cyclic, (sub)orbital-scale, climate change in the past and its relation to life on earth.

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, Environmental Sciences, Biology, Chemistry, or other appropriate fields. You will work on the project Land-ocean interaction across the K/Pg boundary.

The Cretaceous/Paleogene (K/Pg) boundary marks a period of major environmental perturbation and one of the biggest five mass extinctions in Earth history. Intriguingly, a shift in facies occurs in many sedimentary sections worldwide, in both marine and terrestrial settings. Why environments changed and remained different for more than a million years following the Chicxulub asteroid impact, the end-Cretaceous mass extinction and Deccan Trap volcanism, is not resolved. This project aims to investigate a land-ocean transect, to better constrain the position of the boundary, and to connect observed changes on land with changes in the marine realm during the recovery of ecosystems in the early Paleogene.

Marine and continental sections in Spain record sharp and lasting changes in environmental conditions following the asteroid impact. This research will address the questions:

• Does lithological change coincide with the K/Pg boundary and what mechanisms led to the shift in lithologies?
• How do terrestrial and marine environments recover from the end-Cretaceous mass extinction?

The study will initially focus on improving age control by magnetostratigraphy and chemostratigraphy, after which the project can follow different routes, including but not limited to sedimentology, orbital forcing and palynology, based on preliminary results and research interests of the candidate.

Training

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

Qualifications

We seek candidates who are motivated by the proposed research, take initiative to develop ideas, are self-driven and can work independently and within a team. Applicants should hold a MSc degree in Earth Sciences, Biology, Environmental Sciences, Chemistry, or a related discipline by the time the position starts. Non-Dutch MSc diploma’s may be subjected to specific approval by the Board for Conferral of Doctoral Degrees before the candidate can be accepted in the PhD programme.

Furthermore, you should have:

• Experience in processing geological samples
• A theoretical background in sedimentology, stratigraphy and paleoclimate
• Statistics and/or coding experience
• A willingness to do fieldwork as well as work in a laboratory
• A flair for written, graphical and oral communication.
• And above all, creativity and curiosity

Due to the international character of our research, good command of 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 € 3,059 in the first year and increases to € 3,881 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 its own arrangements. 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 applications), please contact the project leader Dr Sietske Batenburg at s.j.batenburg@uu.nl.

To apply, please use this link to go to the advertisement on UU’s own website and follow the guidelines mentioned there. We aim for a quick selection procedure after the deadline of January 4^th, 2026. The position is available from March 1^st, 2026, or preferably filled 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 (ISD) 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.