Justus Liebig University Giessen

Founded in 1607, Justus Liebig University Giessen (JLU) is a research university rich in tradition. Inspired by curiosity about the unknown, we enable around 25,000 students and 5,800 employees to advance science for society. Join us in breaking new ground and writing success stories - your own and those of our university.

This position is based at the Chair of Landscape, Water, and Biogeochemical Cycles, where an international team studies how water, nutrients, and pollutants move across landscapes and respond to global change. We combine field experiments and high-resolution monitoring with process-based modelling and machine learning, working at scales from climate-resilient agriculture in Germany to nutrient flows in tropical ecosystems.

Homepage: https://www.uni-giessen.de/en/faculties/f09/institutes/landscape/water

Fully funded PhD (E13 TV-H, start 01.10.2026) in the DFG Research Unit GArua (C3) at JLU Giessen (Germany). How much water do cloud forests drink from fog? You'll measure cloud-water interception in the Galápagos highlands with a mobile epiphyte lysimeter and reproduce it in a process-based hydrological model.

Master's in Hydrology/Environmental Sciences/Geoecology, fieldwork experience, Python or C++, and a willingness for Galápagos field campaigns.

Deadline 15 Aug 2026 (ref. 293/09).

Apply here: https://www.uni-giessen.de/de/ueber-uns/karriere/stellenangebote/wissenschaftliche-mitarbeiter/293-09-e

Contact: Dr. David Windhorst — david.windhorst@umwelt.uni-giessen.de

Note: This PhD is part of the wider GArua consortium — several coordinated positions across partner institutions are opening now. See all GArua vacancies: https://www.uni-marburg.de/en/fb19/research/working-groups/ecological-plant-geography/news/garua-vacancies-2026-1