The Analytical Chemistry research group at the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Science at University of Copenhagen is offering a 3-year PhD position in environmental and biological analytical chemistry with focus on non-target screening analysis of complex samples like plant leaves, wastewater, and bio-oils using comprehensive two-dimensional liquid chromatography mass spectrometry. The PhD-project aims to establish and apply a two-dimensional liquid chromatopgraphy platform, and will contribute to the research projects The Matrix, funded by the Novo Nordisk Foundation, and Vandalf, funded by Innovation Fund Denmark, as well as a research collaboration with Haldor Topsøe A/S.
Start date is expected to be 1 January 2022 or as soon as possible thereafter. The place of employment will be at Campus Frederiksberg in central Copenhagen.
The project
The PhD project will focus primarily on development and application of comprehensive two-dimensional liquid chromatography mass spectrometry platforms for plant leaves and associated microbes, wastewater and bio-oils, but also on specialized ionization techniques applicable to leaves surfaces i.e. desorption electrospray ionization mass spectrometry. The position may also involve establishing workflows for chromatographic and mass spectral signal processing of the resulting data, multivariate statistical analysis and/or compound identification using chemoinformatics. The PhD student will be part of larger research consortia and associated to research projects on plant-microbe interaction in the phyllo-sphere (The Matrix, a project under the Novo Nordisk Foundation Collaborative Crop Resilience Programme), linking the chemical fingerprint of wastewater to toxicity (Vandalf, an Innovation Fund Denmark Grand Solutions Project) and on detailed characterization of bio-oils in collaboration with industry partners.
The position is available for a 3-year period and your key tasks as a PhD student at SCIENCE are:
- To manage and carry through your research project
- Attend PhD courses
- Write scientific articles and your PhD thesis
- Teach and disseminate your research
- To stay at an external research institution for a few months, preferably abroad
- Work for the department
Who are we looking for?
Formal requirements
Applicants should hold an MSc degree in Analytical Chemistry or equivalent with good results and good English skills.
Your qualifications:
As criteria for the assessment of your qualifications, emphasis will also be laid on:
- Previous publications (if any) and scientific writing skills, incl a high motivation for litterature work and scientific writing
- Relevant work/practical experience with:
- Liquid chromatography, two-dimensional chromatography, (surface) ionisation techniques, mass spectrometry and including troubleshooting, method development, validation, quality control
- Customization of analytical equipment
- Suspect screening and non-target screening analysis
- Plants, wastewater and/or bio-oils
- Applied chromatographic and mass spectrometry data processing
- Good collaborative skills, and the ability to work in project groups where collaborative efforts are needed to achieve the objectives
- Teaching experience and motivation
- Positive mind-set, a structured approach to research, and the ability to communicate and discuss aims, methodology, results and conclusions with supervisors and project partners, and modify these accordingly and in iterations.
Experience with project management is a plus, but not mandatory.
Our group and research- and what do we offer?
The PhD-student will be a part of the Analytical Chemistry Group. The research focus of the group is on suspect and non-target screening in biological and environmental matrices. For this we use primarily chromatography-mass spectrometry platforms and advanced and customized signal processing. The group consists of app. 15 people and in addition to this continuously around 15 project students. The group conducts teaching at BSc-, MSc- and PhD-level in Analytical Chemistry, Sampling and Sample Preparation, Chromatography and Mass Spectrometry, Arctic Pollution Research and Big Data.
We offer the possibility for close interaction or collaboration with fellow PhD-students, and other students and scientific staff in a mixed international/Danish environment. Our research facility, Research Centre for Advanced Analytical Chemistry (RAACE) include modern laboratories and instrumentation: PLE, automated SPE, UHPLC, GC, SFC, 2DLC, 2DGC, ESI/APCI/APPI-QqTOFMS, -TOFMS and -QqQ, EI-TOF and -Q.
The group is a part of Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of SCIENCE, University of Copenhagen. We are located in Copenhagen.
Principal supervisor is Associate Professor, Nikoline Juul Nielsen, Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, [Email Address Removed], Direct Phone:
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