DTU Environment invites highly talented junior researchers who have obtained outstanding results during their MSc studies and who have demonstrated excellence and potential in their field of study, to apply for a PhD scholarship in the Environmental Biomimetic group at DTU Environment. 

The Environmental Biomimetic Group currently consists of an associate professor, one postdoc and four PhD students.

We do research on biomimetic membranes and proteins for separation and sensor applications. We use experimental techniques related to membrane function & characterization and protein design as well as theoretical tools including computational fluid dynamics, molecular dynamics (MD) and density functional theory (DFT). We have extensive collaboration with academic and industrial partners worldwide where we aim at diminishing the conceptual and practical barriers in collaborations between academia and industry.

Responsibilities and tasks

• The overall aim of the PhD is to evaluate suitable phosphate binding proteins (PBPs) for phosphate recovery applications. The candidate will perform interdisciplinary work of computational and experimental techniques to help assess the suitability for phosphate recovery. The work will include
  • Computational studies of PBPs using fully atomistic molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, and, if necessary, Density Functional Theory (DFT) simulations.
  • Experimental studies using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to overexpress  and purify PBPs in yeast and/or E. coli.
  • Ligand binding assays using various experimental techniques.
• The candidate should be able to obtain and evaluate computational and experimental results and actively plan and adjust his or her own work in close teamwork with other group members and other collaborators.
• Theoretical work will be performed using the AMBER package on our own dedicated hardware installed at the high performance computing (HPC) resources at DTU.
• Experimental work will be done in close collaboration with relevant partners within the frameworks of the IBISS (www.ibiss.dk) and MEMENTO projects (www.memento.env.dtu.dk) headed by Associate Professor Claus Hélix-Nielsen

Qualifications
Candidates should have a master's degree in engineering or a similar degree with an academic level equivalent to the master's degree in engineering.

Approval and Enrolment
The scholarships for the PhD degree are subject to academic approval, and the candidates will be enrolled in one of the general degree programmes of DTU. For information about the general requirements for enrolment and the general planning of the scholarship studies, please see the DTU PhD Guide.

Assessment
The assessment of the applicants will be made by Associate Professor Claus Hélix-Nielsen.

Workplace
Work place will primarily be at DTU Lyngby Campus – but some experimental work will take place at the Biology Department at the University of Copenhagen, Nørre Campus in the laboratory of Professor Per Amstrup Pedersen.

Further information
Further information may be obtained from Associate Professor Claus Hélix-Nielsen, +45 42710 2076.

You can read more about DTU Environment on www.dtu.env.dk

Please do not send applications to this e-mail address, instead apply online as described below.

Application
Please submit your online application no later than 18 May 2015.

To view the full announcement and to apply: www.career.dtu.dk