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 PhD scholarships in the Environmental Biomimetics group at DTU Environment. The two PhD positions offered is part of a larger project: Membrane Energy.

Technology Operations (MEMENTO) supported by the Danish Innovation Fund. MEMENTO focuses on developing and testing biomimetic membranes for osmotic membrane bioreactors (OMBR), pressure retarded osmosis (PRO) and reverse electrodialysis (RED). For further details please visitwww.memento.env.dtu.dk.

The Environmental Biomimetics 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 PhD1 is to investigate anaerobic OMBR and RED processes using biomimetic membranes with special focus on surface stability and anti-fouling strategies.

The overall aim of PhD2 is to investigate biomimetic membrane support materials for high-salinity gradient PRO with a special focus on minimizing concentration polarization effects.   

• Candidates for both PhD projects should be able to obtain and evaluate both theoretical and experimental results and actively plan and adjust their own work in close teamwork with other group members and other collaborators.
• Theoretical work will mainly consist of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations and will be performed using the OpenFoam package on our own dedicated hardware installed at the high performance computing (HPC) resources at DTU.
• Experimental work will consist of running OMBR, PRO and RED experiments in the membrane laboratory being established at DTU Environment.

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.

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

Application
Please submit your online application no later than 26 May 2015.

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