The University of York has gained EU Marie Curie funding to recruit a team of 12 enthusiastic researchers to investigate issues, impacts and decisions related to pollution in cities. The CAPACITIE(Cutting-Edge Approaches for Pollution Assessment in Cities) project brings together a world-class team of interdisciplinary researchers from Environment, Chemistry, Computer Science, Electronics, Physics and Sociology at the internationally leading University of York.

This position is available within the CAPACITIE project to explore exposure of city environments to engineered particles. The study will initially identify which nanoparticles are likely to be released into the city environment. The project will explore different approaches (such as centrifugation, filtration and solvent extraction) for extracting or concentrating nanoparticles from aqueous matrices. Analytical methods, including nanoparticle tracking analysis, disk centrifugation, single particle ICP-MS, HDC-ICP-OES and electron microscopy, will then be explored for detecting different types of nanoparticles in real water samples. The developed approaches will be employed in a monitoring study in one or more of the case study cities (York, UK; Berlin, Gemany; and Seoul, South Korea) to determine the current level of exposure for selected engineered nanoparticles.

For further information on the project please contact Professor Alistair Boxall (alistair.boxall<στο>york.ac.uk), Professor Jun Yuan (jun.yuan<στο>york.ac.uk), and take a look at the CAPACITIE Project website: www.capacitie.eu.

You will be required to take up the PhD position on 1 March 2015 and will receive a competitive salary (£37,822 - £40,687 a year), plus travel allowances, for a period of 28 months. The final 8 months of the PhD project will be paid at the standard UK Research Council stipend level. To be eligible, you must hold at least an upper second class honours degree (BSc or equivalent) and be within four years of your first degree. The positions are only available to non-UK residents and those who have resided in the UK for less than 12 months in the last 3 years. We strongly encourage women to apply as CAPACITIE strives to achieve gender balance and promote women's involvement in research.

We anticipate that interviews will be held towards the end of January.

The University of York is committed to promoting equality and diversity.