Occupation: Full-time
Period: Fixed-term contract
Place: Leuven
Apply no later than: March 12, 2015
A post-doc position is open at the Division of Soil and Water Management on the molecular biology of an anaerobic digestion reactor that is being operated in the framework of the Micro-Ecological Life Support System Alternative (MELiSSA) project. MELiSSA is a research line initiated by ESA, that provides a model system for the study and development of biological life support systems, and aims at the recovery of oxygen, water and edible biomass from mission waste by a combination of microbial processes. The cycle starts with an anaerobic digestion reactor that converts organic waste to CO2, ammonium and volatile fatty acids. Information on MELiSSA can be found at ecls.esa.int/ecls/. The project funded by ESA aims at a thorough characterization of the microbial community and its functionality in the anaerobic digestion reactor using omics methodology (metagenomics, meta-proteomics) in order to infer microbial variables that can be used in a dynamic mathematical model for predicting system performance and for control/monitoring purposes.
Post-doc metagenomics-bioinformatica
The “Environmental Microbiolgy” group of the Division of Soil and Water Management performs research on the fundamentals and application of organic pollutant degrading micro-organisms and their ecology. The research unit investigates the interaction between organic pollutant degraders with their environment including other micro-organisms (such as in complex consortia) and genetic adaptation in order to understand the natural attenuation of organic pollution and to improve engineered bioremediation for instance in soil remediation, water treatment and drinkingwater production. Focus is the biodegradation of pesticides, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and waste treatment. The use of molecular biology, (meta)genomics/transcriptomics/proteomic, molecular ecology and microscopic visualization methodologies plays an important role in those projects.
Responsibilities
The selected candidate will be the principal investigator in the project performing the analysis of metagenomics, transcriptomic and meta-proteomic sequence data. He/she will be assisted by a technician for the wet lab experiments and for operating the reactor. The selected candidate will also act as project manager and will be responsible for the organizational issues of the project (like organizing a small dedicated workshop) and for reporting to ESA.
Profile
Candidates must have expertise (for instance through their PhD) in bio-informatics or in molecular biology with a strong bio-informatics character focusing on sequence analysis. She/he must be preferentially aware of wet lab experiments and current bio-informatics/sequence analysis in metagenomics. Expertise with nucleic acid/protein sequence data analysis of the microbial community of anaerobic digestion systems or of other dedicated complex microbial communities is an advantage. He/she must have well-developed communication and organizational skills and a good record of scientific productivity. Candidates should have a PhD since no more than six years preferentially from a university outside of Belgium, not have the Belgian nationality and should not have been working/staying in Belgium for more than 24 months in the last 3 years. The position is for 30 months starting from around April-May 2015.
Offer
Post-doc position of 30 months in a dynamic research team
Interested?
For more information please contact
Prof. dr. ir. Dirk Springael, tel.: +32 16 32 16 04, mail: dirk.springael<στο>ees.kuleuven.be or Prof. dr. ir. Kristel Bernaerts, tel.: +32 16 32 26 78, mail: kristel.bernaerts<στο>cit.kuleuven.be.
Interested candidates should contact Prof. Dirk Springael (Tel: ++ 32 16 32 16 04; e-mail:dirk.springael<στο>ees.kuleuven.be) preferentially by e-mail before March 11, 2015.
The application must contain
- a curriculum vitae
- a list of publications,
- a motivation letter, and
- contact details of 2 persons for references.
You can apply for this job no later than March 12, 2015 via the online application tool