[Coral-List] Marie Curie Position for an Early-Stage Researcher / calcification mechanisms in corals

[Jan Fietzke]

Dear all,

Please find below a recent vaccancy at IFM-GEOMAR.
Feel free to distribute it to any colleague who might be interested or may know somebody ...

Thank you and best regards
  Jan

PS: Please, contact me off the list for any question or application.
 ~jf~

Marie Curie Position for an Early-Stage Researcher

(CALMARO RT2 – IFM-GEOMAR / TUGraz / HUJI)

Mechanisms of calcification and trace element transport in scleractinian corals
The Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences (IFM-GEOMAR) at the University of Kiel is one of
the leading institutes in marine research in Germany. The major goal of the institute is
research and development in all parts of marine sciences. Apart from basic research, applied
projects between science and economy are also supported. IFM-GEOMAR is a foundation
by public law, jointly funded by the federal und provincial government. The institute is a
member of the Leibniz Association (WGL) and the German Marine Research Consortium
(KDM).
IFM-GEOMAR is coordinator and member of the Marie Curie Initial Training Network
CalMarO (Calcification by Marine Organisms; www.calmaro.eu). CALMARO aims at
improving the career perspectives of early researchers by offering structured training in the
field of Calcification by Marine Organisms as well as providing complementary skills and
exposing the researchers to other sectors including private companies. CALMARO
comprises investigation of calcareous structures as well as calcification processes and the
sensitivities to changes in environmental conditions at all scales ranging from cellular,
organism, population to ecosystem, and regional to global levels.
We are looking for an Early-Stage Researcher (ESR) to study the trace metal partitioning of
main and trace elements and their isotope fractionation (TEI) related to multicellular
organisms by doing culturing experiements.
Multicellular organisms like scleractinian corals control their trace element uptake along
various pathways either by the use of element selective channels and pumps embedded in
the membranes of their cells or by vesicles and transcellular passage between neighbouring
cells. Although this allows an almost complete control of the chemical conditions at the site of
calcification it has been shown that calcification is sensitive to changes in the carbonate ion
concentration of seawater. In particular, it is yet unclear how sensitive the various
multicellular pathways react to changes in seawater pCO2/pH. In order to decipher the
relationship between seawater and intra-cellular trace element pathways the ESR will (i)
decipher the inorganic thermodynamic background of calcium carbonate precipitation, (ii)
decipher the trace element pathways in corals and other multicellular organisms, and (iii)
relate trace element isotope fractionation to specific biochemical processes.
The (ESR) will be employed at IFM-GEOMAR in Kiel (Germany, www.ifm-geomar.de) with
regular stays of several months duration at the Institute of Applied Geosciences of the TU
Graz (Austria, www.egam.tugraz.at) and the Institute of Earth Sciences at the Hebrew
University of Jerusalem (Israel, http://earth.huji.ac.il/).
The inorganic precipitation experiments will be performed at TU Graz. These experiments
will be combined with biogenic coral culturing experiments under controlled laboratory
conditions in order to simulate future pCO2/pH scenarios at the culturing laboratories of the
Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The response of isotope and trace element variations in the
shells of the cultured calcifying organisms will be determined by state of the art microanalytical
tools, comprising laser-ablation and multi-collector-inductively coupled massspectrometry
(MC-ICP-MS) as well as secondary ionisation mass-spectrometry (SIMS).
The IFM-GEOMAR seeks to increase the proportion of female scientists and therefore
women are especially encouraged to apply. IFM-GEOMAR also supports the employment of
disabled persons. Persons with disabilities will, with appropriate qualifications and aptitudes,
be employed preferentially.
Requirements:
Applicants must have a Masters Degree or equivalent in geology, biology or chemistry of
physics, be able to communicate in English, and have not more than 4 years full-time
equivalent research experience. Candidates can originate from anywhere in the world except
Germany and should not have resided in Germany for more than 12 months during the
previous 3 years. Candidates should have an interest to interact in a multi-disciplinary
research environment, and have experience in analytical techniques, e.g. massspectrometry.
The successful candidate will be given the opportunity to complete a Ph.D.
thesis in 3 years.
Appointment:
The appointment will be full-time initially for 6 months, which will be extended to 3 years
provided that the applicant has proven to be well suited for the job. The project will start in
January/ February 2009.
Salary:
Salary will be in compliance with the ESR rate of the European Commission for an employment
contract (incl. full social security coverage) with correction factor for Germany.
Application:
For further information please see www.calmaro.eu or contact Prof. Anton Eisenhauer
(aeisenhauer at ifm-geomar.de), Prof. Martin Dietzel (martin.dietzel at TUGraz.at) or Prof.
Jonathan Erez (erez at vms.huji.ac.il). Written applications using “CALMARO-RT2” as
keyword, including a current CV, short research outline, and reference contacts should be
sent before 01/11/2008 to Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences (IFM-GEOMAR),
Personalbüro, Wischhofstr. 1-3, 24148 Kiel, Germany, or via email to aeisenhauer at ifmgeomar.
de.