Postdoctoral researcher on ‘Unveiling the Ocean’s plastic time capsule"

We are seeking a motivated and dynamic postdoctoral researcher to join our team for a 2 year position starting 1 March 2025 or as soon as possible thereafter working on micro and nanoplastics within the geology section of the Natural History Museum of Denmark. You can read more about our research and collections here: https://snm.dk/en/research-and-collections. The University wishes our staff to reflect the diversity of society and thus welcomes applications from all qualified candidates regardless of personal background.

Your job and your collaborators

Predictions of the impacts of future micro- and nanoplastics are hampered by knowledge of the past. This groundbreaking project combines state-of-the-art vibrational spectroscopy methods with sediments and agglutinated foraminifera collected during famous historical expeditions, such as Galathea 2, to create the first geographically broad record of early micro- and nanoplastic levels in the oceans between the 1920s and 1970s. This data is essential for understanding and predicting long-term micro and nanoplastic behaviour and impact.

We are looking for a creative researcher keen to push the boundaries of micro- and nanoplastic research. Working with historical samples presents many opportunities for exciting new data but also challenges related to collection and storage and distribution. You, therefore, should be flexible and innovative in your approach to working on and shaping this project. You will have the opportunity to lead publications with potentially very high impact results, with support from the research team. As the position is based within the Natural History Museum there are also excellent opportunities to participate in outreach activities as the museum provides an excellent public facing platform for this, and for co-supervision of student projects.

Associate Professor Laura Cotton is the PI for the project funded by the Villum Experiment grant. The project will also involve close collaboration with Associate Professor Elvis Genbo Xu at the University of Southern Denmark, utilizing Fluorescence-Guided and Automated NanoIR-Raman Spectroscopy funded by the Carlsberg Foundation. Within the project, you will also work with our collections manager team to find and sample material in our collections, and have the opportunity to collaborate with other museums, such as Museum national d’Histoire naturelle in Paris. We encourage collaboration both with colleagues at the University of Copenhagen and across our extensive national and international network of collaborators.

Your profile

We encourage applications from skilled, innovative, and enthusiastic candidates to meet the following criteria:

Essential experience and skills:

- You have a PhD in relevant discipline

- Experience working with vibrational spectroscopy, such as IR and Raman, in the laboratory

- Excellent science communication skills

- Ability to work independently and also part of a team.

- Excellent English language skills.

Desirable experience and skills:

- Experience or knowledge of environmental chemistry, environmental pollution, and micro- and nanoplastics.

• Experience or knowledge of working with museum material or archival sediments
• An excellent publication record, including first-author papers in international peer-reviewed journals.

Place of employment – Natural History Museum Denmark

Natural history museums have never been more important. Our planet is shared by millions of living species. But now a single one among them, humans, holds the power of changing life on Earth. Solutions to grand challenges for humanity and the planet alike are only possible by way of local action, global collaboration, and by sharing knowledge and resources.

The vision of the Natural History Museum of Denmark is to empower citizens to connect with nature. We want to inspire, engage, and enable people to enjoy, understand, and care for the diversity of the natural world. In the coming years, we will be building a new Danish national museum for the natural world. One big museum complex in the Botanical Garden in the center of Copenhagen hosts state-of-the-art laboratories, outstanding research collections, new public galleries, and combined facilities for teaching and science citizenship. Over the next few years, the museum will change the way people think about and use natural history museums. We are working on multiple intersecting capital projects to achieve this, as well as operating the existing museum venues that are open to the public with an exciting program of exhibitions and events.

Terms of employment

The position is covered by the Memorandum on Job Structure for Academic Staff.

Terms of appointment and payment accord to the agreement between the Ministry of Finance and The Danish Confederation of Professional Associations on Academics in the State.

Negotiation for salary supplement is possible.

The application, in English, must be submitted electronically by clicking APPLY NOW below.

Please include

• Curriculum vitae
• Diplomas (Master and PhD degree or equivalent)
• Research plan – description of current and future research plans
• Complete publication list
• Separate reprints of 3 particularly relevant papers

The deadline for applications is 17 January 2025, 23:59 GMT +1.

After the expiry of the deadline for applications, the authorized recruitment manager selects applicants for assessment on the advice of the Interview Committee.

You can read about the recruitment process at http://employment.ku.dk/faculty/recruitment-process/.

Interviews will be held in week 5