Umeå universitet, Medicinska fakulteten

Umeå University is one of Sweden’s largest higher education institutions with over 37,000 students and about 4,700 employees. The University offers a diversity of high-quality education and world-leading research in several fields. Notably, the groundbreaking discovery of the CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing tool, which was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, was made here. At Umeå University, everything is close. Our cohesive campuses make it easy to meet, work together and exchange knowledge, which promotes a dynamic and open culture.

The ongoing societal transformation and large green investments in northern Sweden create enormous opportunities and complex challenges. For Umeå University, conducting research about – and in the middle of – a society in transition is key. We also take pride in delivering education to enable regions to expand quickly and sustainably. In fact, the future is made here.

Are you interested in learning more? Read about Umeå university as a workplace

The Faculty of Medicine, which consists of 13 departments, is responsible for biomedical research and courses in the field of nursing and health care and has an extensive research and graduate education in more than 80 subjects.

Within a project funded by the Swedish Research Council, the Department of medical biochemistry and biophysics offer a postdoctoral position in NMR-based biogeochemistry.

The position is for 2 years and the application is to be submitted in our e-recruitment system.

Project and work tasks:
Phosphorus used as fertilizer is a vanishing non-renewable resource, and the long-term response of plants to increasing atmospheric CO2 is a key knowledge gap in climate change. In an interdisciplinary environment with plant and soil scientists, your focus will be work on intramolecular distributions of heavy isotopes - isotopomers - for studying plant-climate interactions on centennial timescales. Furthermore, you will use 13C and 31P NMR to study C and P cycling in soils.

Isotopomer abundances reflect isotope fractionation of metabolic fluxes, and are therefore a unique tool to link enzyme regulation to global biogeochemistry (see Scientific Reports 2018, doi 10.1038/s41598-018-23422-2). We use experiments under controlled conditions to establish relations between isotopomer variation and metabolic regulation. The relations are used to interpret data from archives of plant material, to identify biogeochemical processes dominating on centennial time scales. You will focus on NMR sample preparation, measurements and data interpretation.

Qualifications:
You hold a PhD in chemistry or a relevant field and are excited by interdisciplinary work between biophysics, plant physiology and biogeosciences. In normal case the doctorate exam should have been acquired within three years prior the last day for application to this position, unless special circumstances exist. Special circumstances include absence due to illness, parental leave or clinical practice or appointments of trust in trade union organizations.

Scientific environment:
The project is based at the KBC centre at Umeå University (www.kbc.umu.se), and is a collaboration between biophysics (www.nmrforlife.se) and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU). You will have access to state-of-the-art biogeochemistry sites and NMR spectrometers for advanced characterization of plant and soil organic matter and isotopomer analysis.

Further information and application procedure:
Contact professor Jürgen Schleucher, jurgen.schleucher@umu.se

Nature Communications 2018 doi: 10.1038/s41467-017-01230-y PNAS 2015 doi: 10.1073/pnas.1504493112 Plant and Soil 2013 doi: 10.1007/s11104-013-1731-z

Applications should contain a CV, transcripts of your degrees, the names and contact information of two professional references, a list of scientific publications, and a one-page letter describing your motivation for this position.

Last day to apply is 2019-04-30.

Type of employment Temporary position
Contract type Full time
First day of employment As agreed
Salary Monthly salary
Number of positions 1
Full-time equivalent 100%
City Umeå
County Västerbottens län
Country Sweden
Reference number AN 2.2.1-466-19
Contact
  • Jürgen Schleucher, jurgen.schleucher@umu.se
Union representative
  • SACO, 090-786 53 65
  • SEKO, 090-786 52 96
  • ST, 090-786 54 31
Published 20.Mar.2019
Last application date 30.Apr.2019 11:59 PM CEST

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