PhD Researcher (f/m/x) in In4Nile PhD-Cohort: Multi-pollutant spatially explicit water quality modelling: from historical evolution to future scenario assessments

The job

In the PhD cohort “In4Nile” - Advancing Water Quality Information in the Nile River Basin, we offer four PhD Positions.
In4NILE addresses the limited availability of water quality information in the Nile basin by developing and applying low-cost sampling techniques, mining of existing open (geo)datasets, exploring the use of unstructured data sources through natural language processing, and by developing basin-scale, multi-pollutant spatially explicit water quality models.

The PhD position (f/m/x) “Multi-pollutant spatially explicit water quality modelling: from historical evolution to future scenario assessments” focuses on developing a scalable modelling framework capable of tracking the fate and transport of multiple pollutants, such as nutrients (N, P), BOD, pharmaceuticals, and other emerging contaminants, across the Nile River Basin. The project will establish an integrated source-to-sink modelling chain to reconstruct historical and present-day water pollution patterns and to analyse how hydro-climatic variability, population growth, agricultural practices, and urbanisation shape multi-pollutant loads across this transboundary river system. Building on this framework, the PhD candidate will assess how pollutant dynamics respond to projected hydro-climatic and socio-economic changes, and explore potential adaptation and mitigation strategies to support sustainable water quality management in the region.

Place of work

Leipzig

Working time

65%

Contract limitations

limited contract / 36 months

Salary

Remuneration according to the TVöD public-sector up to pay grade 13 including attractive public-sector social security benefits.

Contact

Your contact for any questions you may have about the job:
Rohini Kumar (rohini.kumar@ufz.de)

Your application

Please submit your application via our online portal with your cover letter, CV (please omit your photo, age, or marital status) and relevant attachments.

Diversity and Inclusion

The UFZ has a strong commitment to diversity and actively supports equal opportunities for all employees regardless of their origin, religion, ideology, disability, age or sexual identity.
We look forward to applications from people who are open-minded and enjoy working in diverse teams.

The UFZ

The Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) with its 1,100 employees has gained an excellent reputation as an international competence centre for environmental sciences. We are part of the largest scientific organisation in Germany, the Helmholtz association. Our mission: Our research seeks to find a balance between social development and the long-term protection of our natural resources.

The job

In the PhD cohort “In4Nile” - Advancing Water Quality Information in the Nile River Basin, we offer four PhD Positions.
In4NILE addresses the limited availability of water quality information in the Nile basin by developing and applying low-cost sampling techniques, mining of existing open (geo)datasets, exploring the use of unstructured data sources through natural language processing, and by developing basin-scale, multi-pollutant spatially explicit water quality models.

The PhD position (f/m/x) “Multi-pollutant spatially explicit water quality modelling: from historical evolution to future scenario assessments” focuses on developing a scalable modelling framework capable of tracking the fate and transport of multiple pollutants, such as nutrients (N, P), BOD, pharmaceuticals, and other emerging contaminants, across the Nile River Basin. The project will establish an integrated source-to-sink modelling chain to reconstruct historical and present-day water pollution patterns and to analyse how hydro-climatic variability, population growth, agricultural practices, and urbanisation shape multi-pollutant loads across this transboundary river system. Building on this framework, the PhD candidate will assess how pollutant dynamics respond to projected hydro-climatic and socio-economic changes, and explore potential adaptation and mitigation strategies to support sustainable water quality management in the region.

Your tasks

• Develop a scalable water-quality modelling framework for the Nile River Basin by leveraging the existing UFZ water-quantity and water-quality modelling system (mHM–MQM) and extending it to represent source-to-sink dynamics of multiple pollutant classes.
• Reconstruct hi