PhD Researcher (f/m/x): How Energy Shapes Soil Microbial Communities and Carbon Cycling

Within the DFG-funded project "Energy Sustains Dissipative Structures in Soil Systems" (Energy Structures), part of the DFG Priority Programme SPP 2322 SoilSystems, the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) and RPTU Landau offer a three-year PhD position starting at the earliest in February 2027, split between UFZ Leipzig and the RPTU Campus Landau and closely linked with a second PhD student at Trier University. The project explores how the soil microbiome and carbon and energy fluxes respond to different substrate inputs, and how energy availability influences microbial community structure and activity, carbon and energy transformations and the emergence of self-organising patterns in soil.

Methods include isothermal microcalorimetry, thermogravimetry-differential scanning calorimetry coupled with quadrupole mass spectrometry, bomb calorimetry and respirometry, complemented by 13C tracers, PLFA, biomarker and elemental analyses, and equilibrium and non-equilibrium thermodynamic modelling. The position is 65% of full time on a fixed-term contract paid up to TVöD 13, with training through the HIGRADE graduate programme.

Master's degree in soil science, physical chemistry, chemistry, biochemistry, biology, environmental sciences or equivalent; interest in interdisciplinary soil-system questions and openness to modelling and ecological aspects; very good English. Experience in calorimetry, thermodynamics, soil science, environmental microbiology or isotope tracer experiments is an advantage.