PhD Position in Life Cycle Impact Assessment with Focus on Aquatic Ecotoxicity Assessment of Metals, Denmark

July 1, 2010

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Job description:
The position is part of the project “Development and application of a standardized methodology for the Prospective Sustainability assessment of Technologies” (acronym PROSUITE) funded by EU Seventh Framework Program.

The main goal of the project is to develop a coherent, scientifically sound, and widely acceptable methodology for the sustainability assessment of current and future technologies over their life cycle, applicable to different stages of maturity. Whereas many projects have broad and general aims, this project is proposed to be specific by delivering actual sustainability estimates for four technology cases with close consultation of the stakeholders involved. Essential to this is the ability to derive a standardized methodology to assess the sustainability of existing and especially new technologies. PROSUITE will show how to combine technology forecasting methods with life cycle approaches, how to develop and possibly combine the three sustainability dimensions in a standardized, comprehensive, and feasible way.

Short description of the PhD research
The PhD study will contribute to the work on assessment of environmental impacts, with a core contribution on the aquatic ecotoxicity assessment of metals, filling internationally recognized methodology gaps in current models.

Metal emissions commonly dominate the life cycle impact assessment results for human toxicity and ecotoxicity. These results are, however, criticized, due to the fact that metal emissions from landfills and bioavailability in the environment are suspected to be highly overestimated in the current models. The PhD study focuses on aquatic ecotoxicity. In many LCA studies, aquatic ecotoxicity is currently not reported because the results are implausibly high compared to the other toxicity categories; by studying in detail aquatic metal ecotoxicity for emissions to air and soil, PROSUITE will contribute to resolve the underlying problems. The fate modelling of the metals in the soil and water and consideration of bioavailability of metals to aquatic organisms will involve speciation modelling as well as exposure modelling using e.g. the Windermere humic acid aqueous model (WHAM) and Biotic Ligand Models (BLM) available from the literature. The influence of spatial variability in environmental conditions on the fate and exposure analysis will be carefully assessed to check the robustness of the impact indicators results. Aquatic ecotoxic impacts will be modelled both for the freshwater environment and the coastal marine environment.

DTU Management Engineering and the QSA-group
The QSA section at the Department of Management Engineering has an extensive track record, international recognition and network within the field of quantitative environmental life cycle assessment of industrial products and systems. In collaboration with other international players in the field, the DTU activities spear-head the development of a scientifically based set of methods and tools to enable authorities and industry to assess and integrate sustainability aspects when developing services, systems and products.

We are looking for a person with an interest in team-oriented work as you will be part of a highly cross-disciplinary research team. You will be associated with Department of Management Engineering at the Technical University of Denmark located in Kongens Lyngby just north of Copenhagen.

Required skills
The ideal candidate must hold a MSc degree, must be fluent in English, spoken as well as written and have a background in chemistry ecotoxicology or environmental risk assessment and should demonstrate interests in:

Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA)
Team oriented research work

Experience in mathematical modeling is a strong advantage.

Approval and Enrolment
The PhD scholarship is subject to academic approval and the candidate will be enrolled in one of the general degree programmes of DTU. For information about the general requirements for enrolment and the general planning of the scholarship studies, please see the DTU PhD Guide.

Conditions and terms
The salary and appointment terms are consistent with the current rules for PhD degree students. The position is available for a period of three years.

For further information about the requirements for enrolment and the general planning of the scholarship studies, please visit: www.dtu.dk/English/education/Phd_Education.aspx.

Application
We must have your online application by 2 August 2010 at the latest. Please open the link “apply for this job online”, fill in the application form and attach all the following documents:

Curriculum vitae of the applicant including a list of publications
A letter motivating the application
Grade transcripts and BSc/MSc diploma
Conversion of grade averages to Danish grades (guidelines and excel spreadsheet for the conversion)
Brief research proposal (1-2 pages) presenting ideas on how to address the research topics given in the short description of the PhD research above.

Candidates may apply prior to obtaining their master’s degree, but cannot begin before having received it.

We actively encourage international students, women and ethnic minority candidates to apply for this position.

Further information
Further information may be obtained from PhD student Mikolaj Owsianiak, e-mail:miow@man.dtu.dk, Phone +45 4525 4805.

Scholarship Tags: Aquatic, assessment, cycle, ecotoxicity, Impact, Life, Metals, PhD, Position