Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Ecotoxicology

University of Exeter - Centre for Resilience in Environment, Water and Waste

The Centre for Resilience in Environment, Water and Waste (CREWW) wishes to recruit a Postdoctoral Research Fellow to support the work of Prof Ceri Lewis’s research within the CREWW Microplastic Laboratory on a South West Water (SWW)-funded microplastics project.

This post is available to start in July. This post is offered as a fixed term contract and is funded by SWW until 30 June 2028.

The starting salary will be from £43,482 on Grade F.

The successful applicant will be skilled in a range of analytical techniques for the isolation and spectral analysis of microplastics from complex environmental matrices (e.g. water, soils, sludge), to include experience in the use of FTIR for polymer identification and quantification. The work will focus initially upon developing and testing new analytical techniques for more rapid microplastic assessment and optimising standard operating procedures (SOPs) for microplastics analysis in complex environmental matrices, including the development and optimisation of pyrolysis GC-MS techniques and fluorescence-based techniques with the help of Analytical Chemist(s) and Machine Learning experts. This post will embed within the research activities of the CREWW Microplastics Research Team and support the delivery of the FLAIR project.

About you

Applicants will possess a relevant PhD or possess an equivalent qualification/experience in a related field of study/place of work and be able to demonstrate sufficient knowledge of the research methods and techniques for analysing microplastics within complex environmental matrices. Applicants will be able to analyse and present large data sets and write scientific papers for publication. The applicant must also be able to work with business-sensitive data, within a partnership between the UoE and SWW and must have a demonstrable track-record of meetings deadlines and working within tight timeframes to deliver high-quality work.

Please ensure you read the Job Description and Person Specification for full details of this role.

For further information please contact Prof Ceri Lewis, e-mail c.n.lewis@exeter.ac.uk.

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