Lord Kelvin Studentship

Supervisors: Dr Christopher Quince, Dr Robert Davies and Dr Caetano Dorea

Applications are invited for a prestigious four year Lord Kelvin PhD studentship at the University of Glasgow. This inter-disciplinary studentship will be jointly supervised by Drs Christopher Quince and Caetano Dorea of the Department of Civil Engineering and Dr Robert Davies of Glasgow Biomedical Research Centre. The aim of this studentship will be to use cutting edge genomics techniques to reveal the functional ecology of slow sand filters.

The requirements for energy-efficient water treatment technologies are prompting renewed interest in ‘biological’ water treatment processes such as slow sand filtration. These systems do not require chemicals or electricity to operate and can achieve a high level of treatment mainly attributed to naturally occurring microorganisms within the filter. Several microbiologically mediated purification mechanisms (e.g. predation, scavenging, adsorption, bio-oxidation, etc.) have been hypothesised or assumed to occur within biofilms that form in the filter. Advances in molecular techniques coupled to next generation sequencing are transforming our understanding of the microbial world and provide an ideal platform to validate these hypotheses. The overall objective of this study is to characterise the functional microbial ecology of slow (bio)-sand filters through metagenomics techniques, and facilitate their rational design and optimisation.

This represents a unique opportunity for a highly motivated individual to apply sophisticated techniques from microbiology to an important engineering problem. There will also be the potential to develop statistics and bioinformatics skills in analysing genomics data. The successful candidate will have a good (2:1 or above) BSc or equivalent MSc in Microbiology, Environmental Engineering, Biotechnology, Biochemistry, Ecology or related discipline. The ability to perform laboratory experiments is essential and prior experience of microbiology an advantage. The ideal candidate should be an enthusiastic and self-motivated person with good organisational and interpersonal skills.

The PhD studentship will provide tuition fees, a stipend at the standard Research Council rate of £13,290 per annum (likely to be reviewed annually to take into account part of the inflationary rise in maintenance costs). The preferred start date is 1st September 2010 but start dates up to 1^st February 2011 are possible. The studentship is open to both home and international applicants.

The closing date for applications is 1^st April 2010.

Requests for further information and applications should be sent to Dr Christopher Quince at quince@civil.gla.ac.uk and include:

1. Covering letter stating the motivation for undertaking this project
2. Curriculum Vitae including one paragraph description of experimental or practical research experience
3. Contact details of two academic referees