[Aqualist] postdoctoral positions in Germany

[Tim Barrows]

 From Frank Sirocko <sirocko at uni-mainz.de>

We are offering a W2 position as acting professor 
for 12 to 18 months to a suitably qualified 
candidate in any area of field-related 
geology.  The successful candidate should have at 
least 5 years’ teaching experience or equivalent 
(Habilitation) and can start at Mainz with the 
beginning of the summer semester in April 2007. 
The job includes 8 hours of teaching per week, 
preferably a mixture of lectures and field teaching.
Applications should be sent to the managing 
director of the Institute of Geoscience Prof. 
Michael Kersten (michael.kersten at uni-mainz.de). 
The position will be filled on short notice.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
In addition:
4 postdoc positions in the field of paleolimnological research

Micropaleontology
Paleobotany
Mineralogy
Tephra geochemistry

The ELSA Project (Eifel Laminated Sediment 
Archive) at the Johannes Gutenberg-University, 
Mainz, Germany seeks applications for four 
short-term post-doc positions of up to 6 months’ 
duration. The positions will be filled in 
spring/summer 2007 so that the successful 
applicants can work together as a team during summer and fall 2007.

It is intended to screen about 150 m of laminated 
lake sediment from several Eifel maar and dry 
maar lakes. These records cover the entire last 
200.000 years with annual resolution. 30% of the 
cores are annually laminated. The sediments have 
been already dated by 137Cs, 210Pb, 14C, 
magnetostratigraphy, tephrachronology, OSL and 
Ar/Ar. Continuous time series of sedimentology, 
pollen analysis of main tree taxa, and µXRF geochemistry already exist.

The postdocs should work for 3-6 months in Mainz 
on a basic screening of the cores. Research can 
be continued afterwards in Mainz or at any other 
appropriate institute to finally obtain high 
resolution continuous and uninterrupted  time series.

Applicants should have a PhD in the respective 
field and a publication record of at least 3 
papers in international peer-reviewed journals. 
Previous work experience on other long European 
paleoclimate records for comparison with the maar cores would be advantageous.


1 Postdoc for diatom analysis. The candidate 
should be familiar with diatom taxonomy and 
specialized in ecological and limnological 
interpretation of modern diatom assemblages. It 
is not necessary to have advanced expertise in paleo-research.

1 Postdoc for ostracod analysis. The candidate 
should be familiar with ostracod taxonomy and 
specialized in ecological and limnological 
interpretation of modern lake ecosystems. It is 
not necessary to have advanced expertise in paleo-research.

1 Postdoc for paleobotany. Prepared pollen 
samples already exist. We are seeking a 
specialist in the taxonomy of Holocene cereals 
for close cooperation with archaeologists at the 
Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum in Mainz.

1 Postdoc for specialist petrographer. Thin 
sections for the entire record are already 
available. The samples from the last 200.000 
years are a mixture derived from Devonian shale, 
Quaternary tephra and biogenic remains, including 
frequently rare, as yet unidentified minerals, 
which should be quantified by optical / electron 
microscopy and micro-Raman-spectroscopy.

1 Postdoc for tephra analysis. The sediments of 
the last 200.000 years reveal about 60 tephra 
layers, some of which are highly differentiated. 
It is intended to identify a few of these tephra 
layers by geochemical and isotope fingerprinting. 
Analytical facilities in the Geoscience 
Department and in the directly adjacent Max 
Planck Institute for Geochemistry can be used.

The research is part of the GEOCYCLES project 
(www.geocycles.de) and will be carried out in the 
ELSA team of Prof. Frank Sirocko in Mainz 
(www.uni-mainz.de/FB/Geo/Geologie/sedi/index.html). 
The micropaleontologists will closely cooperate 
with the paleoecology team of Prof. Bernd Schöne. 
The mineralogist and geochemist will have access 
to all analytical capacities in the mineralogy 
department (Prof. Wolfgang Hofmeister and Prof. 
Steve Foley) and the Max Planck Institute for Geochemistry.

Please send your application and a short CV to 
Frank Sirocko. Please attach pdfs of your three 
most important papers.  The positions will be filled on short notice.