The newly established Center of Excellence – the Center for Electromicrobiology (CEM) at Aarhus University, Denmark – seeks 3 outstanding PhD fellowship/scholarships within the Bioscience Programme.

All positions are based at the Faculty of Science and Technology, Aarhus University, in an interdisciplinary setting including the Section for Microbiology, Department of Bioscience, the Interdisciplinary Nanoscience Center, and The Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics. These departments offer an international working environment with state-of-the-art facilities for molecular and ecological microbiology, next generation sequencing, electrochemistry, and electron microscopy.

Research area

The PhD projects will address:

• the molecular and structural biology of electrically-conductive proteins
• functional genomics and microbial physiology of electron-conducting microbes
• and/or the microbial biogeochemistry and interactions in electric microbial communities, depending on the qualifications and research interests of the successful candidates

Qualifications 

We expect the applicants to:

• Have a strong background in microbial ecology, molecular biology, biochemistry or related fields, with an outstanding curriculum
• Be highly dedicated, self-motivated and ambitious
• Have excellent collaborative skills and an interest to work in an interdisciplinary center.

About the Center

The Center for Electromicrobiology (CEM) at Aarhus University is a newly established Center of Excellence supported by the Danish National Research Foundation.

The aim of CEM is to establish a novel view on electron flow between living cells by addressing three overarching research questions: how are the electrons transported, how are they exploited by the cells, and how do they shape ecosystems?

The centimeter-long cable bacteria with internal electron conductors connecting thousands of cells will have the main role in CEM’s endeavors: their large-scale separation of biological anode and cathode processes allows detailed experimental studies of the associated conductors and metabolisms, and their apparent electron exchange with many other bacteria will provide exceptional insights into electric ecosystems.

The center applies a combination of microbiological, biogeochemical, molecular biological and electrochemical approaches, including microfluidics, modeling, next generation sequencing, Cryo-EM, and computational biology.