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Researcher in environmental microbiology: Luxembourg

The Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST) is offering a full time research associate position in the domain of environmental microbiology. The research associate will be part of the Environmental and Industrial Biotechnologies research unit (BIOTECH) at the Department of Environmental Research and Innovation (ERIN) at LIST. With a team of more than 170 scientists and engineers from life science, environmental science, and IT science, the ERIN department has the necessary interdisciplinary knowledge and skills to tackle major environmental challenges our society is facing today: climate change mitigation, ecosystem resilience, sustainable energy systems, efficient use of renewable resources, environmental pollution prevention and control.

The successful candidate will join the “Environmental microbiology and biotechnology” research group which mainly aims at developing methods and real-time monitoring systems based on bioindicators and microbial biosensors to improve the assessment of water quality. The position is envisaged to start as soon as possible and is planned to last for 18 months.

Description

The applicant’s main mission will be to contribute to the national and international RDI projects “GRONE” and “CYANOLAC” which aim jointly at developing new monitoring procedures for the surveillance of cyanobacteria in drinking water reservoirs as well as the project “CAMPYLOMIC” that focuses on the understanding of Campylobacter dynamics in the environment.

In this framework, the applicant’s main work will consist in studying two waterborne pathogens: Cyanobacteria and Campylobacter. Cyanobacteria will be studied with the objective to develop innovative monitoring and management tools for early warning of bloom development in lakes.

The waterborne and foodborne pathogen Campylobacter will be studied using next-generation sequencing techniques in order to relate the strain diversity observed in the environment (mainly rivers) and the epidemiological data.

Concretely, the main tasks will be

  • to ensure environmental surveillance and water quality assessment through field sampling campaigns;
  • to monitor the dynamics of microbial populations in the water cycle;
  • to detect, isolate and analyse the diversity of the pathogenic bacteria and faecal indicator microorganisms.

The following competencies are required in order to be successful in the research projects:

  • knowledge of freshwater cyanobacteria taxonomy and ecology and bio-indication;
  • competencies in molecular biology and next-generation sequencing methods (Illumina).

Requirements

Education

  • PhD in environmental microbiology, microbial ecology, water microbiology or related fields

Competencies

  • Significant field sampling experience (water, faecal pollution)
  • Preparation of samples before laboratory analyses (biology, physico-chemistry)
  • Bacterial cultures, isolation and diversity assessment
  • Next-generation sequencing
  • Handling of environmental sensors (biology, physico-chemistry)
  • Optical microscopy

Language

  • Proficiency in English
  • Knowledge of one of the official languages of Luxembourg (French, German, Luxembourgish) is an asset
Further details
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