Doctoral Dissertation Research Fellowship

Application Deadline : December 1st 2012

Eligibility:

All applicants must be citizens of and reside in a sub-Saharan African country while holding a current faculty position at an accredited college or university in Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, or Uganda. Applicants for any of the funding opportunities offered through this program must have a master’s degree and be working toward completion of the doctoral degree. The program seeks to promote diversity and encourages women to apply.To be eligible for the US$15,000 dissertation research fellowship, applicants must have an approved dissertation proposal but will not yet have undertaken research of nine months or more.

Application Process:

All applications must be submitted using the online application portal.

Strong proposals will offer clear and concise descriptions of the project and its significance. Proposals should display thorough knowledge of the relevant social science literature that applicants will engage and the methodologies relevant to the project. In addition, applicants must demonstrate that all proposed activities are feasible and can be completed in a timely manner. All proposals will be evaluated for these criteria by an independent, international committee of leading scholars from a range of social science disciplines.

Fellows must be willing to attend two workshops sponsored by the SSRC each year that are intended to help early-career faculty produce scholarly publications. We anticipate awarding approximately 45 fellowships in total each year.

More detail information, Please visit the Website

Netherlands : Postdoc in Tectonics and Palaeomagnetism

Paratethys was a large epicontinental sea, stretching from Germany to China at the beginning of the Oligocene (~34 Myr ago), that progressively retreated by a complex combination of basin infill, glacio-eustatic sea-level lowering and tectonic uplift to its present-day remnants: Black Sea, Caspian Sea and Aral Lake. The influence of Paratethys on global change is still a great unknown, mainly through lack of relevant studies in this terra incognita, although model studies suggest a major effect of sea retreat on climate and environment.

Project title: Oroclinal bending and palaeolatitude reconstructions in the Eurasian-Arabian collision zone

The postdoctoral fellow will reconstruct Tethyan plate kinematics and continent-continent collision in the Alpine-Himalayan chain, with emphasis on the southern extent of the Paratethys region. This research will involve determining the paleolatitude position of the Africa-Arabia-derived continental (micro)plates and their tectonic rotations through time, in the context of basin development and the history of oceanic gateways, which is being studied in complementary projects. Accompanying projects in the same research group also involve the India-Asia collision to the East.

The tectonic framework for Paratethys development will specifically be studied in two regions that are characterised by their arc-shape: the Lesser Caucasus and the Talysh-Alborz fold-and-thrust belts. Paleomagnetism will provide the rotation patterns in the arc-shaped regions that possibly resulted from oroclinal bending. Exact dating of formation of these arcuate belts will provide constraints for their formation mechanisms such as the collision of intervening continental fragments (e.g. the South Armenian Block and/or Arabia) with Eurasia, slab roll-back mechanisms or a combination of these possibilities.

To accurately date the sampled sedimentary and volcanic rocks, we will use absolute and relative dating techniques (40Ar/39Ar, biostratigraphy, magnetostratigraphy). We also aim at geochemically characterising the volcanic exposures in terms of their origin (e.g. volcanic arc versus back-arc). For high-precision paleolatitude results we will process a large number of data, enabled by the use of the robotized magnetometer in Utrecht, with the aim to correct the data for inclination (and hence paleolatitude) error.

The position is financed through the Netherlands Top Research Centre for Integrated Solid Earth Sciences (ISES). A full description of the project is available via our website http://www.geo.uu.nl/~forth.
 

Qualifications
We are looking for a highly motivated individual with a PhD degree in geology or geophysics. We require experience in structural geology and (large scale) tectonic and geodynamic processes. Experience in palaeomagnetism is a distinct advantage.

He/she should communicate easily in English, both verbally and in writing, evidenced by a track record. Candidates should be able to work independently but are part of a team. The postdoctoral fellow must be able and willing to help in supervision of BSc-MSc-PhD students in a number of Paratethys related projects.

 

Offer
The successful candidate will be offered a full-time postdoc position for 3 years.
Employment conditions are based on the Collective Labour Agreement of the Dutch Universities. The gross monthly salary is dependent on experience and will start between € 2.744 and € 3.755 euro per month.

The salary is supplemented by a holiday allowance of 8% per year and a year-end bonus of 8.3% (salary rates per 1-7-2012). We also offer a pension scheme, a health insurance allowance and flexible employment conditions. More information: terms of employment.


About the organisation
Utrecht University’s Faculty of Geosciences offers education and research concerning the geosphere, biosphere, atmosphere and anthroposphere. With a population of 2,500 students (BSc and MSc) and 600 staff, the faculty is a strong and challenging organisation. The Faculty is organised in four Departments: Earth Sciences, Physical Geography, Innovation, Environmental & Energie Sciences, and Human Geography & Urban & Regional Planning.

The Department of Earth Sciences conducts teaching and research across the full range of the solid Earth and environmental Earth sciences, with activities in almost all areas of geology, geochemistry, geophysics, biogeology and hydrogeology. The Department hosts an international group of over 100 PhD’s and postdoctoral researchers. It hosts a range of excellent laboratory facilities.

One of the facilities is the Paleomagnetic Laboratory Fort Hoofddijk, which is equipped with state-of-the-art paleomagnetic instrumentation: two DC-SQUID magnetometers, two high-sensitivity spinner magnetometers, thermal and alternating field demagnetization equipment, and a magnetically shielded room for dedicated paleomagnetic measurements in a low-field environment. One DC-SQUID magnetometer with ‘in-line’ ARM and IRM facilities is fitted out with a fully automated robot system. Specific instruments for rock-magnetic and environmental magnetic measurements are available.

Additional information
For informal enquiries, contact prof.dr. Cor Langereis (C.G.Langereis@uu.nl)

You may also wish to visit the websites of the Institute of Earth Sciences Utrecht at http://www.geo.uu.nl/ivau  or the pages of the Paleomagnetic Laboratory at http://www.geo.uu.nl/~forth/  where a full description of the project is available.

Further Information

Application Deadline : 1 September 2012