4 Marie Curie European Industrial Doctorate PhD fellowships for Early Stage Researchers EID Project... (# of pos: 4)

Applications are welcome for the opening of 4 Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) positions associated with PhD-level research activities as part of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie European Industrial Doctorate (EID) programme related to the Consortium “REMEDI” (Trapping and Removal of X-ray Contrast Medium agents from water resource and stream Sediments New Concepts in Trapping, Recycling and Management). The latter leverages on a partnership between Politecnico di Milano (Italy), the University of Warwick (United Kingdom) and TAUW GMBH (Germany).

We offer 4 full-time Marie Skłodowska-Curie scholarships, each for a period of 36 months, with strong career perspectives in academic and industrial sectors.

REMEDI is keyed towards a multidisciplinary, cross-sectoral approach to investigate and characterize dynamics and feedbacks across the water-soil system and relevant categories of pharmaceutical compounds. Salient aspects related to the assessment of the distribution of these compounds in groundwater will be analyzed from a water resource management perspective and considering the effects of multiple sources of uncertainty (including structural and parametric uncertainties, i.e., uncertainty about a given conceptual and mathematical model and the embedded parameters and driving forces) on predictive uncertainty.

Objectives: Assessment of: (a) the sorption capacity of selected Contrasting Media Agents, including characterization of the kinetic behavior associated with sorbents (with ESR 2, 5) and (b) the influence of environmental variables on sorption capacity and kinetics (with ESR 2, 3); development of design criteria for a CMA-removal system based on selected sorbent materials (with ESR 4); optimization of the properties of the selected sorbents in view of recycling or application of recovered agent as contrast media (with ESR 5).

Objectives:Experimental and modeling investigations of the long-term effect of Fe supplementation to soil-water systems (including lakes and rivers) on the speciation of CM agents in sediments; assessment of the possibility of binding of dissolved CMA onto Fe-containing geo-materials under various flow conditions (with ESR 1, 4); investigation of the effect of adding Fe-containing materials to the system on seasonal CMA dynamics (with ESR 1, 4) and quantitative characterization of impacts on environmental variables of the water body quality (with ESR 3, 5).

Objectives: Concept and design of a CMA removal system based on Fe-containing sorbent geomaterials; experimental activities to test the application of the system in an industrially relevant context (with ESR 5); derive hydrological/hydrogeological theoretical and operational criteria for the design of CMA-removal systems (based on, e.g., temporal changes in permeability or other system attributes, under uncertainty associated with natural heterogeneity; with ESR 1, 4); study the bonding of CMA in exemplary (heterogeneous) natural settings and ensuing geochemical alterations upon exposure to geochemical field conditions, including uncertainty quantification in a stochastic framework of analysis (with ESR 2); assessment about the long-term stability of Fe-containing sorbents under realistic conditions.

Objectives:Study the effects of inorganic and organic solutes on the structure, colloidal behavior, and uptake of Fe oxidation products (laboratory experiments; theoretical and modeling activities; field studies with ESR1, 2); study (theoretical, modeling, and experimental approaches) transformations and dynamics associated with CMA-containing porous (geo)materials as a function of solution and/or soil chemistry (with ESR 2); quantification of uptake in CMAs by fresh precipitates and retention/release during aging under typical environmental conditions (ESR 1, 2).