PhD in Soft and Biodegradable Sensor Technology

Are you an ambitious person who loves working on cutting-edge sensing technologies that contribute to sustainable agri-food production? Are you a team player that loves to work in a multidisciplinary field? Then our vacant position 'PhD in Soft and Biodegradable Sensor Technology' might be for you!

Population growth, climate change, resource depletion, and soil degradation are enormous challenges for agriculture. Successful agricultural decision-making requires sensing soil heterogeneity (soil compaction, moisture, phosphorus, nitrogen) in real-time to optimize time, location, and degree of agricultural operations (e.g., sowing, irrigating, fertilizing, and harvesting). A biodegradable soil sensor system would allow the distribution of a dense sensor network in the soil and monitor soil status without leaving hazardous e-wastes in the environment.

What are you going to do?
The PhD position in Soft and Biodegradable Sensing Technology will focus on developing and studying new biodegradable soil sensors, from their chemical synthesis to their characterization and their applications in the field. The research is mainly grounded in chemistry and material science, but it has influences of artificial intelligence and robotics applied to chemistry, and therefore a background or interest in these disciplines is highly valued.

As a PhD student in Soft and Biodegradable Sensor Technology, you will contribute to the "4TU Green Sensors project". This project is a complementary and multidisciplinary collaboration among the four Dutch universities of technology (Delft University of Technology - TU Delft, Eindhoven University of Technology - TU/e, University of Twente - UT, and Wageningen University & Research - WUR). Supporting a more digitalized and sustainable agriculture, the project aims to develop a biodegradable soil sensor network to be used to sustainably manage or control agri-food production. Mutual collaborations among researchers are central to this project.

The position is embedded in the multidisciplinary BioNanoTechnology group and the candidate will work in close contact with the Farm Technology group in Wageningen and the other groups involved in the 4TU Green Sensor project.