PhD position on stone conservation using micro-organisms (1.0 FTE)

The Department of Earth Sciences is now looking for a highly-motivated candidate to fill a PhD position on the impact of microbial treatment on the weathering behaviour of rocks.
Physical, chemical and biological weathering has a profound impact on the Earth’s landscape and on its building infrastructure. Rock and masonry are constantly damaged and disaggregated by chemical reactions, water infiltration and temperature changes. Strengthening efforts to protect and safeguard the world’s cultural and natural heritage is one of the United Nations’ Targets for Sustainable Cities and Communities in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Fluids are a major driver of rock weathering: they trigger, among others, dissolution, precipitation, frost and salt weathering. The key to manipulating weathering lies in understanding and controlling fluid flow within the internal pore structure of rocks and thereby influencing the related pore-scale processes. While microbial organisms are generally known to alter rock surfaces, some actually display physiological capabilities that have beneficial effects on rock properties due to their production of bio-cement, gas and acids. Before we can harness these beneficial effects, we must first study how these organisms impact fluid flow at pore scale.

The Dutch Research Council VICI project, led by Prof. Veerle Cnudde, 'Towards protecting and improving building stones through microbial manipulation of pore structure' (short: BugControl), will focus on the understanding of bio-manipulated pore-scale processes inside rocks. The 4-year PhD project aims to steer fluid-rock interaction by applying microbial organisms on and inside stone. The outcomes of this PhD project will be incorporated into a team-effort to predict the impact of microbial organisms on rock properties and develop smart bio-conservation strategies. The PhD project will explore how bacteria can be positively used for stone conservation and develop a protocol for stone conservation. The impact of micro-organisms on stone characteristics and their resistance towards accelerated weathering experiments, will be determined. After lab experiments on small samples (milli- to centimeter scale), the most successful conservation strategies will be applied on larger samples in the lab and in the field.

The PhD candidate will engage in a trans-disciplinary research environment by closely collaborating with two postdoctoral fellows and one other PhD candidate, who are all part of the BugControl project, and numerous PhD students and Postdoctoral fellows working in the field of advanced imaging techniques and pore scale processes. Fieldwork campaigns are planned to take place in The Netherlands and Belgium. Advanced imaging experiments for monitoring the biological activity inside pores, will mainly be planned in Belgium. As such, the PhD candidate will be co-supervised by a Professor of Ghent University Belgium. A minimum research visit of a total of 6 months at Ghent University is anticipated. A personalised training programme will be set up, which will reflect the candidate's training needs and career objectives. As part of this training, up to 10% of the candidate's time will be dedicated to assisting in Bachelor's and Master's teaching programmes.