PhD position in Engineering Geology

Research Assistant/Associate (f/m/d)

PhD position in Engineering Geology at RWTH Aachen University, Germany

Institution

Lehrstuhl für Ingenieurgeologie und Hydrogeologie

Our Profile

The Chair of Engineering Geology and Hydrogeology of the RWTH Aachen University conducts research with 2 professorships and approx.30 employees in the fields of rock mechanics, landslides, tunneling and groundwater protection. Besides the basic funding, the chair is financed by numerous national and international third-party funded projects. The chair is involved in the study programs applied geosciences and georesource management.

The project LADY – Landslide Dam properties Properties and Stability is an international research project involving scientists from RWTH-Aachen, TU-Delft (Netherlands), University of Iasi (Romania) and Chengdu Uinversity (China).

Your Profile

• Master’s degree in a project-related discipline (e.g. applied geosciences, engineering geology, geotechnical engineering, hydrogeology, etc.)
• Solid knowledge of engineering geology and hydrogeology
• Experience in numerical modelling
• Physical fitness to carry out field work
• Excellent English language skills
• Ability to quickly develop related research skills and knowledge
• Creativity, flexibility, team orientation

Your Duties and Responsibilities

The aim of this project is to understand why some landslide dams maintain stable lakes (for up to thousands of years) while others fail within minutes to a few months after formation. Much is still unknown about the exact failure processes, and understanding of dam performance varies greatly among disciplines. With this project, we aim to bridge this gap by bringing together expertise from landslide sedimentology, dam engineering, hydrology, and numerical analyses. Detailed mapping of the dam will be combined with dam-engineering approaches, evaluation of the lake’s water balance, numerical simulation of dam performance, and testing of a new hypothesis that may synergize the hydraulic criteria responsible for overtopping and piping failure into one process. With this holistic, multi-disciplinary approach, we expect to deepen the current knowledge of dam failure processes and make progress in our understanding of dam failure.

Tasks

• Review landslide-dam databases and statistical analyses
• Field work Romania and China including geophysical, geotechnical and hydrological methods
• 3-dimensional numerical analysis of dam failure (back analysis) and forward analysis for stability prediction and assessing the critical parameters

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What We Offer

The successful candidate will be employed under a regular employment contract.
The position is to be filled by 10/1/2023 and offered for a fixed term This is a three-year position..
The fixed-term employment is possible as it constitutes one of the fixed-term options of the Wissenschaftszeitvertragsgesetz (German Act on Fixed-term Scientific Contracts).
This is a part-time position (75 % of the standard weekly hours for full-time employees).
The successful candidate has the opportunity to pursue a doctoral degree in this position.
The salary is based on the German public service salary scale (TV-L).
The position corresponds to a pay grade of EG 13 TV-L.

About us

RWTH is a certified family-friendly University. We support our employees in maintaining a good work-life balance with a wide range of health, advising, and prevention services, for example university sports. Employees who are covered by collective bargaining agreements and civil servants have access to an extensive range of further training courses and the opportunity to purchase a job ticket.
RWTH is an equal opportunities employer. We therefore welcome and encourage applications from all suitably qualified candidates, particularly from groups that are underrepresented at the University. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment and will not be discriminated against on the basis of national or ethnic origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, disability or age. RWTH is strongly committed to encouraging women in their careers. Female applicants are given preference if they are equally suitable, competent, and professionally qualified, unless a fellow candidate is favored for a specific reason.
As RWTH is committed to equality of opportunity, we ask you not to include a photo in your application.
You can find information on the personal data we collect from applicants in accordance with Articles 13 and 14 of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) at http://www.rwth-aachen.de/dsgvo-information-bewerbung.