MSCA-IF: Joint application at the University of Granada. Department of Microbiology

Professor Mohamed Larbi Merroun, from the Department of Microbiology at the University of Granada, welcomes postdoctoral candidates interested in applying for a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (MSCA-IF) in 2018 at this University. Please note that applicants must comply with the Mobility Rule (more information: http://sl.ugr.es/09Qg).

Brief description of the institution:

The University of Granada (UGR), founded in 1531, is one of the largest and most important universities in Spain. It serves more than 60000 students per year, including many foreign students, as UGR is the leader host institution in the Erasmus program. UGR, featuring 3650 professors and more than 2000 auxiliary personnel, offers a total of 75 degrees through its 112 departments and 28 centers.

UGR is also a leading institution in research, located in the top 5/10 of Spanish universities by a variety of ranking criteria, such as national R&D projects, fellowships awarded, publications, or international funding. UGR is one of the few Spanish Universities listed in the Shanghai Top 500 ranking (http://www.arwu.org/), and it is also well recognized for its web presence (http://www.4icu.org/top200/).

Internationally, we bet decidedly by our participation in the calls of H2020, both at partner and coordination. For the duration of the Seventh Framework Programme, the UGR has obtained a total of 66 projects, with total funding of 17.97 million euros, and for H2020, until 2015, more than 25 projects with total funding of more than 6 million euros. Our more than 3,000 researchers are grouped into 365 research groups covering all scientific fields and disciplines.

Brief description of the Centre/Research Group

The research Group headed by Dr. Mohamed Merroun at the Department of Microbiology has research interests on different fields related to Geomicrobiology, Biogeochemistry of heavy metal contaminated sites, Microbiology of deep geological disposal of radioactive wastes, bioremediation of heavy metals, production of biogenic metallic nanoparticles with different industrial applications, etc. using a multidisciplinary approach combining microbiology, microscopy, spectroscopy, etc.

Dr. Merroun has published more than 70 papers, reviews and book chapters (more than 1300 citations) in peer-reviewed international scientific press, including Physical Review Letters, Journal of Hazardous Materials, Applied and Environmental Microbiology, etc. His hirsh index is 20. He takes on ad hoc peer-review tasks for a wide range of scientific journal and research agencies. He has secured >1.000.000€ funding over the last 6 years from Private companies (AREVA mines), Horizont2020 EU Program, Spanish Government, University of Granada, etc. The team of Dr. Merroun include one Associate Professor, 2 senior scientists, 4 PhD students, 1 technician, 3 master students, 2 bachelor students, etc. The research Group collaborate strongly with international research Groups from University of Birmingham (Prof. Lynne Macaskie), University of Swansea (Prof. Jesus Ojeda), University of Sheffield (Prof. Maria Romero Gonzalez) University of Manchester (Prof. Jon Lloyd), University of Linnaeus, Sweden (Prof. Mark Dopson), University of Toronto (Prof. Maria Dittrich), etc.

Project description

The main aim of the project proposed by Dr. Merroun is to applied environmentally friendly and efficient microbiological methods to fabricate nanostructures of different types (metallic, oxides, etc.), different size, shape and crystalline properties. The molecular and atomic structure of these nanostructures will be characterized using a multidisciplinary approach combining microscopy (STEM/HAADF, HRTEM/EDX, etc.), Spectroscopy (X-ray Absorption spectroscopy, Infrared spectroscopy, etc.). The fabricated biogenic nanometric structures will be assayed for their application in different fields such as catalysis of chemical reactions, remediation of inorganic contaminants, etc. In addition, inorganically and microbiologically produced nanostructures will be investigated in their toxicity towards microbial cells using flow cytometry techniques. These toxicological studies will provide new insights on the effect of engineered nanoparticles on microbiota. The analysis of the samples will be conducted at the technical instrumentation facilities of the University of Granada, at different European synchrotron facilities across Europe such as ESRF (France), Soleil (France), Diamond (UK) etc. and also in collaborations with research groups mentioned above. 

Research Area

• Environmental Sciences and Chemistry (ENV-CHE)
• Life Sciences (LIFE)

For a correct evaluation of your candidature, please send the documents below to Professor Mohamed Larbi Merroun (merroun@ugr.es):

• CV
• Letter of recommendation (optional)