MSCA-PF: Joint application at the University of Granada. Department of Stratigraphy and Paleontology

Professor Antonio García-Alix Daroca from the Department of Stratigraphy and Paleontology at the University of Granada, welcomes postdoctoral candidates interested in applying for a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowships (MSCA-PF) in 2021 at this University. Please note that applicants must comply with the Mobility Rule (more information about the 2020 call: http://sl.ugr.es/0aNV, the 2021 call is not yet open).

Brief description of the institution:

The University of Granada (UGR), founded in 1531, is one of the largest and most important universities in Spain. With over 60.000 undergraduate and postgraduate students and 6.000 staff. UGR offers a total of 89 degrees, 110 master’s degrees and 28 doctoral programmes through its 123 departments and 27 centers. Consequently, the UGR offers one of the most extensive and diverse ranges of higher education programmes in Spain.

The UGR has awarded with the "Human Resources Excellence in Research (HRS4R)", which reflects the UGR’s commitment to continuously improve its human resource policies in line with the European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers. UGR is also a leading institution in research, located in the top 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 - Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) (http://sl.ugr.es/0bsW). The UGR is amongst the 201-300 first universities of the world, between 2nd-5th position of Spanish universities and number 1 in the Andalusian Region in the Shanghai Top 500 ranking. Specialties at UGR that stand out are Library & Information Science (position 32) and Food Science & Technology (position 36). Moreover, the UGR is also situated amongst the first 100 universities in Mining & Mineral Engineering between (76th-100th position), in Mathematics (between 76th-100th position) and in Hospitality & Tourism Management (between 76th-100th position). The edition of the ARWU places the UGR in 201-300th position in the world and as the 4th highest ranked University in Spain, reaffirming its position as an institution at the forefront of national and international research.

Additionally, the UGR has 8 researchers at the top of the Highly Cited Researchers (HCR) list in Computer Sciences & Engineering (position 101-150). It is also well recognized for its web presence (http://sl.ugr.es/0a6i), being positioned at 43th place in the top 200 Universities in Europe.

Internationally, we bet decidedly by our participation in the calls of the Framework Programme of the European Union. For the duration of the last two Framework Programmes, the UGR has obtained a total of 67 projects, with total funding of 18.029 million euros, and for H2020, 118 projects with total funding around 29.115 million euros.

Brief description of the Centre/Research Group:

The overall research topic of our group is the reconstruction of the physical and biological conditions of ancient environments, by means of multidisciplinary approaches, in order to evaluate their response to past climatic fluctuations. In this way, we can understand the past, present and predict future global environmental changes. We develop these studies from three main points of view:

1. Paleoecological and paleoenvironmental studies of fossil mammals. The combination of traditional paleontological and cutting-edge geochemical approaches allows us to better understand the diets and trophic relationships of Neogene and Quaternary mammals, as well as the paleoenvironments where they lived.
2. Paleolimnology (reconstruction of paleoenvironments and paleohydrology from lacustrine records). Our group studies Quaternary paleolimnological records from different latitudes, including the southern Iberian Peninsula, northern England and Scotland, to understand changes in the vegetation, paleohydrology and paleotemperatures by means of a multi-proxy approach, (i.e. pollen, geochemical, and charcoal analyses).
3. Anthropogenic impact in the environment: It was a spin-off from the previous one, and it is becoming more important for our group, as it is essential to quantify the human impact on the natural background to decipher between natural and human-induced environmental/climatic changes. We use similar proxies as in the previous line, but focused on the last 2000 years.

Project description:

The candidate will develop his/her research in the line of “Reconstruction of past environments”, including paleoclimate and paleohydrology. The candidate will use sedimentological, geochemical, and/or geophysical methods. The study of the relationship between the natural environmental background and the anthropogenic impact on the environment (following a multiproxy approach) would be a potential topic for the candidate. For example, our research has identified the oldest lead pollution record in Europe related to old mining and metallurgical activities by means of the analyses of heavy metal in lacustrine sediments. We are also developing new paleoenvironmental proxies using compound-specific biomarkers. In this way, we are testing the identification of livestock development in different regions by means of the analyses of faecal specific-compounds in the sediments, the use of long-chain diols to reconstruct paleotemperatures, or the analyses of deuterium and carbon isotopes in leaf waxes (mainly n-alkanes) to reconstruct past hydrology or Saharan dust inputs in European lakes. These cutting-edge approaches are useful tools either in sedimentary records or archaeological contexts.

The candidate will join a very dynamic group with experience leading national and international peleoenvironmental projects. This research covers the latest trends in research and development (I+D) of the European Union, i.e. the Horizon 2020 area “Environment & Climate Action”, or the “Reto en Acción sobre el cambio climático” from the Plan Estatal de Investigación Científica y Técnica y de Innovación (Spanish MINECO). Therefore, this research it is very likely to be funded at national and international levels.

Research Area:

• Environmental Sciences and Chemistry (ENV-CHE)

For a correct evaluation of your candidature, please send the documents below to Professor Antonio García-Alix Daroca (agalix@ugr.es):

• CV
• Letter of recommendation (optional)