Description of Hosting Institution (UJA – Spain)

Jaén University (UJA) was created in 1993 and is in the Top 50 of the world’s best young universities according to THE (Times Higher Education). This ranking analyzes aspects such as teaching, research work, the university’s international outreach, or integration into industry. Besides, the UJA has received the distinction of Campus of International Excellence in the fields of Agrifood (CEIA3) and Climate Change (CamBio), plus it also leads the Andalusian CEI project on historical heritage PatrimoniUN10.

Jaén University has five faculties (Social and Legal Sciences; Humanities and Education Sciences; Health Sciences; Experimental Sciences and Social Work) and two higher polytechnic schools for engineering (Linares and Jaén). In turn, these centers are organized into 35 departments. It also has three Postgraduate educational centers (Doctorate School, Advanced Study Center in Modern Languages and Postgraduate Study Center).

In regards to its research, there are several specialized centers at Jaén University (https://www.ujaen.es/servicios/ofipi/uja-ri-expertise). Besides, the full picture of the over 100 UJA groups covers the following research fields of expertise: Agrifood (AGR); Biology (BIO); Health (CTS); Social Sciences, Business, Law (SEJ); Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics (FQM); Humanities (HUM); Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences (RNM); Information and Communications Technology (TIC); and Engineering Production Technology (TEP).

As far this hosting offer is concerned, Prof. FRANCISCO PARTAL UREÑA would be willing to host post-doctoral researchers that are eventually funded through the MSCA-IF 2021 call for applications to be part of the following UJA research team: https://www.ujaen.es/servicios/ofipi/uja-ri-expertise/fqm-173-theoretical-and-experimental-physical-chemistry

Project description

Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) and Oxygenated Volatile organic compounds (OVOCs) are emitted into the atmosphere from anthropogenic and biogenic sources, and may also be formed in situ in the atmosphere as products of the atmospheric transformations of other VOCs/OVOCs. Oxygenated volatile organic compounds (OVOCs) are generally more reactive than the alkanes from which they are derived. On a worldwide basis, emission of VOCs/OVOCs from biogenic sources (mainly vegetation) dominates over those from anthropogenic sources, although in urban areas anthropogenic VOCs /OVOCs often dominate. In the atmosphere, VOCs/OVOCs undergo many physical and chemical processes leading to their removal from the atmosphere or transformation in it. For example, they play an active role in the sequence of chemical reactions responsible for tropospheric ozone formation in both polluted and remote environments and the formation of secondary organic aerosols. The characterization of the detailed chemical mechanisms involved in those processes can be used in assessments of relative atmospheric reactivities of organic compounds and can provide the basis for the derivation of more condensed mechanisms for use in air quality simulation models. To achieve this goal, a detailed study of the molecular structure of representative VOCs/OVOCs and their chemical degradation mechanism relationship in the atmosphere is required. To do this, in the present project a joint theoretical (Quantum Mechanics based calculations,) and experimental (Molecular Spectroscopy techniques) are proposed.

Pre-application procedure

Interested applicants (PhD holders) should send their CV, Motivation letter and Summary of project proposal (250 words) to the UJA potential proposal supervisor (fpartal@ujaen.es) by the hosting offer deadline. Please, take into account that only candidates that meet the MSCA-IF 2021 application requirements according to the Funding & Tenders Portal (such as the so-called ‘mobility rule’) will be considered for proposal supervision.