PhD Positions Icy Moons Oceans

Overview

Help uncover how the hidden oceans on icy moons like Enceladus, Europa, and Ganymede interact with their surfaces and can be observed. Join a highly interdisciplinary ERC-funded team combining laboratory experiments, modelling and JWST data to explore the most promising extraterrestrial environments for life.

Most oceans in our Solar System lie beneath kilometres of ice. Yet on moons such as Enceladus, Europa and Ganymede, ocean water leaks through cracks, plumes and surface fractures, offering rare natural access to environments that may support life. The ERC Advanced Grant Leaking Oceans aims to determine how efficiently ocean material reaches the surface, how these processes work, and how we can detect their signatures with modern astronomical instruments such as the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

Within this ambitious program, three PhD candidates will work closely together to build a microscopic-to-global understanding of ice formation, plume processes and ocean–surface transport. Their combined efforts will generate new laboratory data, physical models and spectroscopic tools to interpret remote-sensing observations of icy moons. You will join an interdisciplinary and international team that integrates laboratory astrochemistry, spectroscopy, quantum chemistry, radiative-transfer modelling and planetary science.

Each PhD project has a distinct focus but is designed for strong scientific interaction.

All three PhD candidates will work in close collaboration, benefiting from complementary approaches and shared scientific goals. You will join a vibrant research environment, contribute to the interpretation of cutting-edge JWST data and help advance the search for habitable environments beyond Earth. Two postdoc positions will join the team at a later stage.

Please indicate clearly in your application which of the three PhD positions (1, 2 or
3) has your preference, and why.

• A Master’s degree in physics, planetary science, astrochemistry, applied mathematics, fluid dynamics or a closely related field (depending on the chosen PhD project).
• Strong motivation to conduct interdisciplinary research within an international scientific team.
• For PhDs 1–2: experience or clear affinity with experimental methods, spectroscopy or laboratory studies of ices or materials.
• For PhD 3: experience or affinity with numerical modelling, fluid dynamics, or computational physics.
• Strong analytical skills and the ability to work independently and collaboratively.
• Good spoken and written English, enabling effective teamwork in our diverse community.

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