Postdoctoral Research Position at
L'Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris (IPGP) announces a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship financed by the French Research Agency for two years, beginning Fall 2012. Candidates should hold a PhD in a relevant field, such as geosciences, fluid mechanics or related disciplines. Good experimental skills are highly required, but applications from numerical modelling will also be considered. The candidate should be able to work in an international team, since the research project involves the Romanian National Institute for Research and Development of Isotopic and Molecular Technologies, Cluj-Napoca. The research project aims at a quantitative understanding of the Earth's mantle thermal history, through analogue laboratory experiments using fine controlled microwave (MW) power deposition as internal heat source. The originality of the project relies on the fact that volumetric heating produced by MW absorption is related to a convecting volume phase incorporated into a larger volume. The Romanian National Institute is prototyping the microwave heating system. The lab experiments will benefit from coupled sub-projects in the two partner institutes. Several tank geometries, the MW generator and the applicators first prototyped at the Romanian institute will then be tested at IPGP in the Laboratory of Geological Fluids Dynamics. The successful candidate will be in charge of a systematic study exploring the diversity of experimental conditions (viscosity and density heterogeneities) and spatial and temporal evolution of internal heating relevant to the Earth thermal history. Furthermore, the successful candidate may conduct numerical models of mantle convection. L'Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris (IPGP) is a research institution associated to CNRS and member of the PRES Sorbonne Paris Cité. At IPGP the candidate will have the opportunity of interdisciplinary (e.g., geophysics, geochemistry, mineral physics, quantitative geology, planetary science) collaborations. Information and application: Angela Limare, engineer: limare@ipgp.fr |
