PhD student position in Sustainable urban energy futures – method development at Chalmers University of Technology, The Department of Energy and Environment excels in research and education related to energy, environment and sustainable development ranging from a global perspective to industrial, building and product issues. The focus is on experimental and theoretical research on energy technology as well as on development, use and evaluation of methods and tools for analysis of technical systems. In total around 200 persons are active at the six divisions of the department.
Information about the division
The position is placed at the Division of Energy Technology. At the Division of Energy Technology we are carrying out research and teaching in energy conversion, energy technology and systems. We are giving courses in energy conversion and technologies, combustion technology and energy systems modeling and planning. The research areas cover biomass combustion and gasification, different technologies for carbon dioxide capture and energy systems analysis and modeling. The research aims at contributing in finding ways of decreasing the environmental impact caused by energy conversion and use.
In the Energy Systems Technology research group research issues comprise methods for analysis of national and local energy systems including district heating systems, energy systems modelling, energy technology learning and technology impact assessments, energy policy tool assessments and co-benefits of climate policies.
Job description
The position is a PhD student or Post-doc position with the purpose to develop a methodology for assessing the sustainability of district-heating systems. This methodology will utilize existing methods for assessing economic, environmental, and social impacts in a systems perspective. Finding the relevant combinations of these methods and refining the methods for the purpose of assessing district-heating systems is a key element in the research. A participatory approach will be used to identify the relevant sustainability aspects, the most important mechanisms that govern these aspects, and the most adequate tools to analyze the mechanisms.
The majority of your working time is devoted to your own research studies. A PhD student is also expected to develop own ideas and communicate scientific results orally as well as in written form.
In addition, the position will normally include 20% departmental work, mostly teaching duties.
The employment is limited to a maximum of five years.
Qualifications
We are looking for a highly qualified candidate with a PhD or Master`s Degree. The degree can be within a number of areas: engineering, economics, environment, etc. However, the successful candidate will have significant education or professional experience from the environmental field and, preferably, also from economics or social aspects. A broad experience from the use of methods for systems analysis (such as life cycle assessment, cost-benefit analysis, dynamic and optimizing models, and participatory approaches) is an advantage. The ability and willingness to learn to understand a broad range of methods for systems analysis is a must. Communication skills are also important.
The undergraduates are normally taught in Swedish, although the graduate level teaching is in English. Thus good language skills are required. Applicants who do not have Swedish as native language should be able to teach in Swedish after two years of employment.
Application procedure
- Documents
- CV
- attested copies of education certificates, including grade reports and other documents
- letters of recommendation from academic institutions and/or previous employers (optional)
- Personal letter:
- maximum one A4 page containing your specific qualifications for the position.
- Publications:
- relevant work such as bachelor`s or master`s thesis (or outline of a thesis under preparation
For questions, please contact
Erik Ahlgren, associate professor, +46 31 772 5247, email: erik.ahlgren@chalmers.se
Visit Official Website
Reference number: 20110041
Application deadline: August, 15th 2011. PhD student position in Sustainable urban energy futures – method development at Chalmers University of Technology
