项目介绍

2026年6月2日

In this fully funded, four-year PhD project, you will unveil the future climate of the Antarctic ice sheet. Uniquely, this project extends the scope to the year 2300, far beyond the IPCC time horizon of 2100, to capture currently unknown feedback effects in the cold Antarctic environment. You will use a state-of-the-art regional climate forced by a global Earth System Model, and snow/firn cover hydrology models, present your results at international meetings, and publish them in peer-reviewed literature. 

Your job

The future mass loss of the Antarctic ice sheet constitutes the greatest uncertainty in projections of global sea level rise. A major part of this uncertainty resides in the timing of ice flow acceleration, in response to ice shelf collapse resulting from surface meltwater ponding and hydrofracturing, as happened to the Larsen B ice shelf in 2002 and numerous ice shelves before and since. In this project, we will quantify when, where, and under what warming scenario this process will become critical for other Antarctic ice shelves. Unique aspects of this work are that we will look at three climate scenarios (low/mid/high warming), extend the projection horizon to 2300, and use unprecedented high resolution. To that end, you will work with two state-of-the-art climate models: the regional climate model RACMO2.4 (forced at the lateral and top boundaries by the earth system model IPSL and/or CESM) and IMAU-FDM which simulates the firn layer, which is currently being updated with a new hydrology routine to allow melt ponding to be predicted.

This project introduces you to the cryospheric research community and enables you to become an expert in the future of the Antarctic ice sheet. The research project is a blend of modelling and data analysis, in which you will run long simulations and analyse and visualize the large datasets that the models produce. In doing so, your work will help to constrain — or warn for — future sea level rise. You will be part of a team of ~20 researchers, including fellow PhD candidates and postdoctoral researchers working with RACMO2.4 and IMAU-FDM. During your PhD, you will attend international scientific conferences to share your research with the wider community. Besides the research work, you will assist in academic courses in the Department of Physics. 

Your qualities

We are looking for an enthusiastic colleague who meets several or all of the following criteria:

• You have a MSc degree in (climate) physics or equivalent;
• You have a keen interest in modelling and process-understanding of (polar) weather and climate;
• You have excellent skills in academic writing, oral presentation, and figure drafting;
• You have experience in (climate) modelling and are familiar with high-performance computing (HPC);
• You have strong coding skills (Python, Fortran) and experience in handling and visualizing large (climate) datasets;
• You are willing to assist in academic teaching in the Department of Physics (10-15% of your time);
• You can work independently as well as in a team.

Our offer

• a position for 18 months, with an extension to a total of four years upon a positive performance review in the first 18 months;
• a gross monthly salary between €3,059 and €3,881 based on full-time employment (salary scale P under the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities (CAO NU));
• 8% holiday pay and 8.3% year-end bonus;
• a pension scheme, partially paid parental leave, and flexible terms of employment based on the CAO NU.

In addition to the terms of employment laid down in the CAO NU, Utrecht University also offers a range of its own schemes for employees. This includes arrangements for professional development, various types of leave, and options for sports and cultural activities. You can also tailor your employment conditions through our Terms of Employment Options Model. In this way, we encourage you to keep investing in your personal and professional development. For more information, please visit Working at Utrecht University.

About us

A better future for everyone. This ambition motivates our scientists in executing their leading research and inspiring teaching. At Utrecht University, the various disciplines collaborate intensively towards major strategic themes. Our focus is on Dynamics of Youth, Institutions for Open Societies, Life Sciences and Pathways to Sustainability. Sharing science, shaping tomorrow.

Working at the Faculty of Science external link means bringing together inspiring people across disciplines and with a variety of perspectives and backgrounds. The Faculty has six departments: Biology, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Information & Computing Sciences, Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics. Together, we work on excellent research and inspiring education. We do so, driven by curiosity and supported by outstanding infrastructure. Visit us on LinkedIn and discover how you can become part of our community.

You will work in the Institute for Marine and Atmospheric research Utrecht external link (IMAU), one of the four research institutes at UU’s Department of Physics external link in the Faculty of Science. You will be a member of IMAU’s Ice and Climate research group, consisting of ~20 enthusiastic polar climate specialists (staff, postdocs, PhD candidates, MSc students) who have over three decades of experience in performing in situ observations and modelling the climate and mass balance of the great ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica. You will be supervised on a weekly basis by a team of three (co-)promotores. You will also be embedded in the small teams of RACMO and IMAU-FDM modellers, where we work in a positive, collaborative atmosphere. For this work, we also foresee close collaborations with colleagues at the UU Faculty of Geosciences and the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute, as well as with international colleagues. 

More information

For more information, please contact Michiel van den Broeke at m.r.vandenbroeke@uu.nl.

Do you have a question about the application procedure? Please send an email to science.recruitment@uu.nl.

Apply now

As Utrecht University, we want to be a home for everyone. We value staff with diverse backgrounds, perspectives and identities, including cultural, religious or ethnic background, gender, sexual orientation, disability or age. We strive to create a safe and inclusive environment in which everyone can flourish and contribute.

Knowledge security screening can be part of the selection procedures of academic staff. We do this, among other things, to prevent the unwanted transfer of sensitive knowledge and technology.

If you are enthusiastic about this position, just apply via the “Apply now” button! Please enclose:

• your letter of motivation;
• your Curriculum vitae;
• the names, telephone numbers, and email addresses of at least two references.