Hamburg University of Applied Sciences (HAW) is offering two PhD positions to study the ecotoxicology of rare earth elements in aquatic organisms.

Rare earth elements are crucial to a range of modern technologies; they are widely used in agriculture (e.g., fertilizers), animal production (e.g., micronutrients), technology (e.g., as fluid cracking catalysts), and medicine (e.g., contrast-agents). This leads to increased emissions to the environment. As a consequence, rare earth elements are now considered to be ‘emerging contaminants’, for which negative effects on environmental health have been suggested.

Two PhD positions are available in this context. For more details, please see the official job postings linked below:

Position 1: “Chronic impacts of REE in a bentho-pelagic food web”

This position aims to identify chronic impacts on multiple biological species in a simulated environment.

Position 2: “Toxicokinetics and Toxicodynamics of Lanthanides in aquatic organisms”

This position aims to perform the first draft of a biotic ligand model by studying rare earth element uptake, transport, excretion in and the biological effect on aquatic organisms as a function of the environmental parameters.