The research will involve both processing 10-year SPOT-Vegetation time series (satellite data) to derive and analyse the vegetation phenology trends at global scale, and developing a forest cover change model for Central Africa. The phenology results and the GIS model outputs will be used in the vegetation model ORCHIDEE to improve our understanding of the terrestrial carbon cycle and forecast its evolution under different land-use and climate change scenarios.

Supported by the Federal Science Policy Office, the PhD research will take place within the VEGECLIM project involving the Research Laboratory in Environmetrics and Geomatics (UCL, coordinator), the laboratory of Plant Ecology (UGent) and the Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement (LSCE, Paris). The project will provide quantitative estimates of the carbon stocks and fluxes in Africa and more particularly in central African forests.
The candidate will be :
- graduated as bioengineer or equivalent ;
- trained in remote sensing, geomatics and/or time series analysis ;
- fluent in french and english ;
- eligible and motivated to complete a PhD thesis ;
- able to actively contribute to an international research effort.

Additional experiences in remote sensing, image processing, land-cover change modelling and travels in African countries are most welcomed. Regular visits to UGent and LSCE are expected. For any complementary information, please contact Pr. Emmanuel Hanert (Emmanuel.Hanert@uclouvain) or Pr. Pierre Defourny (Pierre.Defourny@uclouvain.be)

The interested candidates are invited to send a detailed curriculum vitae and a motivation letter in a paper format and by email before the 1st December 2009 to

Prof. P. Defourny
UCL – Dpt of Environmental Sciences and Land Use Planning
Croix du Sud, 2 bte 16
1348 Louvain-la-Neuve
Belgium

The requirement for this position is a diploma or masters degree in engineering, applied mathematics, physics or a similar subject. Desired are very good skills in mechanics, computational mechanics, numerical mathematics and finite element methods as well as a successful record of working independently.

The AICES graduate school was established under the Excellence Initiative of the German federal and state governments to promote novel research and training in the field of computational engineering science. The school is a collaboration of 15 university institutes, the Jülich Supercomputer Center, and the Max Planck Institute for Iron Research. Aices organizes the doctoral education of ca. 80 students, as well as about 12 independent junior research groups. AICES provides excellent computational facilities and a dynamic service team. The working language is English.

The candidate will be employed as a regular employee. The candidate must meet required personal qualifications. The position is to be filled by 01.01.2010 and is for a fixed term until December 2012. The standard weekly hours will be 39,83 hours. Salary is according to TV-L E 13.

Application materials (personal statement, CV, transcripts,list of publications) should be sent to:

sauer@aices.rwth-aachen.de

If electronic application is not possible, please send the application material to:

Docotral Position in Computational Mechanics
AICES, RWTH Aachen University
Templergraben 55, 52062 Aachen, Germany

Applications will be considered starting November 1, 2009 until the position is filled. For further information, please contact:

Dr. Nicole Faber, faber@aices.rwth-aachen.de, Tel. +49-241-80-99130.
Dr. Roger Sauer, sauer@aices.rwth-aachen.de, Tel. +49-241-80-99132.