DAAD scholarship for international doctoral candidates (m/f/d)

Application open until 31.01.2023.

Supported by the Graduate School Scholarship Program (GSSP) of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), the Graduate School of Geosciences (GSGS) at the University of Cologne is offering promising international doctoral students the opportunity to do their doctorate within the CRC 1357 Microplastics, which is supervised by Cologne geoscientist Prof. Dr. Christina Bogner. Applications will be accepted until 31 January 2023. The scholarship is funded by the DAAD for up to 4 years. Further information on the application process can be found on the website of the University of Cologne (Link).

The CRC 1357 Project B06 is led by Prof. Christina Bogner “Transport of microplastics in the soil and on the soil surface”:

The pollution of ecosystems by microplastics (MP) has become an important topic in the media in recent years. So far, the focus of research and reporting has been primarily on the oceans. In the meantime, however, we also know that soils are also strongly affected. As part of our research, we are investigating the deposition, transport and erosion of microplastics in sediments and soils as well as on their surfaces. Our goal is to gain a fundamental mechanistic understanding of the behaviour and transport of MP particles in soils as a function of the physical and chemical properties of the plastics. Furthermore, we investigate the influence of microplastics on hydraulic soil properties. Our subproject B06 is jointly led by Prof. Bogner, Prof. Gekle (Biofluid Simulation and Modelling, Uni Bayreuth) and Dr. Löder (Animal Ecology I, Uni Bayreuth). In addition, we are investigating microplastic pollution at the interfaces between aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, e.g., in the floodplains of the Rhine and Elbe. Especially in floodplains, MP particles can accumulate in the soils and be vertically displaced.