Post-doctoral position in Atmospheric Chemistry

Public establishment belonging to IMT (Institut Mines-Télécom), placed under the supervision of the Ministry of Economy, Finance and Industrial and Digital Sovereignty, IMT Nord Europe has three main objectives: providing our students with ethically responsible engineering practice enabling them to solve 21st century issues, carrying out our R&D activities leading to outstanding innovations and supporting territorial development through innovation and entrepreneurship. Ideally positioned at the heart of Europe, 1 hour away from Paris, 30 min from Brussels and 1h30 from London, IMT Nord Europe has strong ambitions to become a main actor of the current industrial transitions, digital and environmental, by combining education and research on engineering and digital technologies.

Located on two main campuses dedicated to research and education in Douai and Lille, IMT Nord Europe offers research facilities of almost 20,000m² in the following areas:

-              Digital science,

-              Processes for industry and services,

-              Energy and Environment,

-              Materials and Processes.

For more details, visit the School’s website: https://imt-nord-europe.fr/en/

The position is vacant within the Centre for Education, Research and Innovation in Energy and Environment (CERI EE) of IMT Nord Europe. The CERI’s website can be accessed here: https://research.imt-nord-europe.fr/energy-and-environment/

The post-doctoral work will be carried out in the frame of a collaboration between the Atmospheric Sciences and Environmental Engineering research unit (SAGE) of CERI EE and the department of Atmospheric Sciences of the National Central University (NCU) in Taiwan.

SAGE has ongoing research activities focusing on atmospheric chemistry, air quality and the impacts of human activities on the composition of the atmosphere. It has currently a staff of about 50 people including 17 full-time faculty members. Research projects aim at a better understanding of the physical and chemical processes involved in the formation, transport and aging/transformation of gaseous and particulate pollutants in outdoor and indoor atmospheres.

During this post-doctoral appointment at CERI EE, IMT Nord Europe, the research activities will be carried out within the framework of two projects:

• FrenchTaiwanese bilateral project OSEAMS (Tropospheric Ozone in South East Asia: Budget and Mitigation Strategies), supported by the French National Research Agency (ANR) and Taiwan’s National Science and Technology Council (NSTC),
• French national project ECOZONE ((Study of Emission Sources of NonConventional Volatile Organic Compounds and Their Impact on Ozone), funded by the French Agency for Ecological Transition (ADEME).

Together, these projects seek to improve our understanding of ozone formation in the atmosphere and to contribute to the design of effective strategies for reducing ozone pollution and its impacts.

In the OSEAMS project, the postdoctoral researcher will mainly work with zero-dimensional box models, using historical atmospheric observation data to analyze the drivers of ozone formation and their evolution in Taiwan. A limited number of chamber experiments will be conducted to supplement the modelling results and refine the interpretation of ozone production processes.

Within the ECOZONE project, the postdoctoral researcher will contribute to a measurement campaign in the city of Lille (France) aimed at characterizing the ozone budget and the chemical processes driving local ozone formation. The work will involve deploying and operating advanced instruments to monitor trace gases. This field data will help disentangle the relative roles of transport and in-situ chemistry, and assess the influence of various urban emission sources.

The recruited post-doctoral fellow will be supported by an engineer who will assist with the operation of the chamber and instrumentation. This work is expected to result in both scientific publications and presentations at international conferences.

PhD in atmospheric chemistry

Knowledge of atmospheric chemistry and analytical chemistry is required.