Published: 27 March 2024
Zürich
100%
Internship
ETH Zürich
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Doctoral student – mycelium for faecal sludge degradation
100%, Zurich, fixed-term
The Global Health Engineering (GHE) group is based within the Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering at ETH. Our group is mainly composed of environmental engineers, economists and social scientists. Our work is transdisciplinary and all research focuses on engineering aspects of environmental and human health in resource-constrained countries. We are guided by the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with a focus on 6, 11, and 12.
Project background
Approximately 2.6 billion people do not have access to safe sanitation, but unsafe treatment and widespread dumping exposes billions more people, even those with access, to the myriad health consequences of poor excreta management. And though efforts have focused on improving the affordability and accessibility of safe emptying services, parallel in-situ technologies are required to hygienise pit-contained excreta that is too difficult or expensive to extract for off-site treatment.
Job description
Recently, mycelium has been embraced as a low-cost, highly adaptable, degradable material for a variety of applications. However, in the context of sanitation, little work has addressed the possibilities of using mycelium as a treatment technology. By testing different strains, growing conditions, and product configurations, we aim to develop low-cost mycelium-based materials that can accelerate sludge degradation, extend the life of latrines, and/or reduce the need for offsite treatment. Unlike other GHE positions, this work will be primarily based in the laboratory at ETH Zurich with limited travel.
Your profile
We are looking for a candidate who is as committed to scientific discovery as they are to sanitation. The ideal candidate has:
Your workplace
Your workplace
We offer
We are a small and committed team of about ten people with a collegial culture. We value transparency, openness and believe it is important to share our knowledge with others in formats beyond just publications. We reflect on our work and constantly improve it. We believe that the world can be improved by publishing the work openly. We do not just mean results, we share data, code, and designs under permissive licence so anyone can reuse and build upon our work without restrictions.
We value diversity
Curious? So are we.
We look forward to receiving your online application (in English) including:
The application and selection process will follow these dates:
Ideally, the candidate will be able to start 1 September 2024, though we will consider each candidate’s personal situation.
More information about the Interview process:
Please note that we exclusively accept applications submitted through our online application portal. Applications via email or postal services will not be considered.
About ETH Zürich
Curious? So are we.
We look forward to receiving your online application (in English) including:
The application and selection process will follow these dates:
Ideally, the candidate will be able to start 1 September 2024, though we will consider each candidate’s personal situation.
More information about the Interview process:
Please note that we exclusively accept applications submitted through our online application portal. Applications via email or postal services will not be considered.