PhD on Nano-Chemical Analysis of Protein-based Drugs Formulations

Are you a highly driven and an extremely curious person loving interdisciplinary Science? Do you have an MSc degree in Physics or Chemistry with focus on Analytical and/or Biomolecular Sciences? That makes a match!

We are looking for a PhD student with great interest in applied physics and analytical chemistry to push the boundaries and develop the capabilities of modern nanoscale chemical imaging and spectroscopy to study protein and their biomolecular assembly at the single molecule level.

Your work will contribute to understanding how protein interact with themselves to study the stability of drugs against type 2 diabetes, as well as the molecular interactions between therapeutic antibodies with amyloids to target Alzheimer’s disease.

Your duties and responsibilities include:

• developing the technical capabilities and sensitivity of nano-chemical imaging and spectroscopy to study protein structure and chemical properties;
• study the interaction between amyloidogenic protein and drug formulations;
• employ AI, chemometrics and machine learning to process a large amount of nano-data, allowing patterns recognition and prediction.

You will work here
The research will be embedded within the chair of Physical Chemistry and Soft Matter (PCC) at Wageningen University. You will be member of the Nanoscale Imaging and Spectroscopy team, which is led by dr Francesco Simone Ruggeri. You will work in collaboration with dr. Ioana Ilie at Amsterdam University, as well as several industrial partners: Bruker Nano (USA); Digital Surf (France); Novo Nordisk (Denmark); Discoveric Bio Alpha (Switzerland).

Post-doctoral Position: Law and Planetary Transformations

Do you agree that law should play a key role in governing planetary transformations? Do you agree that much of environmental law has thus far failed to respond to the Anthropocene’s planetary crisis? Are you interested in exploring the ways in which law could be fundamentally rethought so that it is better able to respond to the planetary crisis? Then this post-doctoral position might be the right fit for you. This position is part of a Wageningen University & Research funded project of Prof. Dr. Dr. Louis Kotzé on Law and Planetary Transformations. You will play a key role in the project as a primary researcher who supports research in the project and the development of a larger scientific agenda centering on law and planetary transformations.

Your duties and responsibilities include:

• Carry out research exploring the relationship between law and planetary transformations, including investigating the opportunities and challenges for law in mediating planetary relations in the Anthropocene;
• Carry out research that develops new frameworks within which to interrogate the functions and ethics of law, and law’s institutional framework in the context of a disrupted planet;
• Carry out research exploring possible future pathways for law in the Anthropocene;
• Support all other activities as relevant during each stage of the project;
• Assist the principal investigator in building vibrant global networks relevant for the focus of the project specifically, and more generally, those that are relevant for the focus of the Law group;
• Be involved in the daily supervision of BSc and MSc thesis students;
• Develop a new academic course on law and planetary transformations;
• Co-teach in environmental law courses of the Law group;
• Fully integrate and participate in all the activities of the Law group and other groups in the university.

Your team
You will work closely with the principal investigator and all colleagues of the Law Group of Wageningen University and Research, including our vibrant cohort of PhD and post-doctoral students.

About the project
This is a project that is premised on the hypothesis that we urgently need a paradigm shift in law, legal practice and legal science that could enable law to better respond to earth system transformations (external transformations) caused by, among other things, climate change, and how law itself must transform itself internally to better govern the social-ecological aspects of earth system transformations. A central aim of the project is to interrogate the role of law in relation to planetary transformations. We live on a transformed and transforming planet as signified by the Anthropocene trope. Social-ecological processes are constantly changing, while law itself is a transforming social institution that aims to instigate and drive transformations in and of societies. What role is law playing in empowering humans to transform the planet; in encouraging societies to engage in predatory practices that feed on a vulnerable living order; and in impeding the deep structural transformations that need to occur to enable life as we know it to continue on Earth? Are there different ways to think about law, its objectives, ethics, institutions and epistemic practises on a transformed and transforming planet? What must law become to enable us to live on and with a planet in crisis? These are the core questions that this project seeks to answer.

(senior) Projectcontroller Concernstaf

Heb je een scherp oog voor financiën en ben je op zoek naar een uitdagende rol als projectcontroller binnen Corporate Finance & Control? Bij Wageningen University & Research werken we aan oplossingen met wereldwijde impact. Wil jij met jouw financiële expertise bijdragen aan projecten die het verschil maken op thema’s als verduurzaming en innovatie? Dan maken we graag kennis met jou!

Jouw rol
Als projectcontroller krijg je volop ruimte om jezelf te ontwikkelen en actief bij te dragen aan strategische en organisatie brede projecten. Je ondersteunt intern projectmanagers op een proactieve manier en schakelt daarbij zowel intern als extern met diverse stakeholders.

Als projectcontroller voer je zelfstandig het financiële beheer uit van een aantal strategische en eenheids-overschrijdende projecten. Deze projecten worden vanwege de omvang, het karakter en de complexiteit centraal begeleid vanuit de concernstaf. Daarbij horen de volgende werkzaamheden:

• Je bent betrokken bij de acquisitie van nieuwe projecten en richt de projectadministratie zodanig in dat wordt voldaan aan de eisen van verschillende subsidieverstrekkers.
• Je ondersteunt projectleiders o.a. bij het opstellen van projectbegrotingen, financiële rapportages en accountantsdossiers en bouwt een duurzame relatie met ze op.
• Je fungeert als financieel sparringpartner voor de diverse projectleiders van deze projecten. Je bent verantwoordelijk voor een betrouwbare en volledige resultaatbepaling en financiële rapportages en subsidieverantwoording van de betreffende projecten, evenals de voorbereiding en begeleiding van accountantscontroles.
• Je treedt op als aanspreekpunt voor zowel interne als externe stakeholders voor project gerelateerde vragen.

Het team
Als enthousiaste en gedreven projectcontroller kom je te werken binnen het team Finance & Control CS+. Dit team is onderdeel van de afdeling Corporate Finance & Control en bestaat uit zowel project control als business control. Het team bestaat uit vijf medewerkers.

(senior) Projectcontroller Concernstaf

At Wageningen University & Research, we work on solutions with global impact. Would you like to use your financial expertise to contribute to projects that make a real difference in areas such as sustainability and innovation? Then we would be delighted to meet you.

Your role
As a Project Controller, you will have plenty of room to develop yourself and actively contribute to strategic and organisation-wide projects. You support internal project managers in a proactive way and liaise with various internal and external stakeholders.

In this role, you independently manage the financial administration of several strategic and cross-unit projects. Due to their scale, nature, and complexity, these projects are centrally coordinated by the corporate staff. Your responsibilities include: • Being involved in the acquisition of new projects and setting up the project administration in accordance with the requirements of various funding bodies. • Supporting project leaders in preparing project budgets, financial reports, and audit files, while building sustainable working relationships with them. • Acting as a financial sparring partner for the project leaders. You are responsible for reliable and complete project result assessments, financial reporting, and subsidy accountability, as well as preparing and guiding audit processes. • Serving as the point of contact for both internal and external stakeholders regarding project-related questions.

The team
As an enthusiastic and driven Project Controller, you will join the Finance & Control CS+ team. This team is part of the Corporate Finance & Control department and includes both project control and business control. The team consists of five colleagues.

PhD opportunity: Social immunity in group-living birds

Social animals are at greater risk of contracting infectious diseases than those that live alone. But why do so many animal species form groups if this is so costly for individual health? One intriguing possibility is that social animals can share components of their immune system with their group mates as a means of bolstering group defences against parasites. As part of an exciting new project designed to test this idea for the first time in wild birds, we are looking for an enthusiastic and adventurous PhD student to join our team and perform research on social immunity in wild-living African birds.

As PhD candidate, you will work in a team focussing on immunity-sharing traits in birds. Your primary focus will be on immune sharing between family and group members during breeding. Our study species, the speckled mousebird has a highly complex social life, and it is your task to contribute to understanding how parasite exposure influences its evolution. You’ll find out what immune components are shared between members of breeding groups and test whether mousebirds adjust immune-sharing strategies according to the identity and infection status of their group members, as well as the environmental conditions at the time of breeding. The project involves field- and lab work, video-analyses and data analyses.

Data collection in the field for this project involves performing fieldwork under challenging field conditions, with stays of 3+ months at a field research centre in Mbuluzi Game Reserve, Eswatini, between October and January each year. Candidates must be able to commit to doing fieldwork in this period to be eligible for the position.

Your duties and responsibilities include:

• Fieldwork: perform nest searches, monitor reproductive attempts, record reproductive and social behaviours at the nest using video cameras, collect biological samples from eggs and nestlings. Fieldwork is conducted as part of a team involving Masters students and fieldwork assistants from the universities of Wageningen, Eswatini and Pretoria. As PhD student, you will (after appropriate training and experience) lead the field team and assist in the supervision of Masters students;
• Lab work: perform immune assays on egg and faecal samples;
• Extract data on social group composition and immune sharing behaviours from video recordings of mousebird nests;
• Analyse and pool data and findings to test hypotheses about how immune sharing relates to sociality, group composition and environmental conditions;
• Publish research findings in peer-reviewed journals and present them at national and international conferences.

You will work here
The research is embedded within the chair Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, which is led by Prof. Frank van Langevelde. You will work within the research team of Dr. Kat Bebbington, who will also provide the daily supervision. This project forms part of the Social Savanna Project, a collaborative long-term study into the ecology, physiology and behaviour of a community of savanna-breeding birds in Mbuluzi Game Reserve, Eswatini (see below). You will be co-supervised by Dr. Kevin Matson (Wildlife Ecology and Conservation group, WUR) and Dr. Sjouke A. Kingma (Behavioural Ecology group, WUR).

About the Social Savanna Project
The Social Savanna Project was established in 2019 by Dr. Bebbington and Dr. Kingma as a broadscale ornithological project, with the overall aim of filling the substantial knowledge gap regarding the reproduction, ecology and behaviour of savanna birds in southern Africa. In close collaboration with Prof. Ara Monadjem at the University of Pretoria and Zamekile Bhembe at the University of Eswatini, we run various research projects – some species-specific, some at the community level – aimed at understanding the social and environmental factors that shape behaviour, physiology and fitness of wild birds. At the heart of the project is a commitment to facilitating knowledge transfer between academics and students of different backgrounds in order to conduct excellent science. You can read all about the Social Savanna Project here: www.socialsavannaproject.com.