Ledig stilling ved Høgskolen i Innlandet

PhD position in biotechnology

Deadline: 19.04.2020

Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences

Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences (INN University) is home to over 14,000 students and 1,000 employees, and has campuses in Lillehammer, Hamar, Elverum, Rena, Evenstad and Blæstad.


INN University aspires to build strong and enduring academic and research environments that will spearhead regionally, nationally and internationally. We are developing a new and better institution with high academic and pedagogical quality, aiming at achieving university accreditation by 2020.


Our vision is "Stronger Together".


About the department


The Department of Biotechnology is composed of 23 faculty and staff members. We provide instruction for the PhD-programme in Applied Ecology and Biotechnology, our highly successful Master’s programme in Applied & Commercial Biotechnology and a one-year add-on programme in biotechnology that allows students to qualify for our Master’s programme; exchange students from the EU's Erasmus programme also enrol in modules of the one-year programme.


Department of Biotechnology is part of the NCE Heidner Biocluster, and we are collaborating closely with several Heidner companies, especially within animal and plant breeding. The research profiles of Department of biotechnology can be roughly divided into four core areas:

Reproduction biotechnology, focusing on technological and biological approaches to reveal factors affecting fertility across species and kingdoms. Gametes from animals, aquatic organisms and plants are characterized to identify phenotypic traits important to fertilizing capacity.


Molecular Genetics in Diagnostics, Breeding and Wildlife Management, focusing on functional genomics and development of new DNA technologies for genotyping animals, plants, humans and microbes associated with them.


Biodiscovery, focusing on production and conversion of renewable biological resources and rest raw materials to value added products by fermentation, pre-treatment and extraction, purification of proteins and other biologicals, and enzyme-based biomass conversion.


Bioinformatics focusing on analysis and interpretation of omics data, through a combination of bioinformatics and machine learning tools and algoritms. Our special field of interest is early diagnostics of antimicrobial resistance. Also, bioinformatics plays a central role in a number of our other projects.

Understanding the microbial ecology of the HIAS waste water phosphorus removal process (3 years)

About the position

Department of Biotechnology at INN University invites applications from outstanding candidates for a three-year position as PhD candidate engaged in the project Understanding the microbial ecology of the HIAS waste water phosphorus removal process. This project is a collaboration between the Dept. of Biotechnology and HIAS HOW2O.

The position will be available for the period 01.08.2020-31.07.2023

Assoc. Prof. Wenche Johansen will serve as the main supervisor, and Professor Knut Rudi and PhD Torgeir Saltnes as co-supervisors.

The Hias Process® is a novel and patented approach for biological removal of phosphorous, nitrogen and carbon from waste water. The process is based on moving bed biofilm (MBBR) approach utilizing a novel active transport of biofilm carriers between aerobic and anaerobic zones. This oscillating environment is necessary for the formation of a complex biofilm containing phosphorus accumulating organisms (PAOs), responsible for the net removal of phosphate and denitrification of nitrogen from the waste water.

The knowledge of the organization, function and the symbiotic relationships of the microbial community in MBBR biofilms is, however, spare. The objective of this project is to characterize the Hias biofilm to gain knowledge of how the biofilm, and hence the net removal of phosphorus and nitrogen from wastewater, are influenced by various external fluctuating factors, including temperature, oxygen and carbon availability. Various -omic approaches, including metagenomics, transcriptomics and metabolomics, will be used to determine the microbial composition of the biofilm and the active metabolic process occurring within the biofilm. In addition, fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) in combination with confocal scanning laser microscopy (CLSM) will be used to reconstruct 3D images of intact biofilms.

Further information

For more information please contact:

  • Associate professor Wenche Johansen, email wenche.johansen@inn.no or
  • Head of the departement Frøydis Myromslien, e-mail froidis.myromslien@inn.no

Qualifications

Required qualifications

The candidate must have a MSc degree in molecular biology or equivalent, preferably in microbiology, with a final grade of “B” or better. The candidate must have necessary wet-lab skills in molecular biology and experience with state-of-the-art technologies for nucleic acid purification. It is preferable that the candidate have experience with confocal microscopy and FISH. The student should also have experience with the analyses of next-generation sequencing data of microbial communities. The student must show documented experience with bioinformatic tools necessary for the analysis of data stemming from this project.

Desired qualifications

The candidate will also have to demonstrate an excellent level of spoken and written English, possess good interpersonal and communication skills and show willingness to work as part of a multidisciplinary team.

How to apply

The application and all attachments are to be submitted electronically and should include the following:

  • Application letter
  • CV (education, positions and academic work)
  • Copies of educational certificates and list of references
  • A complete list of publications

Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences aims to achieve a balanced gender composition in the workforce and to recruit people with ethnic minority backgrounds.

According to the Norwegian Law "Offentlighetsloven §25.2 ledd", information about the applicant can be published even if the applicant has requested not to be included in the public list of applicants.

We offer

  • An academically stimulating work environment with engaged colleagues and a growing institution.
  • A beautiful campus, situated in peaceful surroundings with train access to both cities and airports.
  • Good welfare benefits.
  • Good pension benefits, under the Norwegian Public Service Pension Funds.
  • A pay grade of LT 54 (NOK 479 400,- p.a)

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