GFZ is Germany’s national centre for solid Earth research. We advance the understanding of dynamic processes to address global challenges, from mitigating the impacts of natural hazards and sustaining our habitat amid global change to responsibly managing georesources. We are part of the Helmholtz Association, the largest German scientific organisation. With around 1,200 employees as well as ca. 500 guest researchers, we contribute to the Helmholtz Research Field Earth and Environment, aligning cutting-edge research with societal relevance and international collaboration. Our work integrates multidisciplinary studies across Earth’s system components, leveraging advanced technologies and infrastructure to research solutions and to transfer our knowledge to society. We are doing this according to our vision: “Taking the pulse of our Earth to safeguard a habitable planet”.
For section 4.3 Geoenergie (Department 4: Geosystems), we are offering a PhD position in geosciences, focusing on the global understanding of the thermal structure of the Earth’s lithosphere:

YOUR QUALIFICATIONS:

• Master’s degree (or equivalent) in Geophysics, Geology, Geosciences, or a related discipline
• Strong background in solid Earth geophysics, heat transport and heat flow determination, and/or numerical Earth modelling
• Proven experience in data generation for the evaluation of petrophysical properties (field work or laboratory-based)
• Familiarity with large geoscientific datasets, spatial data analysis, and metadata handling
• Skills in scientific programming (e.g., Python, MATLAB, R) and geodata processing (GIS experience beneficial)
• Strong intrinsic motivation to work independently in a collaborative, interdisciplinary research environment
• Proficiency in English (written and spoken); experience in academic writing
  Start date: 1st Novemberg 2025
  Fixed-term: 3 years
  Salary: The position is classed as salary group 13 according to “TVöD Bund (Tarifgebiet Ost)”. The salary group is determined on the basis of the Collective Wage Agreement and the respective personal qualifications.
  Working hours: Part-time 75% (currently 29.25 h/week)
  Place of work: Potsdam

• Conduct research on global and regional patterns of terrestrial heat flow, including the Earth’s total heat loss
• Perform continental and marine data analyses using curated datasets from heatflow.world
• Integrate and analyse metadata for reproducibility and quality assessment of heat flow data
• Develop and apply data correction schemes for reviewing possible climatic, sedimentary, erosional, and topographic processes that may affect single heat-flow determinations
• Contribute to the development of global thermal property models (thermal conductivity, diffusivity, radiogenic heat production) of crustal rocks
• Optional: Conduct laboratory measurements of thermal rock properties under high-pressure and high-temperature conditions on selected reference samples
• Prepare and publish scientific papers and participate in international conferences
• Collaborate with international partners and contribute to the Global Heat Flow Portal Project