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 4.6 Geomorphology (department “Geosystems”), we are looking for a:

REFERENCE NUMBER 10643

– The position is dependent on the approval of the project. –
This position is part of the RESET project, where we investigate the impacts of Enhanced Weathering on soil organic carbon, develop inorganic geochemical proxies, and identify social and governance pathways towards large-scale deployment, in three interlinked PhD positions.
Enhanced Silicate Weathering (ESW) promises to achieve large volume CO2 removal (CDR) with millennium-scale storage and at competitive cost by distributing finely ground reactive (ultra)mafic minerals on agricultural soils. Within the framework of the BMFTR-funded consortium CDRTerra, our project (RESET: Developing Roadmaps to Scalable Carbon Dioxide Removal by Enhanced Silicate Weathering) seeks to identify the potential and challenges of the large-scale deployment of ESW for durable CO2 removal. One particular knowledge gap we are addressing with this project is the effect of ESW on soil organic matter dynamics, i.e., whether soil carbon is potentially increasing or decreasing under ESW treatment.
We are looking for a motivated PhD student to lead the organic geochemical aspects of the project, which will include processing and interpreting soil organic carbon concentrations, compositions, ages and stability from samples from experiments and field deployments. You will also work closely with inorganic geochemists and social scientists to gain a holistic view of the impacts and potential of ESW and CDR in general.

YOUR QUALIFICATIONS:

• MSc in a geoscience-relevant field, and curiosity and desire to become an expert in CO2 removal techniques
• Strong numerical skills and ideally experience with a scientific programming language (e.g. Python, Matlab, etc).
• Fluency in written and spoken English; German is an advantage, but not required
• Past experience with one or more of the relevant topics (e.g. soil science, organic geochemistry, CDR, weathering or enhanced weathering, etc.) or techniques (see above) is a distinct advantage
  Start date: 1st November 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

• Generating high-quality organic geochemical data characterising soils from standard to sophisticated approaches using, e.g. elemental analysis, gas chromatography, mass spectrometry, stable isotope analysis, as well as compound-specific stable isotope analysis
• Identifying strategies for exploring the interactions between mineral addition and organic carbon stability
• Modelling of soil organic pools and long-term soil organic matter dynamics
• Staying up-to-date on scientific literature in the field of (Enhanced) Weathering and soil organic carbon dynamics
• Planning and conducting fieldwork within Germany
• Preparation and publication of manuscripts detailing results in appropriate peer-reviewed journals; data management and archiving according to FAIR principles; presentation of results at national and international conferences