PhD Studentship Advanced simulation for subsea geotechnical exploration

Funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness a PhD studentship position is available within the geotechnical group of the Department of Geotechnical Engineering and Geosciences at UPC, in Barcelona.

The FPI studentship spans 48 months and will start in autumn 2015. This studentship takes the form of a pre-doctoral contract, with an annual salary of circa 16.400€ per year and associated pension and unemployment benefits. The Ministry will separately fund the PhD fees and travel expenses for research visits.

Project: The student will work on a project aiming to develop numerical techniques for the simulation of submarine geotechnical sampling and probing. Both continuum and discrete element-based approaches are envisaged for a challenging modelling problem of widespread practical application. The project will be developed in cooperation with Université Fourier at Grenoble (France) and Studio Geotecnico Marchetti (Italy). The student would also have the opportunity to participate in an EU-funded exchange scheme with the universities of Tongji (Shanghai, China), GeorgiaTech (USA), San Simón (Bolivia) and the company Itasca.

Qualifications: The candidate should hold a university degree, (see detailed requirements at http://doctorat.upc.edu/new-students/access-requeriments/access-requeriments). The subject area strongly favours candidates with a degree on civil, mining or geotechnical engineering, although candidates from related areas (geology, physics, process engineering…) might be also suitable. Some experience in numerical modelling of geomaterials is desirable.

How to apply: Candidates interested in the position should send a CV, with one reference, to Professor Antonio Gens, antonio.gens@upc.edu and/or Dr. Marcos Arroyo, marcos.arroyo@upc.edu, as soon as possible and preferably before the 25th June 2015