Planetary Research Jobs

The project is funded by the European Research Council and the researcher recruited for the advertised position will be involved in ERC project “MarCyano”. This project stems from a goal, shared by the world’s major space agencies, of sending humans to Mars within the next few decades. A sustainable human presence there, akin to today’s presence in Antarctica, could indeed generate paradigm-shifting knowledge at an unprecedented pace. One major challenge lies in providing the food, oxygen and other necessary consumables: these cannot be shipped from the Earth over the long term. They should instead be produced on site and for this, Nostocaceae cyanobacteria can be instrumental: fed with materials available in the Martian ground and atmosphere, they could provide feedstock for a range of bioprocesses which, in turn, could produce a wide range of consumables. However, fundamental knowledge is lacking to turn this concept into practical solutions: the physiology of cyanobacteria in the foreseen cultivation conditions is poorly understood. These conditions combine low total pressures, low partial pressures of dinitrogen, interactions with a basaltic substrate from which nutrients are leached, and high concentrations of chaotropic salts.

In project MarCyano, our team enables a deep understanding of cyanobacterial physiology in these conditions. For this we employ a unique approach combining cultivation assays in unique hardware previously developed in-house, adaptive laboratory evolution, cutting-edge “omics” technologies, the development of a mathematical model which can predict the productivity and efficiency of cyanobacterium cultivation from Martian resources, and the construction of a testbed for the experimental validation of this model. We will use the generated knowledge and tools to design, characterize and demonstrate the viability of bioprocesses which dramatically improve the odds that Mars exploration is done in a sustainable way. Finally, we will adapt the concepts developed for bioproduction on Mars to open new avenues for sustainability on Earth.

Your main responsibilities will include:

1. Conceiving photobioreactor hardware for cyanobacterium cultivation on Mars.
2. Developing a mathematical model for the growth of cyanobacteria within this hardware.
3. Conducting, and analyzing the results of, experiments aimed at better understanding the behavior of cyanobacteria in the conditions expected during their cultivation on Mars.
4. Designing and building a testbed (with support from ZARM engineers) based on the conceived hardware.
5. Using the testbed to refine and validate the developed model.
6. Contributing to routine laboratory tasks (e.g., maintaining microbial cultures).
7. Contributing to the training and mentoring of less experienced students.
8. Elaborating your own scientific work, such as preparing a doctoral thesis and scientific publications.

For further details, please refer to the official announcement.