The candidate will have the responsibility to conduct internationally visible research in the joint BMWE funded project “LiquidMining - Recovery of critical metals from natural and anthropogenic fluids”. The focus of our subproject will be on extraction of critical metals from thermal springs using sorbent materials. Your responsibility will be literature research, sampling of industrial fluids and thermal springs mainly in southern Germany, using the data to create a secondary resources map, developing adapted extraction methods on laboratory and field scale, developing combined extraction processes with our industry partners and developing concepts on the subsequent use of end-of-life sorbents. You are expected to present the data on conferences and publish research results in internationally recognized journals.

You will be given the opportunity to prepare a PhD thesis.

• You have an MSc degree (or equivalent) in a geoscientific subject or chemistry with research interest in fluid and mineral surface interaction and a strong background in sorption-desorption, mineralogy and crystallography.
• You have some experience with the characterization of minerals and strong interest in analytical and experimental geochemistry (ICP-MS, ICP-OES, IC).
• You are motivated, open for new research fields and able to communicate with technicians, other researchers and industry.