A Ph.D. graduate research assistantship is available from the 2023 Fall semester in the Department of Environmental Engineering & Earth Sciences at Clemson University, South Carolina, US for the algae treatment of livestock wastewater for nutrient recycling, antibiotic removal as well as the algal oil-based biofuel production. This position will be supported by a recently funded USDA project entitled “Growing microalgae in livestock wastewater - Benefits in nutrient recycle, antibiotic removal, and potential biofuel production”.
The successful candidate will have an opportunity to work with a team of scientists in biogeochemistry, wastewater/water treatment, and bioprocess engineering in different universities/institutes to investigate organic matters and antibiotics removal under the different wastewater matrix and study the possibility of using algal oil to produce biodiesel-based biofuel. He/she will have the opportunity to develop his/her own research ideas within the project goals. The student will be encouraged to attend at least one professional conference or workshop per year for presenting the research.
Minimum Qualifications:
1) An earned Master degree by the date of hire in environmental engineering/ science, bioprocess engineering, and agricultural engineering, or closely related fields is required.
2) Experience or coursework in analytical chemistry or algal cultivation
3) Ability to work independently and field/outdoor environments
Preferred Qualifications:
1) Experience in analytic techniques such as LC-MS/MS
2) Experience in algal cultivation.
If you are interested, please send the following documents in a single PDF File to Dr. Huan Chen (huanc@clemson.edu), Research Assistant Professor at the Department of Environmental Engineering & Earth Sciences at Clemson University and Dr. Rui Xiao (rxiao@clemson.edu or r.xiao@siat.ac.cn), Postdoc at the Center for Synthetic Biochemistry, Institute of Synthetic Biology, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technologies, Shenzhen, China through the email: (1) a letter of application describing your relevant experiences; (2) CV; (3) copies of transcripts; (4) GRE and TOFEL scores; (5) list of three names of the references. A review of candidates will begin immediately, and the hiring decision will be made as soon as possible after an excellent candidate is identified.