PhD scholarship in Key Determinants of Sustainable Lifestyles - DTU Sustain

How to set lifestyles on a healthy and sustainable trajectory? This 3-year PhD will identify key determinants of sustainable lifestyles. The candidate will analyze individualized data on household consumption, including housing, food, transportation patterns and energy consumption persons, and combine these with life cycle databases.
How to set lifestyles on a healthy and sustainable trajectory? This 3-year PhD will identify key determinants of sustainable lifestyles. The candidate will analyze individualized data on household consumption, including housing, food, transportation patterns and energy consumption persons, and combine these with life cycle databases.

A 3-year PhD Student position is available for the dedicated researcher who wants to pursue a front runner research career in identifying key determinants of sustainable lifestyles. The position is offered at the Section for Quantitative Sustainability Assessment (QSA), Department of Environmental and Resource Engineering (DTU Sustain). QSA spearheads development of methods and application of life cycle impact assessment and sustainability assessment of products and lifestyles, determining impacts on both human health and the environment.

DTU Sustain is one of the largest university departments specializing in environmental and resource engineering in Europe, with 300 employees from more than 30 nationalities. It develops new, more environmentally friendly technologies and new quantitative sustainability assessment methods and disseminates this knowledge to society and future generations of engineers. DTU is the most publishing and cited university worldwide in the field of Life Cycle Assessment.

How to apprehend our increasingly complex and unsustainable consumption? How to identify a science-based path to set lifestyles on a healthy and sustainable trajectory?
The PhD project is part of the SHELF project, a start package grant from the NovoNordisk foundation which aims to address these questions by assembling three key scientific fundaments into a digitalized platform for sustainable and healthy lifestyles (SHELF):

• A quantitative and data-driven Systems Approach integrating health impacts into product-oriented environmental assessments.
• The exceptional availability of Danish Big Dataset on health outcomes, consumption and sustainability.
• A unique combination of mass balance-based Source-to-Impact Models and Machine Learning techniques able to "let the data speak" and assess interactions between multiple determinants. The present PhD will focus on the sustainability side of the project and the analysis of key determinants of sustainable lifestyles.

Responsibilities and qualifications
The successful candidate will identify and study key determinants of sustainable lifestyles, systematically exploring which targeted lifestyle changes best benefit the environment to support a transition to life within the biophysical limits of the planet. The candidate will perform a unique combination of product-oriented exposure and life cycle assessment methods with the consumption data of a Danish cohort to analyze and design mitigation actions and strategies to reduce environmental footprint for specific socio-economic status.

The main tasks include:

• Create a digitalized platform for sustainable lifestyles, bringing together the individualized household data from Danish statistics on household consumption and spending, including energy, transportation, and product consumption with domain specific databases on e.g. food consumption from DTU-food, or housing consumption
• Use data mining to collect data on properties and contents for products that dominate human chemical exposure, including buildings, toys, cleaning & personal care products and foods.
• Combine the consumption data with life cycle inventory databases for 20000+ processes and input-output data to determine an individualized life cycle inventory for each of the cohort participants
• Use the latest UN global Life Cycle Impact Assessment method to determine the life cycle impacts of households and yield distributions of multi-dimensional environmental footprints for the DHC cohort
• Apply optimization techniques to systematically explore which targeted lifestyle changes best benefit health and the environment.
• Identify trajectories towards sustainable and healthy lifestyles within planetary boundaries.

Additionally, the candidate will participate in the department’s teaching and dissemination activities. The candidate will also collaborate with a postdoc and another PhD student focusing on the health part of the project.

You must have a two-year master's degree (120 ECTS points) or a similar degree with an academic level equivalent to a two-year master's degree. The degree should preferably be within Environmental engineering, Data science, Energy systems, Mechanical engineering, Material engineering or equivalent. Knowledge of life cycle assessment, good programing skills as well as written and spoken English, are required, whereas further knowledge on Input-output LCA or experience in data collection are a plus.

Approval and Enrolment
The scholarship for the PhD degree is subject to academic approval, and the candidate will be enrolled in one of the general degree programmes at DTU. For information about our enrolment requirements and the general planning of the PhD study programme, please see DTU's rules for the PhD education.

Assessment
The assessment of the applicants will be made by Prof. Olivier Jolliet and Prof. Michael Hauschild. One to two rounds of formal interviews are expected.

We offer
DTU is a leading technical university globally recognized for the excellence of its research, education, innovation and scientific advice. We offer a rewarding and challenging job in an international environment. We strive for academic excellence in an environment characterized by collegial respect and academic freedom tempered by responsibility.

Salary and appointment terms
The appointment will be based on the collective agreement with the Danish Confederation of Professional Associations. The allowance will be agreed upon with the relevant union. The period of employment is 3 years.

The position is a full-time position. Expected PhD start is 1 September 2024. The workplace will be at DTU Lyngby Campus.

You can read more about career paths at DTU here.
Further information
Further information may be obtained from Olivier Jolliet ([email protected]).

You can read more about the Department of Environmental and Resource Engineering at www.sustain.dtu.dk

If you are applying from abroad, you may find useful information on working in Denmark and at DTU at DTU – Moving to Denmark. Furthermore, you have the option of joining our monthly free seminar “PhD relocation to Denmark and startup “Zoom” seminar” for all questions regarding the practical matters of moving to Denmark and working as a PhD at DTU.

Application procedure
Your complete online application must be submitted no later than 28 June 2024 (23:59 Danish time).

Applications must be submitted as one PDF file containing all materials to be given consideration. To apply, please open the link "Apply now", fill out the online application form, and attach all your materials in English in one PDF file. The file must include:

• A letter motivating the application (cover letter)
• Curriculum vitae
• Grade transcripts and BSc/MSc diploma (in English) including official description of grading scale
• Documentation of knowledge (evidence of projects, presentations, experience, courses, etc.) in one or more of the following fields: life cycle assessment, data collection and analysis, programming.

You may apply prior to ob­tai­ning your master's degree but cannot begin before having received it.

Applications received after the deadline will not be considered.

All interested candidates irrespective of age, gender, race, disability, religion or ethnic background are encouraged to apply.

DTU Sustain - Department of Environmental and Resource Engineering - is one of the largest university departments specializing in environmental and resource engineering in Europe. The department conducts research, development & scientific advice and provides educational programs and service to society. We are working to develop new environmentally friendly and sustainable technologies, methods and solutions, and to disseminate this knowledge to society and future generations of engineers. The Department has approximately 300 staff from more than 30 nationalities.

Technology for people
DTU develops technology for people. With our international elite research and study programmes, we are helping to create a better world and to solve the global challenges formulated in the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Hans Christian Ørsted founded DTU in 1829 with a clear mission to develop and create value using science and engineering to benefit society. That mission lives on today. DTU has 13,500 students and 6,000 employees. We work in an international atmosphere and have an inclusive, evolving, and informal working environment. DTU has campuses in all parts of Denmark and in Greenland, and we collaborate with the best universities around the world.

Adresse:

Bygningstorvet
2800 Kgs. Lyngby