PhD Candidate - Environmental Bioengineering & Microfluidics

ETH Zurich; Schweiz; On-site; CHF 60,000 - 72,000; Part time

Job summary

ETH Zürich’s Environmental Microfluidics Group seeks a Doctoral Student with an engineering background to study how bacterial chemotaxis accelerates plasmid transfer and antibiotic resistance spread in aquatic environments. The project is funded by an SNSF grant and conducted in collaboration with the University of Warsaw, based in Prof.

Stocker’s lab. You will design instrumentation, run chemotaxis and conjugation experiments, image bacteria and plumes, and contribute to mathematical models of

Qualifications

• Hands-on engineer with practical prototyping experience.
• Strong interest in integrating engineering with microbiology.
• Fluent in English; able to work in an international team.

Responsibilities

• Design, build and characterize instrumentation to couple chemotaxis assays to controlled shear systems.
• Run chemotaxis and conjugation experiments with donor and recipient bacteria.
• Image and track fluorescently labeled bacteria and chemical plumes in shear flow.
• Test clinically relevant and freshwater bacteria to assess chemotaxis-driven resistance spread.
• Contribute data to mathematical models of plasmid spread.

Skills

CAD

3D printing

Machining

Control systems

Instrumentation

Lab techniques

English fluency

Education

MSc in bioengineering

MSc in mechanical engineering

MSc in mechatronics

MSc in electrical engineering

MSc in environmental engineering

MSc in physics

Tools

Python

MATLAB

LabVIEW

Job description

ETH Zürich’s Environmental Microfluidics Group seeks a Doctoral Student with an engineering background to study how bacterial chemotaxis accelerates plasmid transfer and antibiotic resistance spread in aquatic environments. The project is funded by an SNSF grant and conducted in collaboration with the University of Warsaw, based in Prof.

Stocker’s lab. You will design instrumentation, run chemotaxis and conjugation experiments, image bacteria and plumes, and contribute to mathematical models of