PhD Position on Sea Ice in the Arctic Climate System

Faculty: Faculty of Science Department: Department of Physics Hours per week: 36 to 40 Application deadline: 5 June 2025

Join this NWO summit EMBRACER project at the forefront of polar research. You will explore Arctic sea ice decline and ocean warming using satellite data and coupled modelling tools. Collaborate with interdisciplinary environment within EMBRACER and international partners and apply advanced methods like Lagrangian tracking and reanalyses to reveal new insights into atmosphere-ice-ocean feedbacks in the Arctic climate system.

Your job

As a PhD candidate, you will investigate how Arctic sea ice is changing and what role ocean warming - also known as Arctic Atlantification - plays in this process. You will use satellite observations, climate reanalysis data, and numerical models to better understand how sea ice is transported out of the Arctic and how heat is exchanged between the ocean, ice, and atmosphere.

Your work will include:

• analysing satellite data and Lagrangian tracking to estimate how much sea ice has been exported from the Arctic over the past decades;
• studying how heat from the ocean contributes to sea ice melting along these paths;
• performing numerical model simulations to explore how changes in winds, ocean temperatures, and other factors affect sea ice in the present and future.

You will be part of a collaborative research team with partners from the Norwegian Polar Institute and Alfred Wegener Institute. This position offers opportunities to develop skills in satellite data analysis, climate modelling, and polar climate research. Your work will help increase understanding of key processes in the Arctic climate system, such as the linkage between Arctic sea ice and the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). This position is part of the NWO-Summit project EMBRACER. You will therefore collaborate intensively with Dutch partners for support.

Your qualities

You are enthusiastic and collaborative and meet at least several of the following criteria:

• You have a strong interest in contributing to the study of Arctic sea ice changes.
• You have a Master’s degree in (climate) physics, geosciences, meteorology, oceanography, or similar.
• You have strong programming skills (Python or similar).
• You have affinity with spatiotemporal data analyses, remote sensing and numerical modelling.
• You are capable of independently planing and organising the research, and to take a leading role in its direction.
• You have strong written and verbal communication and presentation skills.
• You have a good command of English (reading, writing, speaking).

Our offer

• A position for 18 months, with an extension to a total of four years upon successful assessment in the first 18 months;
• a working week of 38 hours and a gross monthly salary between €2,901 and €3,707 (salary scale P under the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities (CAO NU));
• 8% holiday pay and 8.3% year-end bonus;
• a pension scheme, partially paid parental leave and flexible terms of employment based on the CAO NU.

In addition to the terms of employment laid down in the CAO NU, Utrecht University has a number of schemes and facilities of its own for employees. This includes schemes facilitating professional development , leave schemes and schemes for sports and cultural activities , as well as discounts on software and other IT products. We also offer access to additional employee benefits through our Terms of Employment Options Model. In this way, we encourage our employees to continue to invest in their growth. For more information, please visit Working at Utrecht University .

About us

A better future for everyone. This ambition motivates our scientists in executing their leading research and inspiring teaching. At Utrecht University , the various disciplines collaborate intensively towards major strategic themes . Our focus is on Dynamics of Youth, Institutions for Open Societies, Life Sciences and Pathways to Sustainability. Sharing science, shaping tomorrow .

Working at the Faculty of Science means bringing together inspiring people across disciplines and with a variety of perspectives and backgrounds. The Faculty has six departments: Biology, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Information & Computing Sciences, Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics. Together, we work on excellent research and inspiring education. We do so, driven by curiosity and supported by outstanding infrastructure. Visit us on and discover how you can become part of our community.

The Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research Utrecht (IMAU) is part of the department of Physics. It offers a unique research and teaching environment, in which the fundamentals of the climate system are studied. Research is organised in five themes: Ice and Climate, Oceans and Climate, Atmospheric Physics and Chemistry, Coastal and Shelf Sea Dynamics and Earth System modelling. In 2022, IMAU research quality and impact were qualified as ’excellent’ by an international visitation committee. Currently, IMAU employs 18 faculty members and 11 support staff and about 21 Postdocs and 24 PhD candidates.

The Ice and Climate group at IMAU is an inspiring, high-quality and versatile research group focusing on ice sheets, sea level, and climate. The group is world-leading in modelling of the ice sheet surface as well as remote sensing of the cryosphere. Currently, our research group has 6 staff members, 8 postdocs and 5 PhD candidates. This position is fully funded, and we encourage and provide financial support for participation in conferences, workshops, summer schools, and international exchange.

At EMBRACER we work at the very frontiers of knowledge on climate change, Earth’s climate system and climate feedbacks. Within its 10-year research programme, funded by NWO , EMBRACER brings together a wide range of world-leading climate experts with the aim to address existing uncertainties about climate feedbacks at the boundaries between oceans,Öland, ice, and atmosphere. Our interdisciplinary approach and state-of-the-art infrastructure will bring us forward in our understanding of the impact of climate feedbacks emerging over the next decades to centuries.

More information

For more information, please contact Lu Zhou at l.zhouuu.nl .

Do you have a question about the application procedure? Please send an email to science.recruitmentuu.nl .

As Utrecht University, we want to be a home for everyone. We value staff with diverse backgrounds, perspectives and identities, including cultural, religious or ethnic background, gender, sexual orientation, disability or age. We strive to create a safe and inclusive environment in which everyone can flourish and contribute.

If you are enthusiastic about this position, just apply via the ’apply now’ button. Please enclose:

• your motivation letter;
• your curriculum vitae;
• the names, telephone numbers, and email addresses of at least two referees.

If this specific opportunity isn’t for you, but you know someone else who may be interested, please forward this vacancy to them.

The intended start date of position is flexible, but preferably before 1 October 2025.

The application deadline is 5 June 2025.