ETH Zurich is one of the world’s leading universities specialising in science and technology. It is renowned for its excellent education, its cutting-edge fundamental research and its efforts to put new knowledge and innovations directly into practice.
INSPIRE seeks to appoint 15 highly motivated Ph.D. candidates to a range of positions across Europe. The Early Stage Researcher (ESR) positions offer an exciting opportunity to work with leading experts across Europe to develop innovative structure-foundation-soil interface concepts to protect structures from ground-borne hazards via the INSPIRE European Training Network (ETN), funded by the European Commission's Horizon 2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie programme.PhD student (80-100%) - “Meta-Cities”: Integrated urban scale modular wave screening concept The scientific aim of INSPIRE is to foster a new generation of highly qualified researchers and engineers, which will create a critical mass kernel, able to implement a holistic and novel soil-foundation-structure concept for the efficient protection of structures from all ground induced hazards, including earthquakes and all other sources of low-frequency noise and vibration excitations.
The INSPIRE network consists of leading academic institutions and companies from 6 different countries (Italy, Greece, France, Switzerland, Germany and Belgium). ESR05 in particular is hosted at the Institute of Structural Engineering (IBK), Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering (D-BAUG), ETH Zurich.
ESR05 will undertake the task of demonstrating the novel, holistic, modular and adaptable soil-foundation-structure paradigm for structure protection from seismic and other low-frequency waves in soils. This paradigm synergizes three different complementary and overlapping functionalities of meta-soils (i.e. earthquake shield, cloak and rod) to accomplish a set of seismic performance objectives for a portfolio of structures and functions of a community, i.e. a city. The purpose is not only to numerically and experimentally validate the approach, but also to quantify the effect of meta-soil design parameters, assess uncertainties and investigate risk-informed meta-city design approaches. A scaling via similitude approach will be used to determine the minimum set of dimensionless parameters, characterizing the dynamics of the city-meta-soil system. Geotechnical centrifuge experimental techniques, ideal for testing physical scale models of systems involving the interaction between soil and structure, will be used to demonstrate the meta-soil concept using the centrifuge facility at the Institute for Geotechnical Engineering (IGT) at ETH Zurich. This doctoral student position is offered for 3 years with the earliest starting date in June 2019. Primary advisor is Prof. B. Stojadinovic, co-advisor is Prof. I. Anastasopoulos, at ETH Zurich. Applicants must hold a M.Sc. Diploma or equivalent in civil, mechanical or electrical engineering, geosciences, physics, applied mathematics, or related fields, and be at the beginning of their research career. Principal qualifications include strong analytical and quantitative skills in numerical analysis, programming, high-performance computing, as well as skills in nonlinear dynamics, data analysis and modelling, and interest in laboratory-based experimentation and engineering applications. A solid knowledge of English as the spoken and written language of work is mandatory. We expect good interpersonal skills, the ability to thrive in a diverse, multidisciplinary environment, ability to present work in international conference, as well as the willingness to spend a number of months working with project collaborators at partner universities in this project.
ETN Mobility Rules: Researchers can be of any nationality. At the time of recruitment, researchers must not have resided or carried out their main activity in the country of their host organization for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately before the reference date. Researchers must be in the first four years of their research careers and not yet have a doctoral degree. We look forward to receiving your online application including: a clear designation INSPIRE ESR05 you are applying for, a letter of motivation, a CV, electronic copies of your academic diplomas and certificates, and contact details for at least 2 referees. The applications will be reviewed starting March 15, 2019 with the intent to conclude the search by the end of April 2019. Please note that we exclusively accept applications submitted through our online application portal. Applications via email or postal services will not be considered.
For further information please visit our website www.ibk.ethz.ch. Questions regarding the position should be directed by email to Prof. Bozidar Stojadinovic at stojadinovic@ibk.baug.ethz.ch (no applications), and Prof. Ioannis Anastasopoulos at ioannis.anastasopoulos@igt.baug.ethz.ch(no applications).
