General information

Reference

2026-4061  

Position description

Category

F13 Hydrogeology - Engineer / Researcher

Job title

Postdoctoral position on soil function modeling F/H

Contract

Post-doctoral contrat

Contractual hours

Full-time

Contract duration

24 months

Context and contributions of the position

Within the Water Division (DE), the Shallow Aquifers unit (AS) has the main missions of improving knowledge of shallow hydrogeological systems and their interactions within the atmosphere, surface water, unsaturated zone continuum, and understanding their functioning for optimized water resource management in France and internationally in a context of global change, improving knowledge of pressures exerted and their impacts on the resource, and communicating this knowledge to managers and decision-makers. The missions of this unit revolve around understanding the functioning of shallow aquifers and their relationships to interfaces (wetlands and surface waters, unsaturated zone, recharge...) as well as issues related to sustainable management strategies and adaptation of these resources. The work of this postdoctoral position is part of the Horizon Europe PHISHES project, which started in September 2024 for a duration of four years. This project aims to predict the dynamics of soil functions and associated ecosystem services, depending on soil use and contamination levels, in order to determine the most efficient strategies to preserve soil health according to their current or future uses.

Job description

Joining the French Geological Survey (BRGM) means becoming part of France's leading public institution for Earth Science applications bringing together 1,000 wholeheartedly committed experts across 25 bases in Mainland and Overseas France. BRGM focuses on enhancing geological knowledge and understanding of surface and sub-surface-related phenomena, with a view to meeting the challenges of environmental changes through innovative projects with societal implications..

You will be expected to carry out the following tasks:

The objective of the postdoctoral project is to characterize, simulate, and quantitatively predict the key functions of soils in the context of polluted sites, from the site scale to the watershed scale.

The goal is to develop conceptual and technical frameworks adapted to the specificities of soils present on polluted sites, mainly targeting functions related to the water cycle and pollutant fate, and, to a lesser extent, carbon storage and habitat functions for soil organisms.

To achieve this objective, the following work program has been developed. It is divided into four main stages:

- Build a conceptual modeling framework for reactive transport to simulate the functions of soils contaminated by anthropogenic activities. Specific modules will be developed in the HPx calculation code to represent the key physical and biogeochemical processes controlling pollutant dynamics, based on physical laws (thermodynamics, continuity equations, mass conservation). Models will be developed for sites contaminated by PFAS and As, respectively.

- Develop a coupling between the HPx and MODFLOW calculation codes to create a modeling chain capable of robustly and coherently simulating water, energy, and matter fluxes in the soil-hydrosystem continuum, from the plot scale to the watershed scale.

- Perform sensitivity and uncertainty analyses using Sobol's method and ensemble approaches, respectively.

- Experiments under static (batch) and dynamic (column) conditions will be conducted to characterize the effects of the two remediation methods studied, phytostabilization and in situ leaching with non-Newtonian fluids, on the physical and biogeochemical properties of soils and to develop pedotransfer functions for the models.

Profile

You will apply the following skills and qualities:

- Knowledge in soil science, hydrogeology, geochemistry, and modeling of flow and reactive transport is required
- Knowledge in soil health would be a valued asset;
- Organizational skills, initiative, curiosity, and autonomy;
- Good communication skills, both oral and written;
- Good command of English, written and spoken.

Working conditions

You hold a PhD obtained less than 3 years ago

Position location

Job location

France, Centre-Val de Loire, Loiret (45)

Location

Candidate criteria

Languages

English (Fluent)