PhD candidate

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Position

PhD candidate

Employer

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology

Geophysical Institute

Prof. Dr. Joachim Ritter

Homepage:

Location

Karlsruhe, Germany

Sector

Academic

Relevant division

Seismology (SM)

Type

Part time

Level

Student / Graduate / Internship

Salary

Open

Required education

Master

Application deadline

15 November 2025

Posted

30 October 2025

Job Description
We study the deep interior of the Earth – the lowermost mantle close to the core-mantle boundary. Due to the depth of more than 2.500 km and the ambient high temperature and density, many material properties are still only poorly known in this region. We offer to contribute to the ongoing research in this fascinating topic. Especially, we are looking for somebody to simulate seismic wave propagation in anisotropic media and study shear wave splitting.

The starting points are models based on seismic anisotropy measurements in the deep Earth and elastic properties of related anisotropic minerals. The calculated synthetic seismograms will be compared with and fitted to observed seismograms.

The research is embedded in the SPP DeepDyn ) and thus there is an opportunity to work together with an interdisciplinary group and to attend meetings and conferences.

Prerequisite is a master's degree in geophysics or physics. Applicants should have a strong background and interest in the areas of seismology, numerical modelling, scientific computing, and signal analysis. Experience in working with AxiSEM3D is advantageous. Candidates without a physics background should be willing to prepare their PhD defence in the KIT-Department of Physics. Very good English language proficiency is essential.

In your application, please describe your (1) motivation, (2) experience and (3) skills relevant for seismological deep Earth studies. Applications without this information will not be reviewed.

How to apply

E-Mail to with Vacancy Reference No. 1257/2025

We prefer to balance the number of employees (f/m/d). Therefore, we kindly ask female applicants to apply for this job.

Recognized severely disabled persons will be preferred if they are equally qualified.

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