Job ID: 86037

Physics PhD fellowship in experimental quantum biology

Position: Ph.D. Student

Deadline: 1 September 2022

Employment Start Date: 1 July 2022

Contract Length: 3 years

City: Trento

Country: Italy

Institution: University of Trento

Department: Department of Physics

Description:

Experimental testing of the quantum theory of magnetoreception in an insect model, a biological magnetic sensor.

Project description:

The project aims to test one of the most prominent models in quantum biology, animal magnetoreception through the mechanism of entangled radical pairs. Experimental setups will be constructed to test honey bees, known to be sensitive to the geomagnetic field, in behavioural experiments and for the first time via in vivo brain imaging while exposed to magnetic stimuli. Neuronal responses will be linked to quantitative predictions from recent theoretical models. The project is financed by the Quantum Science and Technology in Trento initiative (https://quantumtrento.eu/) and is a collaboration between the Neurophysics group (https://r.unitn.it/en/cimec/nphys) at the University of Trento, the CNR Institute of Materials for Electronics and Magnetism (https://www.imem.cnr.it/en), and the Quantum Biology and Computational Physics research group at the University of Oldenburg (https://quantbiolab.com/).

Candidate profile:

Required is a Master’s degree in physics, engineering, biology, neuroscience, or similar fields and excellent English language skills of at least level B2.

Experience in the following techniques is an advantage: design and construction of experimental set-ups, fluorescence microscopy, data analysis and statistics, programming in Matlab/Python, and handling insects.

Doctoral school:

The candidate will be enrolled in the PhD school of the Physics Department at the University of Trento (https://www.unitn.it/drphys/en/12/doctoral-programme-physics)

Application:

Deadline of the formal application: 05 September 2022

The project starts this autumn.