Postdoctoral Researcher (hydrogeology)

The Geological Survey of Finland (GTK) is looking for a Postdoctoral Researcher to study the transport of solute and heat in crystalline bedrock for the Energy and Construction Solutions unit. Your office is primarily Espoo, but if necessary working at other GTK offices can be negotiated. You can also work remotely partially and flexibly in Finland.

Your assignment will be to enhance theoretical understanding and GTK’s ability to model groundwater flow and transport processes in the crystalline bedrock, especially in the fault zones. Your task is to develop an integrated workflow involving field and lab scale tests and their thorough interpretation. Your responsibility is to plan and execute for instance single and multi-well pumping and solute and heat tracer test and interpret their results together with laboratory, structural and other geological information in an integrated manner.

The task involves the development of an inversion approach to incorporate the experiments and observation results for development and calibration of a fully explicit heterogeneous solute and heat transport coupled models. These models will be used for theoretical research, as well as for applied fields of research such as geothermal energy, nuclear waste disposal, heat storage and sustainable water management.

The project involves internal GTK collaboration with groundwater geologists, geothermal group, structural geologists, and inverse modelling specialists through ongoing projects as well as international collaboration and mobility. You are also required to publish the results in high-quality journals and participate in scientific conferences, workshops, and seminars to present the results of this project.

You will be working in the Energy and Construction Solutions unit of approximately 45 professionals, who work with issues related to nuclear waste disposal, site selection, geothermal energy, bedrock gas potential and research (especially hydrogen), and engineering geology. In the unit, you will work in the Site Assessment group, which presently consists of 11 members.

This postdoc position is part of Postdoctoral Programme for Research Institutes in Finland. The Programme is funded from the Finnish long-term research and development (R&D) plan. The Programme recruits 85 new postdoctoral researchers to 12 Finnish government research institutes between 2025 and 2028. The aim of the Programme is to strengthen R&D competence in areas important to society and business. Postdoctoral researchers will drive impactful, high-level research bridging science, industry, and administration. The Programme supports postdoctoral researcher’s networking and mobility between sectors. Read more here: https://tulanet.fi/postdoc/

Osaamisalue: Luonnonvara- & ympäristöala