A postdoctoral position is available at the LISA on the development and
validation of a new technique for airborne measurements of oxygenated VOCs.
Research centre:
Contact :
LISA/CNRS, UMR 7583
61, avenue du Général de Gaulle, 94010 Créteil, France.
Dr Agnès BORBON
Email : borbon@lisa.univ-paris12.fr / 0033 (0)1 45 17 15 19
Justification:
Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) and their secondary oxidation products in the
atmosphere play a great role on key environmental questions from local scale (air quality,
photooxidant pollution, aerosol visibility) to global scale (direct and indirect effect of aerosols
on climate). To quantify the impacts of these compounds on atmospheric processes and to
provide reliable constraint data for modellers, it is essential to document the speciation of this
secondary organic fraction which is quite unknown at present. Our team (GEMPO) has a
long and recognized experience in gaseous trace compounds measurements in the ambient
air at the LISA (Laboratoire Interuniversitaire des Systèmes Atmosphériques), one of the
major French leader laboratory in tropospheric science research. In particular, we are now
developing a new offline airborne instrumentation for VOC which includes: an original
automatic airborne sampler (AMOVOC) for primary VOC (multiadsorbent tubes) and their
secondary oxidation products (liquid stripping coil) associated with various chromatographic
techniques at the laboratory. At present, this project permits the measurement of primary
non-methane hydrocarbons and monocarbonyl compounds (ie. formaldehyde). This
instrumentation was successfully deployed for the first time during the international
programme AMMA in Western Africa on summer 2006. The objective of the postdoc position
is to carry on with the development of oxygenated VOC (OVOC) measuring by extending it to
a greater number of multifunctional groups (ie. carbonyl, carboxylic and hydroxyl).
Work description:
The research task is planned as follows:
1. Analytical development and sample pre-treatment based on our Combipal/TDAS/GC-MS
unit
2. Measurement qualification in controlled atmosphere and in the real atmosphere for
different field situations in/around Paris (mobile lab MILEAGE)
3. Data treatment and one publication (at least) in an international journal
General conditions:
The successful candidate must have, at least, a PhD in atmospheric sciences (defended
before December 2007) based on experimental work on trace gases. An expertise in the
analysis of VOCs would be greatly appreciated. The candidate mustn’t be a French native.
The starting date is negotiable but no later than January 2008. The position period is planned
for nine months. It will be held in Créteil (20 min from Paris centre by metro) with a net
monthly salary of 1830 euros. We invite candidates to send their application to
Agnès BORBON before July 2007 including a detailed CV, a motivation letter and the name
of at least one reference.