Project description

In this project, the PhD student will: (1) improve the plate tectonics model PANALESIS (Vérard 2019, 2021) for an easier use and dissemination to a wider audience; (2) Develop a model that converts the plate tectonics maps into palæogeographic maps; (3) Make all these new developments compliant with the FAIR (Findable-Accessible-Interoperable-Reusable) principles (Giuliani et al., 2021); (4) Contribute to complement the PANALESIS model with new and optimized tools. This work will contribute to define as accurately as possible the Earth’s topographies in the geological past and to take into account information/outputs of other models used by other members of the Sinergia project. From this work depends in particular quantitative estimates in space and time of erosion, sediment flux, and sedimentation essential to the good progress of the other models of the project.

The student will be under the co-supervision of Dr. Grégory Guiliani (Geomatics, enviroSpace group; gregory.giuliani@unige.ch), Prof. Sébastien Castelltort (Geology, Earth Surface Processes group; sebastien.castelltort@unige.ch), and Dr. Christian Vérard (Geology, Global Plate Tectonics and Palaeogeography; christian.verard@unige.ch). He/she will collaborate closely with the Base-Top Earth sinergia team composed of the supervisors, senior scientists from the different research groups, and the other PhD students of the project.

The PhD position is fully funded for 4 years (based on an initial 1-year positive evaluation) starting October 1st, 2023.