[Belgium] VLIR-UOS Master Scholarships, Ghent University

VLIR-UOS Master`s Scholarships Program 2010/11 Ghent University, Belgium
Open to: students who have a bachelor`s degree in exact or applied sciences of minimum three years

Announcement follows:
The programme of this Master following Bachelor is essentially structured around the following themes: basic study of non-polluted environments; sources and causes of environmental pollution; methodologies for detection and analysis of environmental pollution; prevention and abatement of environmental pollution; treatment of waste; clean technology and environmental toxicology including the methodologies for risk assessment.

Eligibility:
The programme is open to students who have a bachelor`s degree in exact or applied sciences of minimum three years with good overall scores (at least a second class or equivalent, preferably higher) from a university or recognized equivalent. Adequate knowledge of mathematics, physics and chemistry at university level is an absolute requirement. Previous knowledge of biology, microbiology and/or soil science is an advantage but not a requisite. The candidate`s application file will be evaluated in all cases, independent of the diploma. The candidate must be proficient in English.

Scholarship Deadline: 1 February 2010

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The main objective of the Interuniversity Programme Master of Science in Food Technology (IUPFOOD) is to provide students with comprehensive training in the field of food technology, food science and food engineering, with special emphasis on the technology of the production of specific foodstuffs for developing countries and on tropical crops postharvest and preservation technology. It is expected that participants returning to their home countries will be able to efficiently appraise and solve problems related to food technology, food science and food engineering. In the first year of the MSc Programme (60 credits) in depth knowledge in food science, engineering and food engineering is obtained, in order to achieve a common knowledge base between students with different backgrounds. The first year is common to all students. The courses of the first semester are organized at UGent, while the courses of the second semester are taught at K.U.Leuven. The second year of the MSc Programme (60 credits) provides broader knowledge in food technology in general and an in depth understanding in either `Postharvest and Food Preservation Engineering` or `Food Science and Technology`, depending on the major chosen. The second year of the programme therefore consists of specific courses on each major (18 credits), optional courses (12 credits) and thesis research (30 credits). The major, the optional courses and the thesis topic are chosen after completing the first year. For the optional courses, the student may choose among the courses of the other major and the additional optional courses offered. This enables the student to compile a tailor-made study curriculum according to his/her individual needs and interests.

Within the Erasmus Mundus framework, the following five top European universities have now joined forces, pooling their individual expertise and experience in the fields of nanoscience and nanotechnology, to offer an exciting new master programme. The Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium): programme coordinator Chalmers Tekniska Högskola (Sweden) Delft University of Technology (the Netherlands) Leiden University (the Netherlands) Technische Universität Dresden (Germany) The lectures offered by the consortium are embedded within various research centres such as IMEC in Leuven, the Casimir Research School in Delft/Leiden, the Max Planck Institute in Dresden, and the MC2 centre in Chalmers. This strong link between education and research ensures a contemporary programme at the cutting edge of state-of-the art research. The master programme has a duration of two years (120 ECTS points). Erasmus Mundus students follow courses at K.U. Leuven and another university of the consortium. Courses are taught in English.

Five leading research and educational institutions in Europe are collaborating to offer a joint Erasmus Mundus Master of Science program in Photonics, providing a top-quality eduction in all aspects of photonics. The master programme has a duration of two years (120 ECTS points), with students spending a year in two different countries. Coordinator: Ghent University (Belgium) Partners: Free University of Brussels (Belgium), St Andrews University and Heriot-Watt University (U.K.), Royal Institute of Technology (Sweden) Furthermore a student and scholar exchange programme is in place between the EMMP consortium and the following non-European universities: Zhejiang University (China), University of Tokyo (Japan) and the University of Sydney (Australia). European EMMP students have the possibility to study 3 months of their second master year at one of these institutions. Photonics Photonics is now widely recognized as a major innovation enabling discipline for the 21st century. It can be defined as that field of science and technology where the fundamental properties of light and its interaction with matter are studied and applied.

This two-year programme will provide the students with a strong fundamental and applied background in marine sciences, marine research and management skills. The first year of the master programme mainly addresses basic marine science disciplines such as Physical and Chemical Oceanography, Marine Ecology and Biodiversity, Marine Pollution and Ecotoxicology, Marine Microbiology, Marine Ecophysiology, Molecular Ecology of the Marine Environment, Tropical Coastal Biocomplexity, Applied Mathematics, Statistics, Climatology and Climate Change, Introduction to GIS, Information Retrieval, Management and Presentation, Practical exercises, field training and seminars on development cooperation. While the second year of the master programme focuses on research and the scientific approach to management issues. Core courses are: Scientific Reporting and Didactics, Data-management of the Marine Environment; Ecosystem Modelling, Bio-Statistics and Geographical Information Systems. Students also choose a number of specialized optional courses, e.g. Integrated Coastal Zone Management, Exploitation and Management of Coastal Resources, Recent Developments in Marine Biodiversity, Marine Optics and Remote Sensing, Law of the Sea, Environmental Economy. or an optional internship in one of the participating laboratories or institutes. During the second year, students conduct their master`s thesis research on a subject directly related to an ecological problem in their home country. Thus ECOMAMA-graduates are trained (1) to play a key role in high quality scientific research, (2) as advisor in marine management, (3) to be critical and communicative ecological marine scientists with management skills.

The Master`s in Globalisation and Development (GD) approaches the phenomenon of globalisation from an eclectic perspective, considering both the opportunities it creates and threats it poses to development and poverty alleviation in low and middle-income countries, both at the national and the local level. Most of our students are engaged (or aspire to becoming engaged) in development policy work, professionally and/or as researchers. The objective of the Master`s is to provide them with a solid understanding of the globalisation phenomenon in its multiple dimensions (worldwide markets for goods and services, capital and labour/migration, the planetary challenge of the environment and sustainable development). It also offers them insights and tools to analyse and affect how globalisation impacts on local development and poverty alleviation in low and middle-income countries, taking due account of the complexity of local-global interactions in the multifaceted arenas of globalisation. Successful students shall be able to recognise the opportunities presented by globalisation, and to assess and remedy the risks and threats entailed. Moreover, they shall be able to identify and evaluate policy and programme interventions to exploit opportunities for more effective local and national development in the evolving global context, as well as development interventions aimed at remedying the adverse effects of globalisation on development in general and on the poorer and weaker groups in society in particular, thereby strengthening the agency of the latter. The Master`s programme focuses on the analysis of the interaction between external and local actors, at the interface of global and local development processes, in order to identify the changing opportunities for and constraints to beneficial institutional change for inclusive, sustainable development and poverty reduction. It conceptualises political and economic development as the outcome of interactions between a conditioning institutional environment and the agency of international, national and local actors. In this context, special attention is paid to the way in which these interactions produce either inequality and poverty or well-being. The programme focuses in part on micro-level institutions and processes, and how these condition the effectiveness, at the local level, of development efforts aimed at exploiting the opportunities raised by globalisation and/or at remedying its adverse effects on the poorer and weaker groups in society. Students are offered a choice of policy domains for a more in-depth treatment of specific policy challenges at the local-global interface (see options below).

Ghent University: PhD studentship in the “Empirical study of social embodied music interaction”. We are currently recruiting a PhD student to join our research team at IPEM, department of Musicology, Ghent University. The successful applicant will join our team in studying social embodied music interaction. The ideal candidate should have obtained a MA degree in musicology, psychology, sociology or related disciplines, with skills in experimental design and computational methods. Applicants with interests in music, motor control, body movement and social interaction patterns are encouraged to apply.

Parametrisation of an all-atom force field with non-natural amino acids. The laboratory has significant expertise in the development of empirical force fields predicting mutational changes in the free energy of folding or binding of proteins. The aim of the current project is to extend the capabilities of the force field towards non-natural amino acids. This work involves obtaining good estimates of atomic parameters such as volumes, charges, hydrophobicity and compound properties such as backbone and sidechain entropy, from datamining and first principle simulations. You will need a good understanding of the physicochemistry of organic compounds and their interaction with proteins. The candidate will have a strong background in computational chemistry or structural bioinformatics and experience with c++ programming will be considered a serious plus.

Structural analysis of mutations and polymorphisms in human cancers and the effect of these changes on the signaling properties of proteins. We offer a PhD position in the context of a collaborative project in the Brussels region. The project focusses on the relationship between single-nucleotide polymorphisms and protein structure and function in cancer. The aim is to predict the effects that single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and haplotypes have on both the expression levels and structural properties of cancer-related proteins. The best candidates will have a strong background in computational chemistry or structural bioinformatics. Experience with SNP arrays and/or data mining is a serious plus.

The research group Plant Systems Modeling of the Department Plant Systems Biology at the VIB in Ghent, Belgium, has an opening for a: Research Assistant / Ph. D student (f/m) Computational modeling of auxin dynamics during lateral root initiation The department plant systems biology of the VIB has an opening for an ambitious and energetic research assistant in the new research group Plant Systems Modeling, that focuses on computational modeling of plant development biology. Systems biology is a relatively new approach in biology, that shifts focus from individual molecules, genes and cells to their dynamic interplay: how do molecules, genes and cells form a working mechanism, behaving in a predictable way? A crucial pilar in this approach at the interface of biology, physics and computer science, is computational modeling. Modeling the biological system in a computer simulation gives us insights into developmental mechanisms, and helps us identify the gaps in our understanding of the biological system. These insights suggest new experiments, which our experimental collaborators test in the wet-lab.