PhD position (m/f/d), 75% from March 2027 - STEMCELL WP2

PhD position (m/f/d), 75% from March 2027 - STEMCELL WP2

24.07.2026, Wissenschaftliches Personal

The Technical University of Munich (TUM) is one of the world’s leading universities. At the TUM School of Life Sciences, one focus is on forest ecosystems, aiming to better understand their dynamics and contribute to their sustainable management.

Funded by the European Research Council (ERC), the STEMCELL project has been established to enhance our understanding of tree growth and wood formation under drought conditions at the TUM School of Life Sciences. The goal of the STEMCELL project is to uncover the relationship between whole-tree water use and wood cell formation in trees, using advanced growth models to predict the future of wood formation and carbon allocation in forests facing drier conditions.

Within WP2, a doctoral candidate will perform controlled experiments on mature trees at the KROOF experimental site, and partially at the Swiss Canopy Crane II site, which both are whole-ecosystem rainfall-exclusion experiments, carefully monitoring wood formation. The doctorate will be part of the STEMCELL team led by Prof. Richard Peters and Dr. Aaron Potkay, who will integrate the findings into a new numerical model simulating wood formation.

Your Profile

• Completed master studies in the field of ecophysiology, plant biology, forest growth sciences, ecohydrology, or related fields
• Interested in tree growth, experimentation, mechanistic modeling, and plant functioning
• Good quantitative skills (e.g., numerical methods, statistical analysis, coding, data management)
• Good communication skills
• Ability to work in a team
• Driving license category B desirable (access to field sites)

Your Tasks

You will investigate how water and carbon availability jointly control tree growth at the cell level, with a focus on wood formation and its hormonal regulation. Using innovative factorial experiments with mature trees growing at whole-ecosystem manipulation experiments, you will manipulate drought and carbohydrate supply to tease apart their roles in controlling cambial activity, cell enlargement, and wall thickening. You will combine high-resolution dendrometer records with analyses of wood formation, carbohydrate pools, hydraulic traits, and hormonal profiles to uncover the mechanisms by which drought limits growth. Building on these experiments, you will use mechanistic models to see whether we can predict future wood formation under climate change. Your findings will provide the empirical foundation for upscaling the model to larger areas and directly inform the other work packages of the project.

Specifically, tasks include:

• Designing and conducting experiments with mature temperate European trees to test combined water and carbon limitations of growth
• Applying innovative techniques such as stem chilling and controlled drought to manipulate and track growth processes, while using a canopy crane to monitor water status
• Have an interest in applying mechanistic growth models in collaboration with the STEMCELL Postdoc
• Measuring high-resolution stem growth with dendrometers and xylogenesis (using wood anatomical techniques) to establish the water-growth link in state-of-the-art experimental research sites in mature forests
• Interactive collaboration and exchange within the STEMCELL team
• Publication of peer-reviewed scientific papers in international journals
• Communication of research findings at scientific conferences and stakeholder meetings

Our Offer

• Work in a highly dynamic and international research group at the forefront of the field
• Opportunity to pursue a doctoral degree
• Embedded into a newly established, interdisciplinary research team with a focus on tree growth and drought
• Interact with a wide network of peers, scientists, and stakeholders both nationally and internationally
• 75% position (30h employment per week) in remuneration group TV-L E13, for a period of 3 years with the possibility of an extension up to 6 months
• The place of employment is the TUM School of Life Science in Freising, Germany
• TUM strives to raise the proportion of women in its workforce and explicitly encourages applications from qualified women
• The position is suitable for disabled persons. Disabled applicants will be given preference in case of generally equivalent suitability, aptitude, and professional performance

Contact

Please send your application, consisting of a complete CV and a concise motivation letter, by September 1, 2026, at the latest to:

Technical University of Munich
Chair of Tree Growth and Wood Physiology
attn. Barbara Bauer
Hans-Carl-von-Carlowitz-Platz 2
85354 Freising, Germany
Email: bbauer@tum.de

For questions about the position, please contact Prof. Richard Peters, richard.peters@tum.de.

In case of an online application (preferred), we ask you to send the documents collected in a single PDF file. In case of a written application, we ask you to send us copies only, as we are unfortunately unable to return your application documents once the procedure has been completed.

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