In collaboration with the AXIS research group (University of Antwerp, Faculty of Science, Department of Physics), the research group Antwerp Cultural Heritage Sciences (ARCHES) (University of Antwerp, Faculty of Design Sciences, Conservation-Restoration) is looking for a doctoral candidate in the interdisciplinary field of Conservation-Restoration and Applied Sciences, focussing on the development and assessment of gel cleaning techniques. You will work actively on the preparation and defence of a PhD thesis in conservation-restoration or heritage science, dedicated to green conservation. More in particular, your work will involve the development and assessment of gel cleaning techniques for sensitive and porous heritage objects affected by contaminants related to climate change (e.g. soot from museum and wildfires, etc.) or materials deposited by climate activism. For this, you will produce simplified model samples (mock-ups) with soiling and deposition of various types of carbon-based contaminants, artificial age these mock-ups, and develop and test both state-of-the-art and improved gel cleaning approaches. You will use the ensuing cleaning results as a benchmark for results obtained by means of plasma and laser cleaning, as a green alternative for traditional cleaning approaches that include using chemicals and volatile organic solvents. This will allow the comparison between contact and contactless cleaning approaches. This position is part of a European Horizon project entitled: Green Atmospheric Plasma-Generated Monoatomic Oxygen Technology For Green Contactless Atomic Scale Cleaning Of Works Of Art (MOXY). This implies that the candidate will have to collaborate in an interdisciplinary way with the various researchers working on this project. Therefore, the candidate should have good communication skills and is expected to interact pro-actively with, and travel between, the European research institutes and museums associated with this project.
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[Website University of Antwerp]