Job Responsibilities

Food waste is a serious threat to sustainable development and contributes to global warming and enormous economic losses.

Agricultural by-products often contain edible components that can be reintegrated into the food supply chain through safe processing, providing an opportunity to increase food availability without further burden on agricultural resources. The project will utilize by-products from agriculture and transform them into plant-based food ingredients with improved functional properties and health effects.

We are seeking a postdoctoral researcher with a background in food science and technology, focusing on plant-based ingredients. The postdoc will develop new strategies to enhance the nutritional and health benefits of plant protein-based meat analogs by integrating valuable nutrients (i.e., dietary fibers, fats/lipids, vitamins, and minerals) from various by-products.

The project is part of PLENTY - a Center for Symbiotic and Circular Food Supply, funded by Formas, and will be conducted in collaboration with our industrial partners. The candidate is expected to participate in all project activities, including research, meetings, dissemination of results, and supervision of master's students.

Main Responsibilities:

Evaluate, purify, and characterize new food proteins from food by-products.
Process food protein by-products into new food products.
Design and conduct experiments to investigate the physicochemical and functional properties of various food proteins.
Visualize data and perform statistical analysis of experimental results.
Interpret and communicate research findings to other project partners.
Write and publish scientific articles.

We Offer

An employment at a leading technical university that creates knowledge and competence for a sustainable future.
Engaged and ambitious colleagues as well as a creative, international, and dynamic environment.
Work in Stockholm with proximity to nature.
The postdoc will be part of PLENTY - a center for symbiotic and circular food supply, coordinated by KTH, with 5 academic partners and 20 external stakeholders, providing a vibrant network and a specific mentoring program for postdocs.
The postdoc will be employed at the Department of Fiber and Polymer Technology at KTH.

KTH's future workplace (https://www.kth.se/om/work-at-kth/kth-your-future-workplace-1.49050) and a workplace with many benefits (https://www.kth.se/om/work-at-kth/en-arbetsplats-med-manga-formaner-1.467932)

Qualifications

Requirements

PhD degree or foreign degree deemed equivalent to a PhD. This eligibility requirement must be fulfilled at the time the employment decision is made.
PhD in food science and technology, food processing, food chemistry, biochemistry, chemical engineering, chemistry, biology, or related fields.
Good command of English, both spoken and written, as it is required in daily work.

Meritorious

At the time of the application deadline, a maximum of three years since the PhD degree or a foreign degree deemed equivalent to a PhD was obtained.
Research experience with methods and equipment for processing food and feed.
Good understanding of food chemistry, structure, and functionality.
Experience with methods and equipment for analyzing physicochemical and functional properties of food proteins.
Documented ability to develop own ideas, express them clearly, and design experiments to test them.
Good collaboration skills and willingness to work together with other researchers in the project.
Awareness of diversity and equal treatment issues with a particular focus on gender equality.

We will place great emphasis on personal qualities.

Union Representatives

Contact details for union representatives (https://www.kth.se/om/work-at-kth/fackrepresentanter-1.500898)

Application

You apply via KTH's recruitment system. As an applicant, you have the primary responsibility for ensuring that your application is complete when submitted.

The application should include:

CV including relevant work experience and knowledge.
Copy of degree certificates and transcripts from your previous university studies. Translations into English or Swedish if the original documents are not issued in either of these languages.
A brief description of why you want to apply for this project; describe on one page what you consider to be the biggest challenges in processing plant proteins into food.
A brief account of why you want to pursue research, your academic interests, and how they relate to your previous studies and future goals. Maximum 2 pages long.
Contact details for three references.

The application must be received by KTH no later than the application deadline at midnight, CET/CEST (Central European Time/Central European Summer Time).

About the Employment

The employment is permanent, but for a maximum of three years.

A fixed-term merit position (https://www.arbetsgivarverket.se/globalassets/arbetsgivarverket/avtal-och-skrifter/avtal/avtal-om-tidsbegransad-anstallning-som-postdoktor/avtal-om-tidsbegransad-anstallning-som-postdoktor-2021-11-19.pdf) with a primary focus on research intended as a first career step after the doctoral degree.

Other

The pursuit of gender equality, diversity, and equal opportunities is both a quality issue and an obvious part of KTH's values.

For union representatives (https://www.kth.se/om/work-at-kth/fackrepresentanter-1.500898) in connection with recruitment.

It may occur that a position at KTH is classified in a security class. If this is the case for this position, a security assessment of the applicant will be conducted in accordance with the Security Protection Act (2018:585) after consent. In these cases, a prerequisite for employment is that the applicant is approved after the security assessment.

We kindly decline direct contact with staffing and recruitment companies as well as sellers of job advertisements.

About KTH

KTH is one of Europe's leading technical universities and an important arena for knowledge development. As Sweden's largest university for technical research and education, we gather students, researchers, and faculty from all over the world. Our research and education encompass both natural sciences and all branches of engineering as well as architecture, industrial economics, urban planning, history, and philosophy. Learn more about KTH (https://www.kth.se/om/om-kth-1.885102).