Postdoc Impact of Offshore Wind Farms on Stratification, Circulation and mixing in the North Sea Delft • TU Delft

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Are you passionate about Physical Oceanography and Coastal Ocean Modelling? Do you have the drive to study flow and mixing in the North Sea and the impact of wind farms? Then this job may be for you!

Job description

Around the world, Offshore Wind Farms (OWFs) are being installed for renewable energy. However, wind farms can change the flow and transport and with that the ecology of our coastal oceans. Altered currents and turbulence due to the OWF monopiles and changes in meteorological conditions affect mixing and transport, leading to changes in stratification, temperature and salinity patterns and suspended sediment dynamics. These changing physical conditions may strongly influence water quality and ecology of our coastal oceans. In turn, climate change is ongoing and will impact stratification patterns and hence will influence how offshore wind farms affect these processes.

In this postdoc project, you will investigate the impacts of OWFs on currents, stratification, turbulence, and mixing in the southern North Sea. You will unravel the mechanisms and quantify the effects, with special attention for the Rhine Region Of Freshwater Influence (ROFI) and the Frisian Front. These regions are of special interest due to the exciting hydrodynamics of converging flows, stratification, tidal straining and the occurrence of fronts, as well as their large ecological relevance. In this project, you will use a 3D model (the Dutch Continental Shelf Model DCSM), particle tracking and data to investigate how and where OWFs impact stratification, mixing and flow. In-situ data and Remote Sensing data will be used to further validate the model, which will subsequently be applied to understand changes in the turbulence and mixing characteristics up and downstream of OWFs. For this, water mass transformation and salinity variance analyses will be applied, to identify mixing‘hot’ and‘cold’spots, and their consequences. You will investigate how river plumes and frontal systems are impacted by processes such as wind driven upwelling, downwelling, internal waves, tidal plume fronts, and seasonal fronts and how in turn these processes impact the stratification and circulation. You will also investigate how these processes are affected by OWFs. Finally, you will assess how these phenomena change under the influence of climate change. The focus of this project is on the numerical modelling, but you will also get the opportunity to contribute to data acquisition during research cruises on the North Sea. You will carry out the numerical simulations in collaboration with modelling experts at Deltares, the Dutch institute for applied research on water and subsoil in Delft, and can make use of Deltares’ computational facilities. In this project, your supervisors at TU Delft will be prof.dr. Julie Pietrzak and dr.ir. Wouter Kranenburg, and you will intensively collaborate with ir. Firmijn Zijl and dr. Luca van Duren, Deltares. At Delft University of Technology, you will be part of the Section of Environmental Fluid Mechanics within the faculty Civil Engineering and Geosciences.

This project is part of the research program NO-REGRETS (North Sea Renewable Energy: Gaining the Required Ecological Knowledge for the Transition), a six-year (2025-2031) project funded by the Dutch Research Council (NWO-NWA ORC) which examines the ecological and economic trade-offs of upscaling OWFs in the context of climate change and the ongoing food and nature transitions in the North Sea. NO-REGRETS has an interdisciplinary consortium of world-class expertise from 8 Dutch Universities, 5 Research Institutes and relevant societal stakeholders that play a major role in research and management of the North Sea. The project advances knowledge on potential impacts of OWFs on ocean currents, suspended sediments, microscopic plankton, various life stages of fishes, seabed composition, seafloor organisms, marine mammals, and sea birds. Economic analyses explore changes in the value of marine fisheries and other assets. NO-REGRETS will create tools allowing policymakers and other stakeholders to gauge and optimise the ecological and bioeconomic consequences of North Sea OWF expansion.

Job requirements 

For this postdoc project, the Section of Environmental Fluid Mechanics at Delft University of Technology is looking for a candidate with a strong background in numerical modelling of environmental fluid dynamics, physical oceanography or coastal engineering, strongly motivated to study the impact of Offshore Wind Farms (OWFs) and Climate Change on flow and mixing processes in southern North Sea. Job requirements are:

• A PhD and MSc degree, preferably in Physical Oceanography, Numerical Modelling of Shelf Seas, and/or Oceans, Meteorology, Physics, Mathematics, or Hydraulic Engineering.
• Strong proven affinity with physical processes behind circulation and transport, preferably related to hydrodynamics in coastal seas, oceans or estuaries.
• Experience with numerical modelling of circulation and transport, preferebly related to coastal seas, oceans or estuaries.
• Excellent ability to think conceptually and quantitatively.
• Excellent ability to communicate in English both in speech and in writing.
• Excellent ability to function in multidisciplinary groups allowing the knowledge developed in your tasks to flow into the integrative ecological workpackage.
• Good organisational skills and ability to work independently and in a team.

We are looking for a candidate with curiosity, motivation, a relevant background and an eagerness to learn. If you are interested in this position, please explain your motivation in your application letter. Discuss what interests you in this particular project and how your background and experience relate to it.

Conditions of employment 

• Duration of contract is 3 years.
• A job of 38 hours per week. 

Salary and benefits are in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities. The TU Delft offers a customisable compensation package, discounts on health insurance, and a monthly work costs contribution. Flexible work schedules can be arranged. 

Will you need to relocate to the Netherlands for this job? TU Delft is committed to make your move as smooth as possible! The HR unit, Coming to Delft Service, offers information on their website to help you prepare your relocation. In addition, Coming to Delft Service organises events to help you settle in the Netherlands, and expand your (social) network in Delft. A Dual Career Programme is available, to support your accompanying partner with their job search in the Netherlands.  . 

Additional information
For more information about this vacancy, please contact prof.dr. Julie Pietrzak (via de button "Solliciteer nu" op deze pagina.) or dr.ir. Wouter Kranenburg (via de button "Solliciteer nu" op deze pagina.).

For information about the application procedure, please contact Monique Scheers, HR adviser (via de button "Solliciteer nu" op deze pagina.).

Application procedure
Are you interested in this vacancy? Please apply no later than 15 July 2025 via the application button and upload the following documents:

• your letter of motivation
• your Curriculum Vitae
• your list of grades/transcripts (master)
• contact information of two references
• if already available: your PhD thesis

You can address your application to prof.dr. Julie Pietrzak.

Please note:

• You can apply online. We will not process applications sent by email and/or post. 
• A pre-employment screening can be part of the selection procedure.
• For the final candidates, a knowledge security check will be part of the application procedure. For more information on this check, please consult Chapter 8 of the National Knowledge Security Guidelines. We carry out this check on the basis of legitimate interest.
• Please do not contact us for unsolicited services.