Applications are invited for a four-year PhD project at the School of Food and Nutritional Science at University College Cork, supervised by Dr. Áine Hennessy and Dr. Eileen Ryan

The PhD studentship is funded by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM)- focused on mapping per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) contamination across Irish agriculture and food systems (MaPFAS). Diet is recognised as a major route of human exposure, yet uncertainty remains around how habitual food consumption patterns, domestic food preparation practices, and cooking equipment influence the PFAS burden delivered to consumers. The project will advance understanding of PFAS exposure pathways in the Irish population by integrating food occurrence data, cooking-related transformation studies, probabilistic dietary exposure modelling, and human biomonitoring.

The PhD project

We are seeking a highly motivated PhD candidate to join a cutting-edge funded and interdisciplinary project involving UCC, Teagasc, and University College Dublin (UCD).

Specifically, the PhD project will:

• Leverage comprehensive PFAs food occurrence data from the EPA-funded DISREPAIR project and expand the food sampling framework, where necessary, to reflect current habitual food consumption habits in Irish population groups.
• Investigate the impact of various domestic food preparation methods including boiling, frying, baking, microwaving, in addition to freeze-thaw cycles, use of non-stick cookware, boil-in-the-bag formats on PFAS concentrations in foods.
• Generate estimates of PFAS exposure using probabilistic exposure assessment methods as recommended by EFSA and identify the proportion of the population exceeding the tolerable weekly intake (TWI) set by EFSA.
• Quantify PFAS concentrations in sera of Irish adults (bioaccumulation) and explore associations with estimates of dietary exposure.

Start date

October 2026 (preferred) or Jan 2027

Eligibility criteria

Essential:

• A minimum 2.1 Honours degree (or equivalent) in Nutritional Science, Food Science, Analytical Chemistry, Environmental Health or a closely related discipline.
• Strong interest in nutrition, food safety, environmental health, and maternal/child health research.
• Strong interest in analytical chemistry particularly in the use of LC-MS
• Demonstrated laboratory skills, including experience with sample preparation, chemical or biological analysis.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English.
• Ability to work both independently and collaboratively within a multidisciplinary team.
• Strong organisational skills and attention to detail.

Desirable:

• A Master’s degree (or equivalent research experience) in a relevant field (e.g., Human Nutrition, Public Health Nutrition, Analytical Chemistry, Environmental Health Sciences).
• Previous hands-on experience with liquid LC-MS
• Knowledge of epidemiological study design, food consumption datasets and exposure assessment methods.
• Familiarity with statistical software packages such as SPSS, R, or Stata.
• Experience working with human biological samples (e.g., blood, serum).
• An interest in translating scientific research into public health and policy impacts.