Life will be sweets for Cambridge University’s lucky Doc of Choc

It may not be a conventional route to get a taste of the Oxbridge experience, but Cambridge University is looking for a talented PhD student to lead a fully funded research project involving chocolate.

The three-and-a-half year experimental study will examine how the treat can remain solid when stored and sold in warm climates.

The successful applicant will start in January, although they should not expect to be based in exotic climes to put their research to the test. Instead, the ‘Doctor of Chocolate’ will take up the post at the university’s Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, supervised by academics with “extensive experience in studying soft solids”.

There is no mention of how experienced applicants should be in first-hand encounters with the subject of the research, but the job does require good mathematical skills.

According to the job advert: “The project will investigate the factors which allow chocolate, which has a melting point close to that of the human body, to remain solid and retain qualities sought by consumers when it is stored and sold in warm climates.”

The unnamed project sponsor has “existing technology in this field” and the project will develop “a fundamental understanding of the area which extends beyond the industrial need”, the advert reads. Chocoholics with a good grasp of figures have until August 29 to apply.