Do you have a knack for scientific research and a sweet tooth? Then world-premier Cambridge University might just have the sweetest offer for you: a three-and-a-half year research project into the properties of chocolate in warm weather.

Maev Kennedy of The Guardian reports:

PhD in chocolate – a sweet job on offer at Cambridge University

It could be a sweet job for the right candidate, but demands a good university degree, engineering and physics skills, a track record in scientific experimentation, extensive experience of studying soft solids, and good maths. A sweet tooth might also help: more than three years of full-time chocolate is not a career for the soft-centered.

Cambridge University is advertising for a PhD student to tackle a three-and-a-half-year research project, into how chocolate can “remain solid and retain qualities sought by consumers”, when stored and sold in warm climates.

The problem will be familiar to anyone who has ever put aside a treat to consume later on a warm day and been heartbroken to discover it turned into chocolate sauce: chocolate, the ad points out, “has a melting point close to that of the human body”.

The job – only open to EU candidates – has an undisclosed sponsor described as having “existing technology in this field”. The project, the ad continues, “will develop a fundamental understanding of the area which extends beyond the industrial need”.