RE-ADVERTISEMENT: Postdoc Position: Data-Driven Modelling in Catalysis

Are you interested in combining the fields of Machine Learning and Computational Catalysis? In the group of Assoc. Prof. Mie Andersen at Aarhus University in Denmark we have an open fulltime post-doctoral position within these research topics. The applications will focus on CO2 hydrogenation reactions over solid oxide catalyst materials.

Starting Date and Period

Starting date is October 1st 2023 or soon hereafter.

The duration of the employment is two years.

Project Description

In this project, the successful candidate will contribute to the development and application of machine learning (ML) methods for accelerating the computational screening of catalytic materials. We will specifically target metal oxides, which are a challenging class of materials due to the many possible metal oxides that could, in principle, be formed from the elements of the periodic table as well as their complex electronic structure and possible surface geometry. Metal oxides show good catalytic performances for a wide range of reactions but remain largely unexplored with current ML approaches. We will focus our investigations on CO2 reduction to valuable chemicals and fuels (CO and methanol), which can help our society in the mitigation of global warming and diversification of energy sources. Together with international collaborators, we will explore ML methods based on mathematical graph theory for the prediction of binding configurations and energies of molecules at oxides, including methods based on graph kernels and graph neural networks, which have shown great performance for the modeling of chemical systems in recent years. The ML models will enable accurate and low-cost predictions to be made for a large number of systems and will be used to establish kinetic models for the catalytic activity of metal oxides within electrochemical and thermal conversion of CO2. Further refinement of the kinetic models will be carried out for the most promising catalytic materials found to arrive at a sufficient predictive accuracy for guiding experimental investigations, i.e., the synthesis, characterization and laboratory testing of these materials.

The project will be carried out in an international research environment and there are opportunities for travelling to visit international collaborators (mainly USA and Europe).

Your Profile

Applicants must hold a PhD degree in physics, chemistry, nanoscience, computer science or equivalent. Previous experience with machine learning methods and/or first principles energy calculations in physical chemistry is required. Experience with programming in python is highly desired.

You can learn more about Mie Andersen’s research activities here .

Place of work and area of Employment

The place of work is Ny Munkegade 120, 8000 Aarhus C and the area of employment is Aarhus University with related departments.

Further information may be obtained by e-mailing Mie Andersen ([email protected] ).

Deadline 

The deadline is July 1st 2023. 

Previously submitted applications will be taken into consideration unless they are withdrawn.

Application procedure

Shortlisting is used. This means that after the deadline for applications – and with the assistance from the assessment committee chairman, and the appointment committee if necessary, – the head of department selects the candidates to be evaluated. All applicants will be notified whether or not their applications have been sent to an expert assessment committee for evaluation. The selected applicants will be informed about the composition of the committee, and each applicant is given the opportunity to comment on the part of the assessment that concerns him/her self. Once the recruitment process is completed a final letter of rejection is sent to the deselected applicants.

Letter of reference

If you want a referee to upload a letter of reference on your behalf, please state the referee’s contact information when you submit your application. We strongly recommend that you make an agreement with the person in question before you enter the referee’s contact information, and that you ensure that the referee has enough time to write the letter of reference before the application deadline. Unfortunately, it is not possible to ensure that letters of reference received after the application deadline will be taken into consideration.

Formalities and salary range

Natural Sciences refers to the

Ministerial Order on the Appointment of Academic Staff at Danish Universities under the Danish Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation

.

The application must be in English and include a curriculum vitae, degree certificate, a complete list of publications, a statement of future research plans and information about research activities, teaching portfolio and verified information on previous teaching experience (if any). Guidelines for applicants can be found here.

Appointment shall be in accordance with the collective labour agreement between the Danish Ministry of Taxation and the Danish Confederation of Professional Associations. Further information on qualification requirements and job content may be found in the Memorandum on Job Structure for Academic Staff at Danish Universities .

Salary depends on seniority as agreed between the Danish Ministry of Taxation and the Confederation of Professional Associations.

Aarhus University’s ambition is to be an attractive and inspiring workplace for all and to foster a culture in which each individual has opportunities to thrive, achieve and develop. We view equality and diversity as assets, and we welcome all applicants.

Research activities will be evaluated in relation to actual research time. Thus, we encourage applicants to specify periods of leave without research activities, in order to be able to subtract these periods from the span of the scientific career during the evaluation of scientific productivity.

Aarhus University offers a broad variety of services for international researchers and accompanying families, including relocation service and career counselling to expat partners. Read more here . Please find more information about entering and working in Denmark here .

Aarhus University also offers a Junior Researcher Development Programme targeted at career development for postdocs at AU. You can read more about it here .

The application must be submitted via Aarhus University’s recruitment system, which can be accessed under the job advertisement on Aarhus University's website.