Associate Professor in Polymer Chemistry

Northumbria University, Newcastle, is a research-rich, business focused professional university with a global reputation for academic excellence. Colleagues are passionate about the principles and applications of science and technology in all its forms and strive to be excellent in research, teaching and innovation.

Working within the Department of Applied Sciences you will be part of a multidisciplinary team delivering to the chemistry and materials science programmes, polymer research, and related entrepreneurial activities. This will include designing, developing, and delivering high quality teaching provision on the chemistry programmes, a new material science postgraduate programme, undertaking research to produce quality academic outputs, and participating in external activity to generate income and promote the subject area. We are looking to consolidate and enhance both our teaching and research portfolio in the polymer chemistry by appointment of an Associate Professor in Polymer Chemistry. Of particular relevance will be applicants with interests in the measurement of polymer material or surface properties, or the synthesis of sustainable or recyclable polymers and composites.  The post holder will be expected to provide expertise for teaching and research in chemistry whilst availing of our excellent synthetic chemistry and analytical chemistry suites as well as a high-performance computing cluster for modelling and simulation.

Chemistry is a well-established part of the Department’s portfolio with chemistry academics using state-of-the-art facilities including well equipped teaching and research laboratories. A recruit to this post would have a broad scope of collaborative opportunities within the chemistry research group, within the Department (which has subject groups in analytical sciences, biomedical sciences, and food sciences) and with engineering, physics, computing and materials researchers in the Faculty of Engineering and the Environment. The Department has 80 academic, 20 research fellows and 40 PhD students working in an intensely cross-disciplinary to complement the existing polymer chemistry research area. The post holder will have access to state-of-the-art chromatography and mass spectrometry instrumentation including an Orbitrap ID-X, Time-of-Flight, Ion Trap and Quadrupole-based mass spectrometers as well as GPC, DSC and TGA, and a range of instruments to assess surface and bulk performance properties. In addition, we have extensive analytical chemistry facilities in elemental analysis including inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy, X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy as well as a microscopy suite that includes fluorescence, polarised light, confocal and infra-red microscopy.  

Our research-informed teaching supports all our RSC accredited undergraduate and MChem. Chemists in the department have a strong applied research profile which attracts funding from UKRI (including EPSRC) and a wide range of commercial partners. Members of the group have expertise in synthetic inorganic, organic and polymer chemistry, as well as analytical chemistry, and have a strong engagement with industry through KTP, InnovateUK and CASE funding. Northumbria is also the lead university for the chemical industry in the £5M national research and innovation hub TransFIRE in UKRI’s Transforming the Foundation Industries challenge.

The successful candidate must hold a first degree and be qualified to doctoral level in a relevant discipline (e.g. polymer chemistry). They will have subject expertise to contribute to our BSc and MChem chemistry teaching including a first degree in chemistry or equivalent. A proven ability to deliver high quality research-led teaching and evidence of research outputs which are of high quality, consistent with criteria for inclusion in future Research Excellence Framework submissions. In REF 2014 our Departmental profile placed Northumbria in the top 50 Universities for research power.

For informal enquiries about this post, please contact Professor John Dean [email protected]

To apply for this vacancy please click 'Apply Now', and submit a covering letter, CV including research /education statements, and grants and publications list. Please highlight your highest quality research outputs up to a maximum of 4.  In addition, candidates are asked to provide copies of the top 2 research outputs (Journal / book chapter /practice-based portfolio). Where possible candidates are asked to combine all of these documents into a single file.

Northumbria University takes pride in, and values, the quality and diversity of our staff. We welcome applications from all members of the community.The University holds an Athena SWAN Bronze award in recognition of our commitment to improving employment practices for the advancement of gender equality and is a member of the Euraxess  network, which delivers information and support to professional researchers.

We welcome applications from the UK and across the world. Visit our web pages for details about the Relocation Assistance Scheme

Please note this vacancy will close on 13/02/2022