UCL Chemistry

The research associate will work with Professor Richard Catlow and Professor Nora de Leeuw in the Department of Chemistry at University College London. This computational project is part of a new collaborative EPSRC programme grant on ‘Energy Materials: Computational Solutions’ with the University of Bath, University College London and Daresbury Laboratory all delivering essential parts of the research programme. Additional posts associated with the programme will be based in Bath and Daresbury.

Applications are invited for this Research Associate position at University College London, working with Dr Ben Slater in the department of Chemistry in collaboration with Prof Michiel Sprik at University of Cambridge and Dr Adam Carter at EPCC, Edinburgh. The position is part of a new 3-year NSF-EPSRC funded project entitled ‘Developing First Principles Monte Carlo Methods for Reactive Phase and Sorption Equilibria in the CP2K Software Suite’ involving groups in University of Minnesota (Prof Ilja Sipemann), MIT (Prof Troy van Voorhis), Mississippi State University (Prof Neeraj Raj) and the CP2K developers at Zurich, Profs Juerg Hutter and Joost VandeVondele. The specific role of the UCL Research Associate will be to develop, test, optimize and apply the Quickstep electronic structure module within the CP2K code (www.cp2k.org) for the study of reactive processes involving charge transfer, using hybrid density functionals.

Applications are invited for a Research Associate position to be hosted jointly at the recently created UK Catalysis Hub of the Research Complex at Harwell and UCL Department of Chemistry. The successful applicant will study the catalytic properties of pre-formed size and shape-controlled monometallic nanoparticles on flat oxide supports under reaction conditions using grazing incidence X-ray scattering (GIXRS) methods. The project will provide the applicant with excellent experience in the highly vibrant area of online catalytic studies. The position is funded by the EPSRC and is available for 2 years initially. The intended start date for this project is September 2013.

The successful candidate will join the Battaglia group which has recently relocated to the Department of Chemistry, and he/she will carry out research into mixtures of block copolymer forming vesicles and how this will affect formation of disordered and ordered structures. The appointee will be part of a multidisciplinary team working on the formulation of vesicles for drug delivery applications.The appointment is funded by the ERC for one year in the first instance.