Research Fellow (Faraday Institution)

Salary: As this vacancy has limited funding the maximum salary that can be offered is Grade 7, salary £37,099.

Contract Type: Fixed Term contract up to September 2025

Closes: 07/08/2024

Background

The School of Chemistry at the University of Birmingham is a vibrant and thriving academic community, with over 130 academic and research staff, 25 professional services staff and over 600 students. We provide an inclusive and supportive environment where we strive to support every member of staff in realising their career potential. With a strong focus on our four Research Themes of Energy, Sustainability, Environment and Health, and a number of interdisciplinary Interest Groups serving as testbeds to explore new and emerging areas of interest, Birmingham is a dynamic place to work. We have ambitious plans to expand our research activity and are in an exciting period of growth: major investment from the University has delivered a state-of-the-art molecular sciences research building. This investment builds on a major recent expansion of our academic staff and investment in our teaching and learning provision, with our Collaborative Teaching Laboratory, which opened September 2018, already revolutionising how we teach undergraduate practical chemistry.

We are a collegiate School community. You will demonstrate academic citizenship, develop and maintain generous, mutually respectful and supportive working relationships with the School, ensuring the way you carry out your role impacts positively on how others carry out theirs.

Role Summary

We seek to recruit a Faraday Institution Research Fellow, to work in the Scanlon Materials Theory Group (SMTG), led by Professor David O. Scanlon. The appointee will use advanced Computational Chemistry techniques to computationally predict and fully characterise a range of new Na-ion electrodes in collaboration with leading experimental groups in the UK. A key principle of the research will be the full characterisation of these novel materials in terms of their electronic structure, and their full defect chemistry, allowing us to only put materials forward for experimental validation when their defect chemistry is suited to the application of choice.

This post will bring opportunities for career development, enable you to realise your ambitions in research and teaching, and enhance your leadership and management skills. You will initiate, conduct and disseminate original research, which will have measurable outcomes reflected in your growing national reputation. Management and administration activities will allow you to make important contributions at School level and to managerial/leadership activities (e.g., working groups) across the wider University. 

Person Specification

• PhD (or close to completion) in Computational Materials Chemistry or a related discipline.
• Expertise in Defect Chemistry Analysis. 
• Experience in Python Programming.
• Expertise in Electronic structure analysis of solids.
• Expertise in High Throughput Calculations.
• Expertise in Battery Calculations.
• Experience with the following; Unix, Periodic DFT, Hybrid Density Functional Theory, LaTeX.
• Experience of working with High-Performance Computing platforms.
• Proven research skills in computational chemistry, particularly QM and hybrid density functional theory.

Informal enquiries can be made to Prof. David Scanlon, Professor in Computational Chemistry, email: d.o.scanlon@bham.ac.uk

To download the full job description and details of this position and submit an electronic application online please click on the 'Apply' button above.

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We value diversity and inclusion at the University of Birmingham and welcome applications from all sections of the community and are open to discussions around all forms of flexible working

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