Research Associate in Materials

The role

Applications are invited for Research Associate in Materials at the Interface Analysis Centre (IAC) facility within the University of Bristol. This is an excellent opportunity for a talented microscopist to join an established materials characterisation facility. This is a fixed term 9 month role to cover a member of staff on family leave.

The IAC facility comprises of a suite of materials analysis laboratories within the School of Physics at the University of Bristol. The IAC works closely with industrial clients and academic collaborators, including use of national laboratories such as Diamond Light Source, National Nuclear User Facilities and resources within the Royce Institute. In particular, this role will support the high temperature water autoclaves co-developed with EDF and NNL for corrosion testing.

The research associate will join a team of academics, technicians and staff scientists that run the instruments within the facility for commercial and collaborative research projects, and using other related instruments within the IAC and University where needed. The successful candidate will operate the hot water autoclaves for corrosion testing of metals, and characterising them with electron microscopy. They will contribute to reports to industrial partners, publications in academic journals, and co-supervision of undergraduate and postgraduate student projects.

What will you be doing?

You will carry out exciting materials research using the instruments in the IAC facility, including specimen preparation, training and data analysis for internal and external users. You will help to maintain the hot water autoclaves within the facility, and characterise specimens exposed to the hot water using the facility microscopes.

You will contribute to data collection, analysis and report writing for industrial contracts and academic collaborations, including working with other academics and students on scientific publications. You will help write risk assessments and method statements / standard operating procedures.

There will also be the opportunity to co-supervise research projects at the undergraduate and postgraduate level. 

You should apply if

You have a PhD in materials science, physics, engineering or a similar discipline or working towards one.

You are familiar with the use of electron microscopes and tools for analysis of research data (e.g. Gwyddion, MATLAB, ImageJ, Dragonfly).

You have experience writing scientific reports for academic publication and/or commercial partners, and presenting your work to external audiences.

Additional information

Contract type: Fixed term until 11/07/2025

This advert will close at 23:59 UK time on 19/11/2024

For informal queries, please contact: Tomas Martin, tomas.martin@bristol.ac.uk

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