Research Fellow in Responsive Materials

Salary: Full time starting salary is normally in the range £35,880 to £45,163 with potential progression once in post to £47,874

Contract Type: Fixed Term contract up to April 2030

Background

We are seeking applications for a four year Research Fellow position to support all activities in Professor Alfonso Ngan’s research group, more specifically to develop advanced stimuli-responsive materials for new consumer products and engineering applications, which include intelligent micro-scale devices or robots that cannot be equipped with bulky conventional sensors and actuators.

In particular, the group is interested in stimuli-responsive actuating materials that are compact, robust and high-functioning. These qualities are necessary for the applications; however, they are extremely challenging because high/fast actuation can only be resulted from high/fast volumetric changes, which are hard to attain in strong materials. 

To develop actuating materials for micro-scale devices or robots, the research approaches involve discovery of new materials exhibiting stimuli-induced chemo/physio-mechanical reactions or phase transformations, microstructural and mechanistic characterization, chemo-mechanics modelling, and development of methods for their integration to achieve compact material systems with intelligent capabilities.

Main Duties

• Responsible for materials development and characterization, chemo-mechanics modelling and development of applications.
• Develop research objectives and proposals for own or joint research, with assistance of a mentor if required
• Contribute to writing bids for research funding
• Analyse and interpret data
• Apply knowledge in a way which develops new intellectual understanding
• Disseminate research findings for publication, research seminars etc
• Supervise students on research related work and provide guidance to PhD students where appropriate to the discipline
• Contribute to developing new models, techniques and methods 
• Undertake management/administration arising from research
• Contribute to Departmental/School research-related activities and research-related administration
• Contribute to enterprise, business development and/or public engagement activities of manifest benefit to the College and the University, often under supervision of a project leader
• Collect research data; this may be through a variety of research methods, such as scientific experimentation, literature reviews, and research interviews 
• Present research outputs, including drafting academic publications or parts thereof, for example at seminars and as posters 
• Provide guidance, as required, to support staff and any students who may be assisting with the research 
• Deal with problems that may affect the achievement of research objectives and deadlines
• Promotes equality and values diversity acting as a role model and fostering an inclusive working culture.

Person Specification

• PhD degree (or near to completion) or equivalent qualification that is relevant to the research area of this project, such as mechanical engineering, materials science 
• Solid background in actuating materials and relevant devices development 
• Solid background in thin-film materials fabrication and characterization
• Solid background in thin-film mechanics and electrochemistry
• Knowledge of the protected characteristics of the Equality Act 2010, and how to actively ensure in day to day activity in own area that those with protected characteristics are treated equally and fairly

Informal enquiries can be made to Professor Alfonso Ngan, email: a.h.w.ngan@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.

Valuing excellence, sustaining investment

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.

Closes: 30/03/2025

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