A 2-year postdoctoral position is offered at the STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory by the Scientific Computing Department and the ISIS Neutron and Muon Source.

This is a great opportunity for an ab initio computational scientist to work on research projects in collaboration with the muon spectroscopy community. Muon spectroscopy is a powerful experimental technique that has the ability to probe the local structure and magnetic environment. Application areas include unconventional superconductivity, quantum magnetism, semiconductor physics and charge transport. This highly active community has great demand for computational modelling, particularly in the area of muon stopping sites - essentially the formation of a hydrogen-like defect.

In your main role, you will collaborate with leading experimental and computational groups and participate in research collaborations leading to scientific publications. You will carry out ab initio calculations aimed at the determination of muons stopping sites and the influence of muons on their local environment. Knowledge of both these aspects is crucial to fully understand and interpret experimental data. The ab initio calculations will be based on density functional theory. In order to determine the likely muon stopping sites, we envisage the use of Ab Initio Random Structure Searching (AIRSS) as implemented, for instance, in the CASTEP code. While direct experience with the CASTEP code and AIRSS are desirable, solid knowledge of condensed matter physics/chemistry, including electronic structure theory, and experience in ab initio atomistic modelling and simulation are essential prerequisites.

This role also involves some programming. An interest in this is essential, and some experience with, for instance, a scripting language, Python or Fortran is required.

You will be part of the Theoretical and Computational Physics Group in STFC’s internationally recognised Scientific Computing Department. The members of this group work together with a number of scientific communities in the development, deployment, maintenance and training of computational modelling codes mostly based on electronic structure theories.

For an informal discussion about this role, please contact: Dr Barbara Montanari ([email protected])

Online applications only through the UK Research Councils job portal. For more information on how to apply and for a detailed list of job requirements please refer to: http://www.topcareer.jobs/Vacancy/irc204037_5718.aspx