We are looking for multiple PhD students and postdoctoral associates to join our lab as soon as possible.

Research
Chemical compound space (CCS) is fascinating in itself, and of general interest for a multitude of reasons. It is huge and has hardly been explored, yet it might well hold the key to contribute substantially to our understanding of matter as well as to practical solutions for many of modern society's most pressing problems, including energy, water, planetary chemistry, or aging and disease. Our lab works on computational tools which enable us to investigate, explore, and navigate this space with physics based rigor and to unprecedented extent. The methods we develop are based on the principles of physical chemistry (as encoded in popular atomistic simulation codes which apply quantum mechanics, thermodynamics, and statistical mechanics to real materials) combined with modern statistical learning methods and high-performance computing.

We are looking to fill multiple openings with ambitious, driven, skilled and talented individuals (aka nerds) who are motivated to join this effort. The goal is to develop, implement and apply the methods which enable the design or discovery of new materials, molecules, or biomolecules using quantum mechanics (mostly DFT), Big Data, Machine Learning, statistical mechanics, and computing. Method development projects involve perturbation theory in chemical space (we call it "alchemy"), as well as artificial intelligence (machine learning) based schemes which exploit Big Data in materials and chemistry. Target compound classes include DNA derivatives, peptides, small and medium-sized molecules in gas-phase, liquids, as well as molecular and ionic crystals and mixtures. Target properties include energies, phase diagrams of solid and liquid mixtures, multipole moments, polarizabilities, electronic spectra, free energies, band structure, forces, magnetic and mechanical properties as well as structural geometries. Numberwise we aim to build models/insights based on at least tens of thousands of compounds.

Details
Depending on applicant, positions can be arranged at the postdoctoral associate or PhD-student level.
Necessary skills and characteristics:
-Very strong interest in exploration of chemical compound space
-Experience with first principles based atomistic simulation methods (post-Hartree Fock electron correlation methods/density functional theory/semi-empirical methods) and/or stat mech methods (molecular dynamics, Monte Carlo)
-Programming experience
-For postdoc position: PhD from an accredited institution plus at least 2 publications from PhD, and 1 publication for every year since then.
-For PhD position: Master of Science (Engineering, Physics, Chemistry, Materials) from an accredited institution.
Desirable experience:
-Development of quantum or stat mech codes
-Linux system administration
-Demonstrated scientific writing skills

Offer
-join our vibrant, interdisciplinary, and international research group in Basel
-collaborate with experimental and industrial partners
-experience a stimulating working environment: We are a very active member of the Institute of Physical Chemistry and the MARVEL effort (National Center for Computational Design and Discovery of Novel Materials, lead-PI is Nicola Marzari at EPFL), the Biozentrum (center for molecular life sciences) is across the street, and the Swiss nano-science institute is in our building. We frequently interact with other local theory groups at the University of Basel or ETHZ.
-yearly renewable contracts and top salary
-Basel is a city university (oldest university in Switzerland) with international flair (bordering France and Germany) and a strong ex-pat community, not only due to university but also due to Swiss Tropical Institute, Bank for International Affairs, Novartis, Roche, and arts community.
-Basel is very well connected with its own airport, and high-speed trains to Paris or Frankfurt.
See this recent Report about Basel on Bloomberg's news.

How?
If you are interested in a position, please send your CV (pdf format) to the head of the group, together with names and e-mail addresses of 3 references.

See  http://www.chemie.unibas.ch/~anatole/ for more info and contact details