The Materials and Catalysis Modeling group of the University of Limerick (UL) is looking for outstanding candidates for PhD and postdoc positions within the field of computational electrochemistry to study metal-hydride materials and electrochemical reactions at material interfaces. Applicants are invited to apply for the above posts (starting November 1st, 2020 or soon thereafter). The positions are funded through a FET-proactive project, in which UL is  part of an European consortium on ‘Breakthrough zero-emissions heat generation with hydrogen-metal systems’ (HERMES) involving 7 EU partners. At the University of Limerick, we will focus on computational electrochemistry studies and nuclear transformations to unravel reactions taking place in and on specific systems. The work and accompanying model development will rely mostly on computational electrocatalysis studies of reaction pathways and involve implementation of computational screening, machine learning, factored analysis of mixed datasets, kinetic modeling and Monte Carlo simulations to describe catalytic reactions.

Research group: The Materials and Catalysis Modeling group of Matthias Vandichel (https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1592-0726), based in the Bernal Institute and Department of Chemical Sciences at the University of Limerick.

Applicant profile: Applicants may have a background in Chemical Engineering or Materials Engineering, Physics Engineering, Chemistry, Physics or equivalent degrees. A background in computational material science, computational chemistry or equivalent computational experience is desired as well as good communication and interpersonal skills. The research will certainly involve interdisciplinary collaborations and the aim is to gain computational understanding of phenomena taking place on the nanoscale and being able to explain experimental observations. Experience with packages for electronic structure calculations (VASP, CP2K, quantum espresso, etc.), computational workflows and programming background (for example Python, Julia, Jupyter, etc.) will certainly be useful for PhD-positions and is desirable for the Postdoc position.

Duration: postdoc position (2 years, extendable afterwards), PhD-position (3-4 years)

Information: Interested candidates for PhD can send their resume and a short introduction letter to [email protected]. For the PhD-position, the applications will immediately be reviewed and the recruitment will continue until the position is filled. The postdoctoral position on computational electrocatalysis is currently online and applications should be made as soon as possible via the HR-system (https://www.ul.ie/hr/vacancies,  https://www.ul.ie/hr/), application deadline: