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PhD only CHINESE COUNCIL SCHOLARSHIP (No replies)
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WE HAVE NO FUNDING FOR THIS POSITION AND WISH TO FIND A CANDIDATE ELLIGIBLE FOR CHINESE COUNCIL SCHOLARSHIP
Observing crystal at birth from experiments to simulations
Research overview While crystals in material science are ubiquitous, the mechanisms of their for-
mation which spans from nucleation to crystal growth remain one of the most intriguing process in
nature. Better understanding crystallization would allow for a rational control of material engineer-
ing and possibly the development of technological applications. Along with the practical interests
from material science, nucleation is also entangled to protein crystallization for drug design as well
as ice formation in clouds which is crucial for climate change and weather forecasts. Furthermore,
because an exact same system can be found in numerous crystal structures named polymorphs,
numerous nucleation studies focus on better understanding how and when the selection between
each crystal forms happens.
From the fundamental point of view, the main challenge in studying nucleation is related to the
stochastic nature of the process and the very small number of atoms involved. Altogether, it leads
to numerous technical difficulties that have hindered the ability to systemically study nucleation in
complex or practical systems.
Project The student will develop a two-fold approach combining experimental measurements to
numerical simulations. In particular, state-of-the art microfluidic experiments will be developed to
construct droplets that will serve as controlled crystallization reactors. Then, the nucleation process
will be probed using various characterization methods including synchrotron measurements as well
as spectroscopy experiments. In the meantime, numerical simulations methods will be employed to
reproduce the experimental conditions and will allow for observing nucleation with atomic precision.
For this second part of the thesis, the numerical tools will be based on machine-learning approaches for force-field developments and for structural analysis.
Supervision and teaching The student will benefit from the supervision of two different research
groups. On the one hand, Isaac Rodrı́guez-Ruiz and Sebastien Teychene who are located in the
Chemical Engineering Laboratory will supervise the experimental part of the thesis. On the other
hand, Julien Lam who is based in the Center for Materials Elaboration and Structural Studies
(CEMES - Toulouse) will train the selected student on material modeling using many types of
computational techniques. The originality of the proposed research subject is the combination of
both experimental and simulation expertise and the selected student will therefore gain experience
in a large number of research domains including microfluidic engineering, optical spectroscopy,
machine-learning, atomistic simulations and computer programming.
How to apply?
Interested candidates should email a cover letter as well as a CV through the following email address: "[email protected]". Title of the email must include "CSC Candidate".
WE HAVE NO FUNDING FOR THIS POSITION AND WISH TO FIND A CANDIDATE ELLIGIBLE FOR CHINESE COUNCIL SCOLARSHIP