Simulation of Optical Absorption and Nonlinear Optical Properties of Organic Condensed Phase Systems

A post-doctoral position is available in the group of Assistant Professor Christine Isborn, at the University of California Merced. The position will involve simulating the electronic excitation, optical absorption, and (hyper)polarizabilities of organic molecules in the condensed phase for energy and electro-optic materials applications with first principles methods such as time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT), molecular exciton approximations, and nonadiabatic dynamics. 

Duties include: running ab initio, molecular dynamics, and QM/MM calculations; modifying and developing code as needed using Fortran, C, C++, and python; optimizing code for maximum performance; developing scripts for analyzing data; writing journal articles on developed methods, calculations, and results; communicating effectively with colleagues and mentoring graduate students; attending conferences to present your work.

Qualifications
Candidates should have a PhD or equivalent degree in chemistry, physics, or materials science.

The ideal candidate will have extensive experience in at least one of the following topics:

• Molecular dynamics and/or Monte Carlo simulations of organic materials and/or molecules in solution.
• Simulating the electronic excitations, charge transfer and relaxation, optical and vibrational spectra, and other properties of complex, condensed phase systems
• Using the molecular exciton approximation to model charge transfer and spectra of multi-chromophore systems

In addition, you:

• are able to work both independently and in a team environment
• have excellent written and spoken communication skills
• are interested in mentoring students at the undergraduate and graduate level

If interested and qualified, please email your CV and a statement of research interests (both previous research and future research interests) to Professor Christine Isborn ([email protected]). The starting date is negotiable. Please state the earliest possible starting date in your email.

About UC Merced: The University of California, Merced is a dynamic new university campus in Merced, California, which opened in September 2005 as the tenth campus of the University of California and the first American research university in the 21st century. UC Merced is located in California’s San Joaquin Valley, within driving distance of Yosemite National Park and the Sierra Nevada, the San Francisco Bay Area, and the Monterey peninsula. We collaborate with nearby institutions such as Stanford, UC Berkeley, Lawrence Berkeley and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories, UC Davis, and UC Santa Cruz.  We currently have five faculty members in the physics and chemistry departments working on electronic structure theory, so you would get to know a young and vibrant group of theoretical faculty interested in variety of research areas.