Are you an ambitious researcher looking for your next challenge? Do you have an established background in crystallization? Do you want to further your career in one of the UK’s leading research-intensive universities?

We are looking for an outstanding Research Fellow to join the project “Dynamic Control of Mineralization”, which is funded under an ERC Advanced grant to Professor Fiona Meldrum in the School of Chemistry.

This project will take inspiration from biomineralization to achieve unprecedented – dynamic – control over crystallization processes.  To achieve this ambitious goal, it is necessary to create well-defined reaction environments, to rigorously characterise nucleation and growth with excellent time resolution and to be able to interact with a forming crystal. Thanks to advances in microfabrication techniques and analytical methods we finally have the tools required to meet these demands.  

This position will focus on the use of advanced characterisation techniques to investigate mechanisms of crystal nucleation and growth, and how these are influenced by factors such as soluble additives, surface and physical confinement.  It will employ techniques including total scattering to investigate the nucleation pathways of aragonite vs calcite, where we have observed a particle-based assembly process in the formation of aragonite, and surface-sensitive X-ray techniques to explore secondary nucleation adjacent to existing crystal surfaces.  A particular emphasis of the project will be on the use of X-ray ptychography and associated spectroscopy methods to explore crystal nucleation and growth mechanisms of materials such as amorphous calcium carbonate and during solid state transformations.

You will have a PhD (or have submitted your thesis before taking up the role) in Physical Sciences or a closely related field, with a background in the experimental study and theoretical analysis of crystallization.

We are open to discussing flexible working arrangements.

What we offer in return 

And much more!   

To explore the post further or for any queries you may have, please contact:

Professor Fiona Meldrum, Professor of Inorganic Chemistry

Tel: +44 (0)113 343 6414 or email: [email protected]