Post-doctoral Research Assistant

at  Science and Technology Facilities Council STFC

Science and Technology Facilities Council
Salary: £39,375 to £43,313 per annum (dependent on skills and experience).
Hours: Full time (37 hours per week)
Contract Type: Fixed Term (7 months).
Location: Science and Technology Facilities Council, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory Harwell, Oxfordshire

JOB DESCRIPTION

Come and do the kind of science that made you want to become a scientist. Explore the unknown and get to grips with the biggest challenges in Big Science. And, alongside world class engineers, technicians and technologists, use everything you’ve learnt to find real answers that shape society and improve lives.
Put simply, discover the kind of impact you can make when you work with some of the best facilities and brightest scientists in the world.
STFC are advertising for a post-doctoral research assistant based at the ISIS Pulsed Neutron and Muon Source to work on a Government Office of Technology Transfer project (Knowledge Asset Grant Fund) developing STFC’s proprietary ammonia decomposition catalysts.
You will be part of the ISIS Energy Materials group and entails developing the ammonia decomposition catalysts invented at STFC into a demonstrator system which will: (i) showcase the development of straightforward catalyst coating techniques to various substrate architectures; (ii) operate at a scale of around 1 kW power. The objective of the project is to develop STFC’s intellectual property so it is licensable to industry. The role is full-time, however requests for flexible working will be considered.
About STFC and ISIS: The Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) is one of Europe’s largest science research organisations. We’re trusted to support, enable and undertake pioneering projects in an amazing diversity of fields. Through world-class facilities and people, we’re driving ground-breaking advances in science and technology/engineering. STFC’s ISIS Facility is a leading centre for research in the physical and life sciences. The Facility performs cutting edge research into the structure and properties of materials at an atomic and molecular level.

• Regular laboratory-based chemistry work in synthesis and characterisation of ammonia decomposition catalysts;
• Running ammonia decomposition experiments to characterise catalyst performance;
• Design and implementation of appropriate strategies for coating the catalyst (in collaboration with our partners at University of Birmingham);
• Data analysis (including bespoke programming) to elucidate the catalyst and demonstrator performance;
• Regular meetings with project partners;
• Writing up results in report-based format.