Postdoctoral Research Associate

at  Durham University

Postdoctoral Research Associate (Job Number: 25000086)
Department of Chemistry
Grade 7: - £37,999- £40,247 per annum
Fixed Term - Full Time
Contract Duration: 12 months
Contracted Hours per Week: 35
Closing Date: 18-Feb-2025, 5:59:00 PM
Disclosure and Barring Service Requirement: Not Applicable.

QUALIFICATIONS

• A good first degree in Chemistry/Physics or a related subject.
• A PhD (or be close to submission) in Chemical Physics / Physical Chemistry or a related subject, or at least two years’ experience in research software creation in a STEM discipline.

EXPERIENCE

• Experience in conducting high quality academic research.
• Demonstrable ability to write high-quality research software.
• Demonstrable ability to write material of a quality commensurate with publication in highly-ranked journals.
• Demonstrable ability to present research papers at conferences and communicate complex information to specialists and within the wider academic community.
• Experience in relevant state-of-the-art facility-based condensed matter computational techniques.
• Expertise in programming electronic structure methods on high performance computers.

SKILLS

1. Demonstrable ability to work cooperatively as part of a team, including participating in research meetings.
2. Ability to work independently on own initiative and to strict deadlines.
3. Excellent interpersonal and communication skills.

EXPERIENCE

• Strong record of research software development, commensurate with stage of career.
• Track record of constructive software user and community engagement.
• Strong publication record in peer-reviewed journals, commensurate with stage of career.
• A track record of presenting research at conferences, symposia, or meetings, commensurate with stage of career.
• Demonstrable ability to develop research proposals and designs in collaboration with other academics.
• Experience of overseeing students with respect to the development of their practical/research skills e.g. acting as a demonstrator; supervising student projects/practicals.

SKILLS

1. Demonstrable ability to plan and manage independent research

THE ROLE AND DEPARTMENT

A World Top 100 department, the Department of Chemistry at Durham is one of the very best in the UK, with an outstanding reputation for excellence in research, teaching and employability of our students. We are an active and vibrant department, with a strong cohort of early career academics and future leaders. We hold an Athena Swan Silver Award, recognising our commitment to gender equality. Our undergraduate programmes are ranked fourth in the Complete University Guide 2025. At postgraduate level, our students come from all over the world to carry out research.
Our research is focussed around three interdisciplinary grand challenge themes: Chemistry for Sustainability; Chemistry for Health; and Chemistry for Change. Within these themes, we have prioritised eight core Research Focus Areas: Synthesis, Catalysis and Process; Sustainable and Resilient (Bio) Chemistry; Materials Discovery; Theory, Computational and Data-Led Chemistry, Soft Matter, Polymers and Interfaces; Chemical Photonics, Spectroscopy and Sensors; Drugs and Medicinal Chemistry; and Agritech and Aquaculture.
There is a strong culture of collaboration within the department and with other departments, institutes, and centres within the University, including the Institute for Data Science, the Biophysical Sciences Institute, the Durham Energy Institute, the Joint Quantum Centre (Durham and Newcastle Universities) and centres in Sustainable Chemistry, X-ray methods and Soft Matter. We have strong links with many Universities, Research Centres and Companies in the UK and overseas.

THE ROLE

Applications are invited for a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Computational Chemistry to work with Professor Paul Hodgkinson in the Department of Chemistry at Durham University, and in collaboration with Professor Stewart Clark in the Department of Physics.
The position is to commence in April 2025. It is a fixed-term post for 12 months.
The project involves mainly computational work to exploit GPUs using directive-based accelerator offloading in the CASTEP code. CASTEP is a leading software package for calculating the properties of materials from first principles using density functional theory. It enables the simulation of a wide range of material properties, including energetics, atomic-level structures, vibrational characteristics, and electronic responses. Notably, CASTEP offers extensive spectroscopic features that directly correlate with experimental techniques, such as NMR spectroscopy. A Sternheimer solver underpins the calculation of a variety of NMR properties and responses and its performance characteristics is the limiting factor in studying various spectroscopic phenomena, such as NMR chemical shifts. Offloading this to GPUs is the core work to be carried out by the PDRA.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

Responsibilities:

• To understand and convey material of a specialist or highly technical nature to the team or group of people through presentations and discussions that leads to the presentation of research papers in conferences and publications.
• To prepare and deliver presentations on research outputs/activities to audiences which may include: research sponsors, academic and non-academic audiences.
• To publish high quality outputs, including papers for submission to peer reviewed journals and papers for presentation at conferences and workshops under the direction of the Principal Investigator or Grant-holder.
• To assist with the development of research objectives and proposals.
• To conduct individual and collaborative research projects under the direction of the Principal Investigator or Grant-holder.
• To work with the Principal Investigator or Grant-holder and other colleagues in the research group, as appropriate, to identify areas for research, develop new research methods and extend the research portfolio.
• To deal with problems that may affect the achievement of research objectives and deadlines by discussing with the Principal Investigator or Grant-holder and offering creative or innovative solutions.
• To liaise with research colleagues and make internal and external contacts to develop knowledge and understanding to form relationships for future research collaboration.
• To plan and manage own research activity, research resources in collaboration with others and contribute to the planning of research projects.
• To deliver training in research techniques/approaches to peers, visitors and students as appropriate.
• To be involved in student supervision, as appropriate, and assist with the assessment of the knowledge of students.
• To contribute to fostering a collegial working environment which is inclusive and welcoming and where everyone is treated fairly with dignity and respect.
• To engage in citizenship to support the department and wider discipline.
• To engage in continuing professional development by participation in the undergraduate or postgraduate teaching programmes or by membership of departmental committees, etc. and by attending relevant training and development courses.
• To be familiar with GPU based programming in a scientific context. In particular, knowledge of electronic structure methods are essential as well as a range of programming methods on high performance computers such as directive based methods, MPI and modern Fortran.

This post is fixed term for 12 months. The funding is available from 01 Apr 25 for this fixed period only
The post-holder is employed to work on research/a research project which will be led by another colleague. Whilst this means that the post-holder will not be carrying out independent research in his/her own right, the expectation is that they will contribute to the advancement of the project, through the development of their own research ideas/adaptation and development of research protocols.
Successful applicants will, ideally, be in post by 07 April 25.