Assistant Professor in electricity with specialization in electrotechnical battery technology

Uppsala University’s tenure track system grants assistant professors the possibility to be assessed for promotion to the position as associate professor. The university provides support in various areas, such as scientific and educational development, leadership development as well as patent and innovation support.

Electrification and digitalisation are among the largest areas for the future in the conversion to sustainable societies. The Department of Electrical Engineering conducts successful research and education in the areas - renewable energy sources, electric vehicles, industrial IoT, 6G communication and wireless sensor networks as well as research and education within Life Science, smart electronic sensors and medical systems. The Department of Electrical Engineering is an international workplace with around 160 employees that all contribute to important technical energy and health solutions at the Ångström laboratory.

COMPEL (COMPetitiveness for the ELectrification of the Transport System) is a strategic initiative from the Swedish government to ensure Sweden's long-term competitiveness in battery development and electrification of the transport sector. Research and education within the platform cover the entire battery value chain and offer an interdisciplinary network for collaboration between three universities: Lund University, Chalmers University of Technology and Uppsala University. It is within this context that COMPEL is now recruiting a number of young researchers with different competence within the battery value chain, with the ambition of building a unique interdisciplinary research and educational environment. This initiative is based on a strong partnership between academia and industry to drive research and development forward.

Within the COMPEL initiative, an assistant professor will be hired at the division of Electricity as part of the establishment of a new research direction; electrotechnical battery technology, which acts as a bridge between battery chemistry and electrical engineering. The new assistant professor is invited to collaborate with the department's and COMPEL's researchers in an environment that supports the establishment of your own research group. The position comes with a start package consisting of a PhD student as well as additional funding that can cover one more PhD student or a post doc and/or experimental equipment.

Description of subject area of the employment:

A need for research in between battery chemistry and electrical system studies has been identified. In electrotechnical system models, simplified models of a battery based on circuit equivalents of varying complexity are commonly used. However, if you want to study the component itself, you can not start from these simplified models. Then field theory studies are needed instead. There is a knowledge gap in how the battery is actually affected by different loads and what physically happens in a battery when it is exposed to different electrical loads. This knowledge is important for the understanding of how to design and manufacture a battery in an optimal way and for understanding the aging of the battery. A test bed will be built with the possibility to measure, study and characterize batteries from an electrotechnical perspective, both at cell level but also modules or entire packs on a smaller scale. These studies intend to contribute to the research on how to design and manufacture a battery in the best way and also on how to use the battery. The experiments should also be supplemented with simulations. These studies provide the opportunity to develop better simulation models for batteries that can then be used in the electrotechnical studies, and will also provide the opportunity for those who study the battery structure/battery chemistry to study in detail how the battery is affected in different situations. The Assistant Professor will contribute to the experimental set-up that will be planned, designed which will form the basis for the work. The new test bed will be a complement to existing battery test labs at Uppsala University.

Duties:
Teaching, research and administration. Teaching duties include course responsibility and course administration and supervision of PhD students. The research will be carried out both with experiments and simulations. An experimental set-up will be built for measurements and analyses. Teaching in electrical engineering.

Follow developments within the subject area and the development of society in general that is important for the work at the university.

Build your own research group within the department by defining and planning research activities within the framework of the subject area described above, seek external research funds, supervise PhD students and post docs.

Initiate and contribute to collaborations between research groups at Uppsala University as well as with other organizations and industry and especially actively participate in, and contribute to, the COMPEL environment at Uppsala University and in Sweden.

Appointment Period: The position can be held for a maximum of six years. An Assistant Professor can apply for promotion to Associate Professor. If the Assistant Professor is deemed suitable and fulfills the criteria for promotion established by the Faculty Board he/she shall be promoted to and employed as Associate Professor.

Qualifications Required:
PhD in electrical engineering, engineering physics, electro physics, battery technology, battery chemistry or equivalent. Applicants who have obtained a PhD degree or achieved the equivalent competence in seven years or less prior to the end of the application period will be given priority.

Research Expertise and Teaching Expertise. It is necessary that the pedagogical skills, the research expertise and the professional skills are relevant to the content of the employment and the tasks that will be included in the employment.

Applicants should have completed teacher training of relevance to operations at the University, comprising five weeks, or have acquired the equivalent knowledge. If special circumstances apply, this training for teachers in higher education may be completed during the first two years of employment.

Documented ability to teach in Swedish or English is a requirement unless special reasons prevail.

Personal capabilities necessary to carry out fully the duties of the appointment. 

Assessment Criteria/Ranking of applicants that fulfil the above-mentioned qualifications required

The ranking of eligible applicants will be based primarily on research and teaching expertise, which will be given equal weight.

Research Expertise comprises research merits as well as the applicant´s potential to contribute to the future development of both research and teaching. In assessing research expertise research quality must be the prime consideration. The scope of research, primarily in regard to depth and breadth, must also be afforded consideration. In assessing research expertise special weight will be attached to research merits in electrical engineering and battery technology and especially studies that combine electrical engineering and battery technology. Applicants should have a background in both subject disciplines of electrical engineering and battery technology/chemistry through their undergraduate education, PhD and/or post-doc experience. Experimental experience is a requirement. Experience in modeling batteries is considered a merit.

Teaching Expertise comprises educational and teaching qualifications. In assessing teaching expertise teaching quality must be the prime consideration. The scope of teaching experience, in terms of both breadth and depth, must also be afforded consideration. In assessing teaching expertise special weight will be attached to teaching merits within the subject area of ​​the employment. Experience from laboratory education is considered a merit.

Administrative Expertise is important for the employment and will be given consideration.

Management Expertise is important for the employment and will be given consideration. Ability to apply for funds in competition and experience in leading own projects are considered as merits.

Collaboration Expertise: Experience of collaborating across disciplinary fields, particularly between electrical engineering and battery technology will be afforded consideration.

Other Expertise: Ability to collaborate nationally and internationally will be given importance.

All merits must be documented in a manner that makes it possible to assess both quality and scope.

In filling this position the university aims to appoint the applicant who, following a qualitative holistic assessment of her/his competence and expertise, is judged to have the best potential to carry out and develop the relevant duties and to help advance operations.

Further information
In an overall assessment of the applicant’s qualifications, parental leave, part-time work relating to care of children, union assignments, military service, or the like are to be regarded as work experience.

University appointment regulations

Faculty appointment regulations

Instructions for application

Salary: Fixed salary.

Type of employment: Temporary full-time position six years.

For further information about the position please contact: Professor Sandra Eriksson, + 46 18 4715823, sandra.eriksson@uu.se.

Please submit your application by 19 March 2025, UFV-PA 2024/4094.

If you are an international candidate, you will find a lot of information about working and living in Sweden at www.uu.se/joinus.

In the event of any disagreement between the English and the Swedish versions of this announcement, the Swedish version takes precedence.