Postdoctoral position in Materials Physics

Are you interested in working with soft materials, with the support of competent and friendly colleagues in an international environment? Are you looking for an employer that invests in sustainable employeeship and offers safe, favourable working conditions? We welcome you to apply for a Postdoctoral position at Uppsala University jointly with the European Spallation Source.

Uppsala University is a comprehensive research-intensive university with a strong international standing. Our ultimate goal is to conduct education and research of the highest quality and relevance to make a long-term difference in society. Our most important assets are all the individuals whose curiosity and dedication make Uppsala University one of Sweden’s most exciting workplaces. Uppsala University has over 45,000 students, more than 7,000 employees and a turnover of around SEK 7 billion.

The research conducted at the Department of Physics and Astronomy encompasses a wide range of physics topics, distributed over ten divisions. The department is located in the Ångström laboratory and employs nearly 400 people, 125 of whom are doctoral students. It offers a broad physics curriculum to undergraduate and graduate students, participation in nationally and internationally leading projects for researchers, and opportunities for partnership with industry and various outreach activities. Read more at: www.physics.uu.se.

The research in the materials physics division focuses on meta- and functional materials with an emphasis on non-equilibrium and finite size effects in magnetic materials, metal hydrides and soft matter. Samples are synthesised and studied with e.g. optical methods and transport measurements in-house. These characterisation tools are complemented by advanced x-ray and neutron scattering methods in the labs in Uppsala as well as at large scale facilities. The group also operates the neutron reflectometer Super ADAM at the Institute Laue-Langevin in Grenoble (France).

Duties
The Postdoctoral researcher will be affiliated with the Division of Material Physics and be part of a group working with neutron scattering methods. Employment will be in Uppsala with the possibility of extended stays at the Data Management and Software Centre (DMSC) of the European Spallation Source (ESS) just North of Copenhagen in the campus of Technical University of Denmark. DMSC is a scientific computing centre that provides the services and solutions that users need for performing an experiment at ESS. This encompasses a fully integrated data pipeline from proposal to publication. The DMSC scope includes provisioning of software and hardware for user office, data acquisition, data streaming, data reduction, data analysis, data management, remote access and associated user training.

The Postdoctoral researcher will develop stroboscopic neutron scattering methods to study non-equilibrium phenomena of polymers and soft matter. Neutron scattering methods have the advantage that they are sensitive to isotopes, which allows contrast variation experiments e.g. by exchange of hydrogen for deuterium, but often lack brilliance and therefore demand stroboscopic re-integration to allow the study of processes at time scales down to ms. In this PostDoc project you will study flow properties in polymers and soft matter and relate macroscopic emergence, e.g. storage and loss modulus, to the structure and dynamics on atomic length scales. Specifically, rheological experiments will be combined with event mode neutron scattering data. The task is to validate and develop the ESS data processing pipeline to allow stroboscopic reintegration of event mode neutron scattering data with respect to meta data extracted form a rheometer operated in oscillatory mode. Much of the work will be based on the data reduction framework scipp (https://scipp.github.io).

Requirements
Applicants must hold a PhD in physics, materials, computational science, or a similar area of science and have the following skills:

• Excellent computer/ programming skills.
• Proficiency in Python, including object-oriented programming concepts
• Experience with modern software development and engineering practices.
• Familiarity with version control systems (e.g., Git, GitHub, GitLabSolid).
• Solid background in condensed matter physics, and neutron scattering methods.
• Solid understanding of scattering techniques, preferably with experience in small angle scattering or neutron reflectometry.
• Experience with using and development of analysis and fitting routines.
• Proficiency in working in multidisciplinary environments.
• Further, excellent communication skills in English, writing and speaking, are required. Non-Swedish speaking candidates are encouraged to learn Swedish during employment.
• Documented experience of presenting scientific results both orally and in writing is a requirement.
• Publications in relevant subject areas in internationally recognized scientific journals.
• The ability and willingness to travel is mandatory for this position.
  
  

Additional qualifications

• Experience of research in an international environment, and scientific project leading.
• Experience with instrumentation and experimental work performed at photon or neutron sources or similar.

About the employment
The employment is a temporary position of 2 years according to central collective agreement. Full time position. Starting date 2025-04-01 or as agreed. Placement: Uppsala

For further information about the position, please contact: Max Wolff, +46 18 471 3590, max.wolff@physics.uu.se.

Please submit your application by 28 February 2025, UFV-PA 2025/412.

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