Associate Professor in Automatic Control

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

The Department of Information Technology has a leading position in both research and education at all levels. We are currently Uppsala University's third-largest department and currently have around 350 employees, including 120 teachers and 120 PhD students. Approximately 5,000 undergraduate students study one or more courses at the department each year. You find more information about us at the web page of the department of Information Technology.

The position will be placed in the Division of Systems and Control, where the methodological research in Automatic Control is currently focused on control and estimation in dynamical systems. The current applications are within the fields of path planning in robotics, safety and security, biomedical systems, in particular therapy optimization and neuroscience, and environmental critical systems, for example, wastewater treatment plants.

The ambition to build a new research group on any topic in Control Theory and Technology is encouraged.

Description of subject area of the employment:

Automatic control is an interdisciplinary research area that comprises control theory and control technology, integrating related areas such as dynamical systems, statistics, estimation, and optimization. Control theory is part of applied mathematics and concerned with analysis and design of controllers and estimators for dynamical systems. Control technology fosters the mathematical methods that explain why and how natural, engineered, and social systems evolve in time and space, what kind of behaviors they exhibit in their development, as well as how to influence these behaviors in a predictable way. Automatic control constitutes the backbone of existing industrial technology and underpins many emerging engineering fields such as synthetic biology, vertical farming, smart grid, to name a few. Beyond industrial applications, automatic control is also instrumental to address emerging societal and environmental challenges involving interactions between complex systems over time. 

 Duties:

• Teaching, research and administration. Teaching duties include course responsibility and course administration and supervision of first, second- and third-cycle students. We are looking, in particular, for candidates who can teach basic as well as advanced courses in automatic control, process control,  model-predictive control, and are interested in renewing the course portfolio in automatic control in connection to different application areas.
  
  
• Building an active research group with specialization in automatic control. The position is initially associated with funding for one PhD student and startup funds for conferences, networking, etc.
  
  
• The person appointed will be expected to perform research in automatic control and be able to interact and generate synergies with existing research directions within the program.
  
  
• Follow developments within the subject area and the development of society in general that is important for the work at the university.
  
  
• The position may include leadership/administrative tasks.

Qualifications Required:

• PhD in automatic control, applied mathematics, engineering, or related areas. PhDs in other fields, where the research work has focused on control theory and technology as well as their applications, are eligible for this position.
  
  
• 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.

• Experience of PhD student supervision is required.
  
  
• Applicants must have completed teacher training of relevance to operations at the University, comprising ten 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.
  
  
• 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. In addition to academic merits, research merits from other activities, including technology development, may also be taken into account including research merits obtained outside the academy, which includes for example technology development and innovation ability. 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 Automatic Control. Research areas of interest include, but are not limited to, control theory, system identification, data-driven methods for control, fault detection and isolation, networked dynamical systems, advanced current and emerging control applications. Research collaborations across subject areas are considered valuable. Furthermore, consideration is given to the capacity to initiate, plan, and develop research, as well as the ability to acquire funding for research in competition.

Furthermore, consideration must be given to the capacity to plan, initiate, lead, and develop research and education in the third cycle, the ability to acquire funding for research in competition, as well as the demonstrated capacity to interact with others both within academia and in the wider community.

Teaching Expertise comprises educational and teaching qualifications. This expertise can have been achieved outside the academy through supervision, internal training, mentoring programs, etc. 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 merits in teaching the subject area of employment. Expertise and experience in interdisciplinary settings and undergraduate student supervision are also considered important.

Furthermore, consideration must be given to the capacity to plan, initiate, lead, and develop teaching and instruction, as well as the ability to connect research to teaching in respect to research in the subject at hand, subject didactics, as well as teaching and learning in higher education. The ability to interact concerning issues of teaching and learning in higher education with actors inside and outside the University is also included in teaching expertise.

Administrative Expertise is important for the employment and will be given consideration. Administrative expertise is demonstrated, for example, through the capacity to plan, organise, and prioritise work in an efficient and task-related manner as well as through the ability to assign and observe time frames. Expertise includes overall operational planning and the capacity to manage resources in a way that reflects operational priorities as well as the ability to work in a structured manner based on an awareness of goals and quality. Administrative expertise also includes entrepreneurship.

Management Expertise is important and will be afforded consideration. Management expertise is demonstrated through the capacity to lead operations and personnel, make decisions, take responsibility, and motivate others, providing them with what is needed for the efficient achievement of common goals. The abilities to coordinate the group and help create a sense of involvement, participation, and enjoyment in work and to deal with conflicts constitute further examples of demonstrated expertise.

Collaboration Expertise is important and will be afforded high consideration. Collaborative expertise is demonstrated by the ability and skill of planning, organizing and implementing interaction with the surrounding community. Experience of collaboration with industry will be given consideration. Popular publications, public debate and lectures are examples of forms of interaction with the surrounding community. Other examples of collaboration are patent applications and commercialization. The ability to translate knowledge sharing with the surrounding community into activities of importance to the education's development and quality is part of the collaboration expertise.

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

For further information about the position, please contact the Program Responsible Professor for Automatic Control, Prof. Alexander Medvedev (+46 705748173, alexander.medvedev@it.uu.se), the Deputy Head of Division, Assoc. Prof. André Teixeira (+46 18 471-5414, andre.teixeira@it.uu.se), or the Head of Division, Prof. Thomas Schön (+46 18 471 25 94, thomas.schon@uu.se).

Type of employment: Permanent full-time position, probationary period may be applied

Salary: Individually negotiated salary.

Number of positions: 1

Scope of employment: 100%

Town: Uppsala

Starting date: As agreed.

Please submit your application by August 29 2025, UFV-PA 2025/1159.

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

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