Early Stage Researcher / ESR MSCA – Theoretical Chemistry

At TU Dresden, Faculty of Chemistry and Food Chemistry, the Chair of Theoretical Chemistry offers two positions as

Early Stage Researcher /

ESR MSCA – Theoretical Chemistry

(Subject to personal qualification employees are remunerated according to RL Marie-Curie)

The tentative starting date is April 1^st, 2021, though an earlier or later start is also possible. The period of employment is 36 months and is governed by the Fixed Term Research Contracts Act (Wissenschaftszeitvertragsgesetz - WissZeitVG). Salary conditions, travel/mobility allowances, and benefits will follow the attractive EU amounts for Early Stage Researchers in the H2020-MSCA-ITN-2020 call.

ITN 2Exciting contains a total of 15 experimental and theoretical research-oriented PhD projects. General information about the 2Exciting project can be found at https://itn-2exciting.chm.tu-dresden.de/. The two ESRs will be enrolled in the PhD program at TUD where Prof. Thomas Heine, head of the Theoretical Chemistry (ThC) group, will act as the PhD supervisor. The fellows will be co-supervised by experienced scientists from the ThC group, Dr. A. Kuc and Dr. T. Brumme. International secondments to SCM, a scientific software company located in Amsterdam, and to CNRS, France (both acting as beneficiaries in 2Exciting) are planned for a total duration of 6 months. Research actions will be organized in conjunction with local and network-wide training, including academic and industrial specialist courses, transferable skills training, (international) workshops and training-through-research. The training activities are distributed throughout the timeline of the project, and provide an excellent platform for the ESRs to mature and become future leaders in academic or industrial research.

Tasks:

ESR n°1 shall investigate the effect of strain on the electronic properties in two-dimensional semiconductors (2DS), including tensile, biaxial, isotropic (3D) and shear strain. Influence of temperature, stacking, environment (substrate/dielectric), and defects will be explored. Close cooperation with experiment on manipulation of electronic structure by strain is envisaged.

ESR n°2 shall work on theoretical predictions of the influence of the stacking angles and stacking orders on the structural and electronic properties of 2DS multi-layers. Calculations of (magic) angles will be carried out using conventional methods (DFT plus dispersion corrections D3 and MBD, with structure check using RPA gradients). For arbitrary angles, approximate DFT (DFTB) will be validated and implemented. A tool for the projection of band structures of supercells to the first Brillouin zone will be developed. Finally, a TB Hamiltonian with explicit reference to the mutual angle will be developed and used for analytical calculations.

Requirements:

• university degree in in physics or chemistry, preferentially with theoretical background.
• The key point: thorough knowledge of solid-state physics and electronic structure (DFT) methods.
• Maximum of four full-time years research experience after MSc degree, and not being in possession of a PhD degree.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in the English language.
• Willingness to relocate between Dresden and Amsterdam (for ESR n°1), and between Dresden, Toulouse and Amsterdam (for ESR n°2).

Desirable additional knowledge and experience:

• Acquaintance with (TD)DFT and DFTB methods.
• Working experience in electronic-structure calculations and/or quantum chemical methods.
• General programming skills (UNIX, scripting, etc.).
• Team player, with good two-way communication skills, highly self-motivated and able to work independently, with excellent time management skills.

What we offer

The two PhD fellowships consist of a 3-year full-time position, with a possible extension. The tentative starting date is April 1^st, 2021, with flexibility for an earlier or later start. Salary and secondary benefits will follow EU rules for salaries of Early Stage Researchers:

• Gross monthly living allowance: 3171.90 Euro/ month, with applied country correction factor of 0.97 for Germany for the entire period.
• Additional monthly mobility allowance of 600 Euro / month.
• Additional monthly family allowance of 500 Euro / month for researchers who have a family (regardless of whether the family will move with the researcher or not).

In addition, the EU provides funding for training and transfer of knowledge expenses to the institutes. TUD offers 30 paid holidays per year and flexible working hours as well as occasional remote work options. Employees are enrolled in the standard pension scheme (Deutsche Rentenversicherung).

The Hosts

About TUD and the ThC group

Technische Universität Dresden (TUD) is one of eleven German universities that were identified by the German government as a “University of Excellence”. TUD is a leading university of technology with 34.000 students and over 7.600 employees, amongst whom 560 professors, and, thus, is the largest university in Saxony.

The Theoretical Chemistry (ThC) group headed by Prof. Thomas Heine involves staff and students of TUD and of Helmholtz-Center Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), Leipzig research branch. Our ultimate research goal is the rational design of new materials with properties that allow for new and more efficient applications in nanoelectronics, optoelectronics, in photo- and electrochemical catalysis and in hydrogen isotope separation. Currently, our research is focused on two-dimensional materials such as 2D crystals and 2D polymers, and metal organic frameworks (MOFs). Our activities encompass development and application of quantum-chemical methods and computational tools for the investigation of nanostructured materials, calculations on the geometric and electronic structure, on spectroscopic and material related properties of molecules, clusters and condensed matter, as well as quantum molecular dynamic simulations for studies of dynamical processes.

Each member of the ThC group has a modern computer workstation workplace and access to the Saxonian supercomputer center ZIH Dresden with the No 66 of the 2015 Top500 list of supercomputers. Support for the hardware and software infrastructure maintenance, and related training of the group members is provided by two technicians with research experience.

TUD, a “University of Excellence”, and the largest university in Saxony (Germany), is coordinating the EU-funded innovative training network (ITN) 2Exciting, a collaboration between several universities and companies located in Europe. This Horizon 2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie ITN action provides generous funding for Early-Stage Researchers (ESR) / PhD students with good salary and travel/ mobility/ family allowances. We are looking for two outstanding postgraduates within the first 4 years of their research careers (see eligibility conditions below). The work will be carried out in the Theoretical Chemistry (ThC) group of Prof. Thomas Heine at TUD (https://tu-dresden.de/mn/chemie/pc/pc1).

Eligibility

EU mobility rules apply. Applicants may be of any nationality, but they must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies etc.) in Germany for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior to the recruitment. Candidates who already have more than 4 years (full-time equivalent) of research experience after obtaining their MSc degree or who have already been awarded a PhD degree are not eligible (“Full-Time Equivalent Research Experience is measured from the date when a researcher obtained the degree which would formally entitle him/ her to embark on a doctorate, either in the country in which the degree was obtained or in the country in which the researcher is recruited or seconded, irrespective of whether or not a doctorate is or was ever envisaged”).

Applications from women are particularly welcome. The same applies to people with disabilities.

Further information, applying

Those interested in the offered positions are encouraged to contact for further information Prof. Thomas Heine (thomas.heine@tu-dresden.de).

Please submit your job application preferentially until January 4, 2021 (stamped arrival date of the university central mail service applies). The recruitment process will continue until the position is filled, so applications after the deadline may also still be considered. The complete application should contain a CV, a letter explaining the detailed motivation for applying and supporting that you are an excellent young scientist, publication list (if applicable) and two reference letters. Please send your application as a regular letter addressed to TU Dresden, Fakultät Chemie und Lebensmittelchemie, Professsur für Theoretische Chemie, z. Hdn. Frau Antje Voelkel, Helmholtzstr. 10, 01069 Dresden, Germany or via the TUD SecureMail Portal https://securemail.tu-dresden.de by sending it as a single pdf document to antje.voelkel@tu-dresden.de. Please submit copies only, as your application will not be returned to you. Expenses incurred in attending interviews cannot be reimbursed.

Reference to data protection: Your data protection rights, the purpose for which your data will be processed, as well as further information about data protection is available to you on the website: https: //tu-dresden.de/karriere/datenschutzhinweis