The Faculty of Science at the Universiteit van Amsterdam is one of Europe`s foremost institutions for higher education and research in its area of expertise. It participates in international science networks and collaborates with both universities and industry. The faculty has approximately 2,000 students and 1,500 employees spread over four departments and ten research institutes.
The Van der Waals-Zeeman Institute (WZI) is one of the Faculty`s ten research institutes. The Institute operates within a fully international framework: the 18 members of its academic staff represent 7 nationalities, and the current 35 PhD students and postdocs have come to the WZI from over 20 countries throughout the world. The WZI is currently looking for a "PhD student (promovendus) in Soft Condensed Matter full time, for a period of 4 years". Job reference code 06-1058
The aim of the PhD project is to study glass formation and jamming in colloidal and granular systems. The Soft Matter group is working on a broad range of topics in soft matter physics, including the investigation of phase behaviour and glass formation in soft matter systems, and the coalescence and formation of drops and emulsions.
Project description:
Understanding glassification or dynamical arrest is one of the grand challenges of material science and is a topic of great current interest. It is a central observation in soft matter systems as well as glass forming molecular systems that, with increasing density or decreasing temperature, the motion of the particles or molecules slows down and eventually becomes arrested. Understanding this dynamical arrest and understanding structural relaxations in the arrested state are fundamental problems, which to a large degree remain unsolved. Micrometre to millimetre size particles in colloidal and granular systems can serve as powerful models to investigate important principles of dynamic arrest. We have recently bought a state-of-the- art fast confocal microscope that allows us to image the individual particles in three dimensions and to follow the motion of tens of thousands of particles simultaneously in time. This offers a unique opportunity to study the important mechanisms
of glassification and dynamical arrest on the single particle level.
Requirements:
Master`s or Diploma in Physics or Physical Chemistry
Interest in computer programming (experience in IDL or Matlab would be helpful)
Good communication skills in English.
References:
Science Volume 305, p.1944 (2004), Nature Volume 440, p.319 (2006). Also visit http://www.science. uva.nl/research/ wzi/scm/index. htm (see in particular "Colloids" --> "Colloidal crystals and glasses").
Appointment:
The appointment will be on a temporary basis for a maximum period of four years (one year plus a further three years after a positive evaluation), and should lead to a dissertation. An educational plan will be drafted, in which plans for attending courses and national and international meeting will be included. Based on a full-time appointment (38 hours per week), the gross monthly salary will range from � 1,933 in the first year to a maximum of � 2,472 in the fourth year, according to the Dutch salary scale for PhD students.
Applications:
Applications should include a detailed curriculum vitae and a cover letter stating why the candidate would like to work on this subject, and be submitted in an envelope marked "strictly confidential" and bearing the vacancy number in the upper left-hand corner. They should be sent before 16 November 2006.
Please send your application to:
Contact: E.M.W. Smeets
Address: Universiteit van Amsterdam, Faculty of Science, Personnel Dept. Kruislaan 404
city: Amsterdam, The Netherlands
PostCode: 1098 SM
Email: application@ science.uva. nl
Need further information? Please contact:
contact: Dr. Peter Schall
Address: Van der Waals-Zeeman Institute, Valckenierstraat 65
city: Amsterdam, The Netherlands
PostCode: 1018 XE
Phone: +31 20 525 6314
Email: pschall@science. uva.nl
[sursa beasiswa]
