Careers

Student Fellowship at CERIC-ERIC – CEROP – Closed on June 14th, 2019

CERIC-ERIC is an integrated multidisciplinary and multiprobe research infrastructure open to external basic and applied users in the fields of materials, biomaterials and nanotechnology. With a single entry point, it allows the use of excellent facilities in 8 European countries.

The first call for CERIC Research Grants closed in March 2016. The ranking list of the winners of the CERIC Research Grants can be found here. The project CEROP – Deciphering single-atom catalysis in Pt/ceria systems via advancing the CERIC operando methods, coordinated by Josef Mysliveček was selected for receiving the CERIC Research Grants.

The abstract of CEROP is reported below:

Progress in designing and applications of heterogeneous catalysts relies to a great extent on detailed experimental and theoretical investigations of elementary physicochemical processes taking place on interaction of the reactants with utmost structurally complex catalyst surfaces. A successful research in heterogeneous catalysis builds on a combination of approaches with hierarchic complexity that allows to recognize the critical causalities without imposing unrealistic abstractions. An inevitable ingredient of such research are so called operando experimental and theoretical methods that yield information on catalyst interactions with realistic gaseous or liquid environments. The present proposal deals with application of operando experimental and theoretical methods on disentangling the physics and chemistry behind the exceptional activity of ceria based catalysts with atomically dispersed ionic platinum. We propose advancing the equipment and the methodology of the operando approaches in the Surface Physics Laboratory and in the synchrotron partner facilities SAXS and XAS to allow cutting edge state-of-the- art operando measurements for the present project and a competitive service for future users from a broad heterogeneous catalysis community. Deciphering the physicochemical processes in single-atom Pt/ceria catalysts will bring this intriguing highly active class of catalysts with very appealing economy even closer to applications that are currently shaping the future of global energy markets.

Object of the call

CERIC-ERIC has published a call for selections, for the conferral of one fellowship for the development of a research project of excellence to accomplish the theoretical program of CEROP. In particular, her/his activity will be focused on the development and application of computational modeling techniques based on density functional theory and capable to simulate active catalytic sites and surface reactions in realistic conditions of temperature and pressure. The candidate will investigate the effects of finite temperature and complex environments (high pressure, liquid, etc) on the (electro-) chemical reactivity of advanced catalysts for fuel cells.

Host institution.

The successful candidate will be involved in the activity of CEROPproject and he/she will be based at CNR-IOM located in Trieste, Italy, Via Bonomea 265.

Fellowship duration and amount

The appointment envisioned is a fellowship of 12 months duration. The proposed starting date is July 1st2019. The fellowshipwill amount to € 22.000 gross, before fiscal taxation, and will be paid in monthly instalments.

Final report

Within the 1stof August 2020 the candidate should send a scientific report of the research activities performed.

Qualifications

The successful candidate has to meet the following requirements:

  • Master degree in Physics, Chemistry, Materials Science or related disciplines.
  • PhD degree in Physics, Chemistry, Materials Science or related disciplines.
  • Training and experience in density functional theory and electronic structure methods for the simulation of surfaces, with particular –   reference to modelling the adsorption of metal atoms and nanoparticles.
  • Experience with pseudopotential plane-wave DFT codes for static and dynamic electronic-structure materials’ simulation. Experience with the Quantum ESPRESSO package will be considered as an asset.
  • Good oral and written communication skills in English are essential.

Application Procedure

Applications may be presented by candidates starting from the day after the call publication. The application deadline is June 14, 2019 at 2:00 pm.

Applications should include a full curriculum vitae, list of publications, names and contact information (including electronic mail) of at least two references.

The applications should be sent on the following e-mail address: hr@ceric-eric.eu, with the following subject: Fellowship at CERIC-ERIC – CEROP.

Contacts

For further information on the selection procedure please contact:

Simone Piccinin (piccinin@iom.cnr.it)

Stefano Fabris (fabris@iom.cnr.it)

CERIC HR office (hr@ceric-eric.eu)

For further administrative information on the selection procedure please contact:

hr@ceric-eric.eu

Processing of Personal Data

The processing of personal data is regulated by the EU GDPR Regulation Bill. N. 679 of 27/4/2016 (General Data Protection Regulation) as well as current national legislation.

Default

All issues not expressly addressed in this will be governed by the Italian legislation.