The Building Lighting (BL) group is seeking one enthusiastic, ambitious young researcher to work in our team as PhD candidate on the following:

Translating the knowledge on how light impacts visual performance, human health, behavior, and well-being into lighting design recommendations.  In this project, you will investigate how any given lighting condition can be evaluated within a quality scheme. This quality scheme depends on different static and dynamic parameters e.g. time and activity, and consider state of the art insights in both image-forming (IF) and non-image forming (NIF) effects. Key quality aspects will be validated in a real-life situation, e.g. an operational office environment. The end product will be recommendations for a holistic lighting design translated in a lighting simulation tool.

Your research will be conducted in the Building Lighting Group embedded in TU/e's Intelligent Lighting Institute.

The LIGHTCAP (www.lightcap.eu) project is a European Training Network under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions framework. LIGHTCAP aims to provide a strong, innovative and necessary impulse to our insights in the intricate and complex relationships between light, cognition, attention, and perception. LIGHTCAP is an international, interdisciplinary, cross-sectional and translational training program. It unites experts from neurobiology, cognitive neuroscience, chronobiology, psychology and lighting technology.

15 early stage researchers will be trained in a joint program with 8 academic partners:

• Building Lighting group at Eindhoven University of Technology;

• Human-Technology Interaction group at Eindhoven University of Technology;

• Centre for Biological Timing at the University of Manchester;
• Lighting and Visual Perception group of the University of Sheffield;
• GIGA-Cyclotron Research Centre-In Vivo Imaging of the University of Liège;
• Centre for Chronobiology of the University of Basel;
• Laboratory of Integrated Performance in Design of the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
• Lighting Technology group of the Technical University of Berlin.

These groups will be working together and with the solid consortium of industrial/academic partners research visits, consortium meetings and a joint training program.

To be eligible for recruitment within an MSCA-ITN project, you must - at the date of recruitment:

1. be within the first four years (full-time equivalent research experience) of your research career and not have a doctoral degree.
2. not have resided or carried out your main activity (e.g. work, studies) in the Netherlands for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately before your start date.                             

Specific requirements:

• A master's degree or an equivalent university degree in (Building) Engineering
• Experience with and affinity for lighting design in relation to human related aspects
• Experience with lighting design tools like Radiance, Grasshopper, etc. is a pre

General requirements:

• A strong interest in lighting and psychological research
• Expertise with empirical research with humans
• A research oriented attitude
• Strong conceptual thinking and planning skills; you are creative and proactive
• Ability to work in an international and interdisciplinary team and interested in collaborating with industrial partners.
• Fluent in spoken and written English

We offer you



•             A meaningful job in a dynamic and ambitious university with the possibility to present your work at international conferences.

•             Various opportunity's to collaborate with other researchers, academic, and industrial partners within the MSCA-ITN LIGHTCAP program. This comprises visits, consortium meetings, and a joint training program.

•             A full-time employment for four years, with an intermediate evaluation after one year.

•             To support you during your PhD and to prepare you for the rest of your career, you will have free access to a personal development program for PhD students (PROOF program).

•             A gross monthly salary and benefits in accordance with the Collective Labor Agreement for Dutch Universities.

•             Additionally, an annual holiday allowance of 8% of the yearly salary, plus a year-end allowance of 8.3% of the annual salary. Your total pay will also be in accordance with the allowances of the MSCA work program.

•             A broad package of fringe benefits, including an excellent technical infrastructure, moving expenses, and savings schemes.

•             Family-friendly initiatives are in place, such as an international spouse program, and excellent on-campus children day care and sports facilities.