The Van 't Hoff Institute for Molecular Sciences (HIMS), one of the eight institutes of the Faculty of Science, is looking for a PhD candidate materials for liquid chromatography.

Material-science aspects

Material science is of paramount importance for analytical separations. A promising new method to produce separation devices is 3D printing.  

The material-science challenges faced in building such a device are two-fold.

• Stationary phases for liquid chromatography. This involves aspects of polymer chemistry (e.g. synthesis of polymer monoliths) and surface chemistry (e.g. chemical bonding reactions).
• Determining the optimal build material for 3D printing which can meet a range of requirements that are necessary in liquid chromatography (LC). 

The STAMP project

Extremely high separation powers are required to fully characterize complex mixtures that are of crucial importance in many fields, such as life science (including systems biology), food science, renewable energy sources and feedstocks, and high-tech materials. The STAMP project is aimed at obtaining a peak capacity of one million in liquid-phase analytical separations. Spatial three-dimensional liquid chromatography will be used to achieve this goal. The major advantage of this technique is that all second-dimension separations and – in a next step – all third-dimension separations are performed in parallel. This allows high-resolution separations to be performed in each dimension, while the total analysis time remains reasonable. Optical and mass-spectrometric imaging techniques are envisaged as detection methods after printing (STAMPing) the effluent from the 3D separation body on a suitable substrate.

The STAMP project is funded by the European Research Council in the Excellent-Research program. We are looking for candidates with the potential to contribute to such a program. Within this project there is a need for a chemist with interest in materials, their properties and their synthesis. 

Candidates should have demonstrated affinity with materials and material synthesis in the above context. In their application letter they should motivate how they expect to contribute to a technology-oriented high-resolution liquid-chromatography project in an analytical-chemistry environment.

Candidates should have a recent MSc degree in (synthetic or polymer) chemistry or material science. Ability to function within and contribute to an international research team is required. The candidate must also be willing to collaborate with PhD candidates and Postdoctoral researchers in related research projects and with other research groups within and outside The Netherlands. Candidates must possess good communication skills in oral and written English. The project must start on or before September 1st, 2017. Candidates must have obtained an MSc degree before this date.

The full-time appointment will be on a temporary basis for a maximum period of four years (18 months plus a further 30 months after a positive evaluation) and should lead to a dissertation (PhD thesis). An educational plan will be drafted that includes attendance of courses and (international) meetings. Based on a full-time appointment (38 hours per week) the gross monthly salary will range from €2,191 in the first year to €2,801 in the final year, according to the Dutch salary scales for PhD candidates. This is excl. 8% holiday allowance and 8,3% end of year bonus. The Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities is applicable.

University of Amsterdam

With over 5,000 employees, 30,000 students and a budget of more than 600 million euros, the University of Amsterdam (UvA) is an intellectual hub within the Netherlands. Teaching and research at the UvA are conducted within seven faculties: Humanities, Social and Behavioural Sciences, Economics and Business, Law, Science, Medicine and Dentistry. Housed on four city campuses in or near the heart of Amsterdam, where disciplines come together and interact, the faculties have close links with thousands of researchers and hundreds of institutions at home and abroad.  

The UvA’s students and employees are independent thinkers, competent rebels who dare to question dogmas and aren’t satisfied with easy answers and standard solutions. To work at the UvA is to work in an independent, creative, innovative and international climate characterised by an open atmosphere and a genuine engagement with the city of Amsterdam and society.

Van 't Hoff Institute for Molecular Sciences

The Van 't Hoff Institute for Molecular Sciences (HIMS) performs internationally recognized chemistry and molecular research, curiosity driven as well as application driven. This is done in close cooperation with the chemical, energy, flavour & food, medical and high-tech industries. Research is organised into four themes: Sustainable Chemistry, Analytical Chemistry, Com- putational Chemistry and Molecular Photonics.

The vacant positions are within the Analytical Chemistry Group of professors P.J. Schoenmakers and G.L. Corthals.