Maastricht University has a vacancy for a post-doc at the Faculty of Science and Engineering (FSE).

You will work in the group of dr. K. Bernaerts at the Aachen-Maastricht Institute for Biobased Materials (AMIBM), in close collaboration with dr. S. Mehrkanoon at the Department of Knowledge Engineering (DKE). The group of dr. Bernaerts works on the synthesis and design of polymer materials with tunable properties exploiting the functionality of biobased building blocks. In order to support and speed up the experimental lab work, there is a growing interest to apply artificial intelligence techniques in our group. The group of dr. Mehrkanoon is experienced in multidisciplinary fields such as Machine Learning, Kernel based Models, Artificial Neural Networks, Computational Mathematics and Optimization, with the goal to apply these techniques in real-world problems that require efficient and practical solutions.

You will operate from the locations of both groups, being the Chemelot Campus in Geleen (AMIBM) and the city center of Maastricht (DKE).

The research project is part of a larger European private-public cooperation (Interreg Va Germany-the Netherlands: D-NL-HIT) which aims at the introduction of high-throughput experimentation in the coating industry. The candidate will collaborate with researchers at both universities and industrial partners.

Coatings are covering a surface for protective, functional and/or esthetical reasons. Well-known subclasses of coatings are paints, inks and adhesives. A coating formulation can easily contain more than a dozen of components and the study of the effect of those components and their application parameters on the coating performance is very complicated and laborious. First of all, a large amount of combinations has to be tested. By utilizing the high-throughput coating formulation equipment set up during the D-NL-HIT project, a lot of formulations based on a large library of raw materials and processing conditions can be screened in a short time. However, the sudden availability of a lot of experimental data from the high-throughput coating formulation approach, generates several new challenges like data handling and analysis. Moreover, with new ingredients which are not yet commercially available, it is often desirable to limit the number of experiments and thus material consumption, which requires clever design of experiments. In this project, Maastricht University will focus on the development of artificial intelligence models to predict the relationship between coating input (composition of formulation and formulation parameters) and coating output (different properties of the coatings).

You are a highly motivated investigator with a PhD degree in data science, computer science, artificial intelligence, machine learning, chemical engineering with artificial intelligence background or equivalent. Supported by trained chemists, you are willing to understand the chemical problem of the project partners and translate it to a computational system.

You are willing to closely collaborate on the case studies of industrial partners in the project consortium and discuss with them. You are motivated to develop new algorithms and methodologies that are fitting for coating formulations.

The project will be collaborative and interdisciplinary, and will suit an ambitious candidate who likes a fast-paced environment. Excellent knowledge of scientific English for speaking, reading, and writing are required. Knowledge of Dutch is not required.

Fixed-term contract: 18 Months.

We offer you fulltime employment for the duration of one year and 18 months.

The salary will be set in Postdoc salary scale 10 of the Collective Labour Agreement of the Dutch Universities (between €2.709,00 and €4.274,00 gross per month depending on level of experience). On top of this, there is an 8% holiday and an 8.3% year-end allowance.

The terms of employment of Maastricht University are set out in the Collective Labour Agreement of Dutch Universities (CAO), supplemented with local MU provisions. For more information, look at the website http://www.maastrichtuniversity.nl > Support > UM employees.

Maastricht University is renowned for its unique, innovative, problem-based learning system, which is characterized by a small-scale and student-oriented approach. Research at UM is characterized by a multidisciplinary and thematic approach, and is concentrated in research institutes and schools. Maastricht University has around 16,300 students and 4,300 employees. Reflecting the university's strong international profile, a fair amount of both students and staff are from abroad. The university hosts 6 faculties: Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, Faculty of Law, School of Business and Economics, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience.

http://www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/

Aachen-Maastricht Institute for Biobased Materials

AMIBM
The Aachen-Maastricht Institute for Biobased Materials (AMIBM) is a department of the Faculty of Science and Engineering (FSE) at Maastricht University. AMIBM is a European cross-border research institute established by Maastricht University and RWTH Aachen University focusing on the development of advanced biobased materials.

The mission of AMIBM is to replace traditional polymer building blocks with innovative and sustainable alternatives for the development of novel and environmentally-beneficial materials. AMIBM promotes world-class multidisciplinary research in the field of biobased materials, by training PhD students with the multiple skills needed to be future leaders in the field, and creating the research breakthroughs that will enable the utilization of sustainable and renewable materials for advanced materials applications. The multidisciplinary team draws together scientists with expertise in organic chemistry, biocatalysis, lead finding of new biobased blocks, polymer chemistry, polymer physics, polymer engineering, biobased and biomedical materials, tissue engineering, and industrial and medical applications.

DKE
Data Science @ Maastricht University is a pioneering, university-wide network of data-driven researchers with over 25 years’ experience in data science education. We are a community of multidisciplinary teams, dedicated to facilitate and develop collaborative initiatives in education and research to address major societal issues. https://www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/about-um/faculties/science-and-engineering/fse-departments/department-data-science-and-knowledge

https://www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/research/aachen-maastricht-institute-biobased-materials