PhD student (m/f/d) | Soft Materials

 

The “Responsive Soft Materials and Interfaces” Lab (Group Leader: Dr. L. Zeininger) at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces in Potsdam, Germany invites applications from outstanding young scientists for the position of a PhD student (m/f/d) – Soft Materials.

We are looking for a highly motivated graduate/PhD student in the field of active and responsive soft materials. The candidate should hold a degree in Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, Polymer Science or closely related fields. The candidate should be a motivated team player and confident in spoken and written English. Independence, creativity, passion, and good communication skills are essential. Moreover, background and interests in at least one of the following areas: colloid and interface science, active soft matter, macromolecular and polymer science, physical/analytical chemistry, biosensing, and/or supramolecular materials science are welcomed.

• The candidate will complement a multidisciplinary and multinational team and work on one or more of the following projects:
• Generation of functional active and adaptive soft materials – esp. emulsions and polymers
• Biomimetic design of cell-sized complex microreactors
• Creation of stimuli-responsive soft colloids for optical and biosensing applications
• Integration of functional soft colloids into new and improved liquid biosensing platforms
• Biocompatible design of motile, autonomously operating chemo-intelligent soft colloids

The position will be part of the framework of the Emmy Noether project “Dynamic Liquid Colloids”. The accepted candidate will join the Department of Colloid Chemistry (Director: Prof. Dr. Markus Antonietti) at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces in the Emmy Noether research group led by Dr. Lukas Zeininger.

References: Nat. Commun. 2022, 13, 2562; Adv. Funct. Mater. 2022, 32, 2107688; Adv. Opt. Mater. 2021, 9, 2101139; ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2021, 13, 32510; J. Coll. Interf. Sci. 2020, 575, 88;

The application should comprise a CV (including scientific publications, posters and talks), your BSc and MSc certificates/transcripts, a short motivation letter and should be directly sent to lukas.zeininger@mpikg.mpg.de. 

The position is available starting in fall 2022 (from October 1st, 2022) and the application deadline is July 5th, 2022. The applications will be evaluated internally according to the project and the selected candidates will be invited for an online interview. After the online interview the interviewed candidates will receive an email with the final decision.

The Max Planck Society strives for gender equality and diversity. We welcome applications from all backgrounds. The Max Planck Society is committed to increasing the number of individuals with disabilities in its workforce and therefore encourages applications from such qualified individuals. Furthermore, the Max Planck Society seeks to increase the number of women in those areas where they are underrepresented and therefore explicitly encourages women to apply.