06 Postdoctoral Fellowship at University of Groningen, Netherlands

This is a one-year research-oriented postdoc position in the project “The political philosophy of work – expanding our vision” under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Lisa Herzog. In a nutshell, this project wants to rethink the nature and role of work in our lives by looking at historical accounts from the history of philosophy and at non-Western ways of thinking about work, to try to uncover, and potentially challenge, the basic assumptions about “work” that are taken for granted both in political philosophy and in social practices in Western countries. The aim is to reconceptualize “work” in ways that are compatible with climate justice and global justice, and that are not tied to problematic assumptions about economic growth or exploitative relations to nature. Familiarity with non-Western philosophical traditions and willingness and ability to work across disciplinary boundaries are therefore a plus in the application.

Thanks to a grant from the foundation “Stichting tot Steun VCVGZ” we can appoint a postdoctoral researcher for 2 years to conduct research with us on the role of interpersonal factors in the course of anxiety and depression. This concerns research with existing data from the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety (NESDA, see https://www.nesda.nl). As a postdoc on this project you will work with the longitudinal data of ~1500-2000 participants. To gain insight into interpersonal functioning, the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems (IIP) and an Implicit Association Test (IAT) were administered to these participants. The aim of the research is to gain insight into how scores on these measures relate to the development, severity, and duration of anxiety and depression. You will analyze the data. This requires circular (directional) statistics. You will write down the results of the four planned sub-studies as scientific publications.

We are seeking a highly motivated and qualified postdoctoral researcher for the SCOOP project “Sustainable Cooperation for Resilient Societies: synthesis of Social Mechanisms” (for the project proposal, see: https://www.scoop-program.org/(…)ght=WyJwb3N0ZG9jIl0=).

SCOOP (https://www.scoop-program.org/) is a ten year transdisciplinary Gravitation program focusing on the puzzle of sustainable cooperation and resilient societies in the domains of care, work, and inclusion. The program is a collaboration of five universities and combines insights from Sociology, Social Psychology, Philosophy, and Social and Economic History. Currently, almost 80 PhD and postdoc projects (https://www.scoop-program.org/(…)ram/program-projects) have been started or finished that address this puzzle. Now the first projects have ended, the challenge of theoretical synthesis arises. The aim of the post doctoral project is to contribute to this synthesis challenge by extracting from the finished and ongoing research shared social mechanisms that explain sustainable cooperation and its relation to resilient societies.

Without biological membranes, there would be no life as we know it. Transport of molecules and information across these membranes is carried out by integral membrane protein channels, receptors, pumps and transporters. Living cells maintain chemical gradients and electrical potential differences across their membranes using proteins that represent the majority of all current drug targets. Therefore, membrane proteins have been the focus of intense efforts to obtain high resolution macromolecular structure information. However, the current lack of experimental methods to carry out time-resolved structural studies of membrane proteins at physiological temperatures and under physiological gradients leaves a gigantic blind spot is our mechanistic understanding.

This project is a part of an ERC-funded consortium that will address this challenge by bringing together complementary expertise in membrane protein biology, time-resolved structural studies, photochemistry and nano fabrication methods. The role of the postdoctoral researcher working in this position will be to provide computational support to the development of new light-activated molecules to deliver protein transport substrates with unprecedented efficiency. Within this team, the postdoctoral researcher will support a PhD student responsible for synthesis and photochemical evaluation of the designed molecules.

We are seeking candidates with a Ph.D. in STEM education or related field; a background in any of the STEM disciplines or education and a strong interest in gender inclusivity framed in queer theory, professional development training, and mixed-methods research approached. The physical work location for this position will be Groningen, The Netherlands at the Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials. This position is a collaborative project between Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials (ZIAM) and the Centre for Learning and Teaching (CLT) at the University of Groningen.

This postdoctoral position is part of the Erasmus+ Programme ‘Partnerships for Innovation – Forward Looking Projects’, which involves a consortium of ten partners, both universities and NGOs in Europe. Forward-Looking Projects are large-scale projects that have the potential of becoming mainstream and giving input for improving education, training, and youth systems, as well as bringing a substantial innovative effect in terms of methods and practices.

Hydrogen is a rapidly evolving development aimed at mitigating greenhouse gas emissions. Hydrogen is not an energy source in itself, but serves as an energy carrier. Energy produced from gas and/or renewable energy sources can be saved and stored in a form of hydrogen and used when needed. The development and implementation of hydrogen is a technological and, more importantly, a societal challenge. It is critical to gain understanding of how people form their perceptions and acceptability judgements of hydrogen projects, which key factors play a role in public perceptions and acceptability, and how to incorporate this knowledge in socially responsible policy-making. These questions are at the heart of thos project, with the primary focus on hydrogen transport and storage. In this postdoc position, you will i) conduct a literature review in order to identify key individual, collective, and contextual factors that (may) influence public perceptions and acceptability of hydrogen, ii) conduct large-scale surveys to study the relationships between the identified factors and public perceptions and acceptability of hydrogen, iii) give evidence-based recommendations for how to better incorporate public perceptions and acceptability in policy-making, and iv) carry out dissemination activities to communicate the findings to other professionals from science and practice, and the general population. Besides, the project implies collaboration with multiple other partners from science (different disciplines), industry, organizations, and government bodies.