13 Postdoctoral Fellowship at University of Amsterdam, Netherlands

You will work on two projects. You and the QDNL team will design and build a highly reliable optical lattice clock, based on our AQuRA project. With our partners from VSL and VU, we will distribute the frequency reference of this clock through fibre links across the Netherlands and ultimately Europe. In parallel, you and the QDNL team will create continuously operating optical clocks (a superradiant clock and a zero-deadtime, multi-ensemble clock). Such a clock should ultimately be able to average down to a precision of 10^-18 in minutes instead of the hours needed by todays clocks. This benefit will unlock new possibilities from fundamental science to society.

Are you eager to work as a postdoc in the field of experimental quantum sensing with ultracold atoms, in the lively international research group of Profs. Philippe Bouyer and Florian Schreck?

Our research group focusses on harnessing the wave-like properties of cold atoms to realize new types of quantum sensors for fundamental physics, geoscience, and real-world applications such as position, navigation and timing. We have extensive experience developing state-of-the-art matter-wave interferometers for sensing accelerations, rotations, magnetic fields, and testing fundamental theories of gravity and electrodynamics.

We are looking for an experienced researcher to aid the development of a transportable inertial quantum sensor with cold atoms. This project included the development of a new experiment at UVA aiming at using advanced quantum control techniques to perform continuous atom interferometry. It also includes a collaboration between the Quantum Gas group at UVA, the University of New Brunswick in Canada, and quantum-tech companies Q-CTRL in Australia and the Quantum Valley Ideas Lab in Canada for the joint development of a transportable gravimeter. You will play a crucial role in developing metrology models for the inertial quantum sensor operation, and for building and assembling hardware components. You will have the opportunity to work for extended periods in Canada and interact directly with leading experts in academia and industry.

Are you a highly motivated physicist interested in a postdoctoral research position at the intersection between nanophotonics and 2D material science? The 2D Nanophotonics group within the Institute of Physics has an open position for the project “Excitonic 2D metasurfaces for active multifunctional flat optics”. The aim is to employ exciton resonances in monolayer 2D semiconductors to actively tune the optical response of metasurfaces.

Optical metasurfaces offer ultra-flat and compact alternatives to conventional bulky optical elements like mirrors, lenses, and prisms. By accurate engineering of the resonant light-matter interaction of arrays of nanostructures, light can be scattered in a controlled fashion to perform an optical function. While such optical metasurfaces are nowadays highly efficient and well established, their optical function is typically static.

In this (3 year-) project you will study the strong light-matter interactions of stable excitons in monolayer 2D semiconductor material and couple these materials to resonant metasurfaces. Using their combination, you will investigate the unique properties of these 2D quantum materials and use them to develop multifunctional and atomically thin optical elements with an electrically tunable optical function.

You will be joining an exciting team of researchers with a strong emphasis on collaboration. We expect you to be an active member of the research group, and a driving force in this project.

We are seeking a motivated and skilled researcher to join our team, backed by a newly awarded grant aimed at enhancing secure data processing in sensitive and intensive applications. Building on the success of the Enabling Personal Interventions (EPI) project, which focused on health applications with stringent data privacy requirements, this new research initiative will push the boundaries of secure data exchange. 

​This research work will result in a flexible data software infrastructure, providing a foundation for future research in distributed and secure data management. We will build on top of the Brane framework. While immediate applications are anticipated in the health domain, the broader relevance of our work is evident. The municipality of Amsterdam, for example, recognizes the significance of our work in the context of the AmDeX project. The proposed solution can serve as a foundational reference architecture for the AmDeX project and similar initiatives. 

​You will be embedded in the MNS group. The group focuses its research on the fundamental architectural problems that arise from the interconnection of systems and of data flows. We look at the emerging architectures that can support the operations of the future Internet. More information can be found here 

The Department of Political Science at the University of Amsterdam (UvA) is looking for a postdoctoral researcher to join the Dutch Research Council (NWO-VICI) project ‘Political Masculinities in Europe.’

Politics is traditionally a man’s world. Despite much progress in recent years, most politicians are still men. What knowledge we have about gender and inequality in politics is mainly based on counting women and men. In contrast, we do not well understand the underlying gendered norms about behavior that is considered inappropriate and appropriate: political masculinities. This project’s research reveals how political masculinities change or persist among voters, elected politicians, leaders, and aspirants. The research results will bring much-needed nuance and depth to a currently polarized but ultimately simplistic debate about gendered inequality in politics.

As postdoc you will study the following research question: How are political masculinities experienced by men in representative politics? The aim of this subproject is to reveal how elected male politicians experience masculinities in their daily work and how this has changed over the course of their political career. How has this been influenced, in their view, by personal factors, their identification, their political party, their political socialization, and by wider socio-political transformations? How do they evaluate political masculinities in the European Parliament, and how does this relate to their experiences in their countries of origin? The post-doc will conduct a concise organizational ethnography in the European parliament to get a first overview of the institutionalization of masculinities (codes of conduct, procedures, behavioral norms). Based on the insights of the organizational ethnography, the post-doc will develop the interview protocol. The post-doc will conduct interviews with male Member of European Parliament in office from different European regions and representing different political groups.

You will work in a team that develops a new platform for quantum computing, based on trapped ions in combination with optical tweezers. You will explore the use of tightly focused laser beams and their interaction with crystals of trapped ions to realize new ways to prepare and control qubits. We will make particular use of the so-called optical Magnus effect, an optical analogue of the well-known classical Magnus effect that is for instance applied in football, causing ball trajectories to curve. You will explore this phenomenon in trapped ions, and use it to implement state-of-the-art quantum gates. We will also explore the scalability of the scheme by designing ion traps based on integrated photonics for tweezer delivery.

The team consists of 2 other PhD students as well as the PIs. Theory support will be supplied by the group of Dr. Arghavan Safavi-Naini of the Quantum Software research center (https://www.quantumsc.nl/). The work will involve setting up optics, lasers and electronics as well as programming and microfabrication.

The University of Amsterdam (UvA) and the Bosch Group has opened a new collaborative research lab, Delta Lab 2. We are looking for a postdoctoral researcher in machine learning to be a part of this collaboration. Research topics include include generative models (ex: flows, conditional generation, applications to AI4Science) and/or uncertainty quantification (ex: conformal prediction, approximate inference). Delta Lab 2 is embedded within the Amsterdam Machine Learning Lab (AMLab) and the Computer Vision Lab (CV), two research groups within the UvA Informatics Institute.

You are expected to perform exciting innovative research in the field of nuclear astrophysics using gravitational wave and multi-messenger datasets. You are expected to publish your results in peer-reviewed international journals. Teaching and the supervision of Bachelor and Master students will not be part of your duties, but you will have the opportunity to interact with a vibrant community of young researchers, and to give guest lectures for students at the MSc level if you wish to do so.

Candidates should have PhD, or expect to obtain it before January 1st, 2025. They should also have a strong publication record, professional command of English, and have demonstrated excellent research skills. Candidates with previous research experience in gravitational wave astronomy and/or nuclear astrophysics, as well as with a track record in interdisciplinary research will be given additional consideration.

In the NWO-KIC project MicroHealth, we study the role of the microbiome in the relationship between soil, agricultural products and health of humans. This relationship has enormous societal implications because agriculture has a large impact on our environment and food is the number one driver of human health. 

In MicroHealth, with a team of plant and human biologists, sociologists and data analysts, we will establish the connection between the impact of agriculture on the soil and plant quality/microbiome and the consequences for the health of humans, as well as the social and political context of this connection. We will achieve this by

1.    studying the impact of farming strategies on the soil and crop microbiome and crop nutritional composition; 
2.    an intervention study in the HELIUS cohort tracing crop-related microbiome and nutritional composition changes and

       its relation to health status; 
3.    advanced bioinformatics analysis and statistical modelling that integrate the results of activities 1 and 2; 
4.    embedding  the study in research on opportunities and conflicts in policies and stakeholder-networks and microbiome-related  health practises at the household level. 

For integrating the metagenomics data from soil, crop and the human gut microbiomes by bioinformatics analysis of single nucleotide variants and by extension of structural equation/causal models (activity 3), we are looking for a postdoctoral researcher with a passion for interdisciplinary microbiome research and a background in bioinformatics, bio-data science and/or bio-statistics. 

You will be based at the Biosystems Data Analysis research group of the Swammerdam Institute for Life Sciences (SILS) and collaborate with PhDs and postdocs from SILS and the Amsterdam University Medical Centre (AUMC) who will be responsible for the other activities. The Biosystems Data Analysis research group develops and validates methods for organizing, summarizing, and visualizing complex biological data through the integration of bioinformatics and biostatistics.

The goal of the project at large is to investigate the social dynamics of (counter)normative behavior. Adherence to social norms is important for community functioning, yet norm violations abound. People jump queues, commit fraud, vandalize property, dodge taxes, and engage in sexual harassment. Such behaviors can be highly problematic when they happen sporadically, and even more troublesome when they spread in groups to create systemic problems (e.g., anarchy, corruption, social unsafety, toxic cultures). Despite a longstanding interest in social norms, current science cannot explain or predict when norm violations are contained and when they spread, nor how this happens. This is because dominant perspectives fail to capture the emotional dynamics of (counter)normative behavior.

The team working on this project (two postdocs, a research assistant, external collaborators, and the PI) will develop and test a novel theoretical model of the emotional dynamics of (counter)normative behavior in groups. The basic premise of the model is that the spreading or containment of norm violations depends on observers’ behavioral responses to those violations, which are shaped by emotional processes. We will investigate emotional reactions to norm violations and the social contingencies that modulate these reactions; link emotional reactions to behavioral responses; and examine how emotional expressions and behavioral responses contribute to the spreading or containment of norm violations and the development of social norms over time.

The model will be tested in two complementary work packages. Work package 1 focuses on individual responses to norm violations, using tightly controlled experimental methods. Work package 2 focuses on emotional and behavioral responses to norm violations and downstream consequences for group norms in online and live-interacting groups. The current vacancy pertains to work package 2.

Do you enjoy working on the forefront of AI and data tackling challenging scientific and real world problems? As part of the AI for Retail Lab (AIRlab), we are looking for postdoctoral researchers who are looking to further research around topics related to AI and/or data management in retail settings. This is an opportunity to be situated in leading information retrieval (IRLab) and data management research groups (INDELab).