16 Postdoctoral Fellowship at University of Birmingham, England

A Research Fellow with experience in behavioural neurogenetics of Drosophila is sought.  The aim of the project is to investigate how experience and behaviour modify the brain throughout life, the impact that experience has on brain structure and how behaviour as a source of experience can impact further. We aim to discover and test underlying molecular mechanisms that regulate structural brain plasticity and neurodegeneration, and link molecules to cells, neural circuits, neurites, synapses and behaviour. This project will use only the fruit-fly Drosophila as a model organism.  This post focuses on behavioural neurogenetics of Drosophila adult, analysis and manipulation of neural circuits with confocal microscopy and could include molecular biology to generate transgenic tools.

A Research Fellow is sought to investigate molecular mechanisms underlying structural brain plasticity and neurodegeneration. The aim of this project is to investigate what causes Toll signalling to switch between promoting generative structural change in the brain (cell survival, proliferation, neurite growth) to promoting degeneration (cell death, cell cycle arrest, neurite retraction) (Foldi et al 2017 J Cell Biol 216, 1421; Li et al 2020 eLife 9:e52743). In this project, candidate mechanisms will be tested in vitro, cell culture and in vivo, with the aim to link evidence from molecular biology, protein biochemistry and cell biology.

The Research Associate will work on two main projects, part time, over a year period. The first concerns adolescent (age 10-18 years) mental health and social cognitive behaviour and the second involves investigating prosocial decision-making in autistic and non-autistic adults. The successful candidate will work closely with the Lead Investigator on the set-up and day-to-day management of the projects. They will assist with recruiting participants, carrying out data collection, comprised of experimental tasks and assessments, at the University of Birmingham and primary and secondary schools in the area. They will also assist with data analysis, writing of reports and academic papers.

The advertised position seeks a highly enthusiastic individual who is an emergent expert in solid-state chemistry with a strong background in diverse aspects of solid-state reactivity and modelling, to help lead the Friščić group effort in the development of new and complex types of solid-state reactions. The expertise of the candidate should include mechanochemistry, photochemistry, thermochemistry, high-pressure chemistry, and other types of solid-state reactivity, including experimental work, instrument design and development, theoretical modelling and development of new analytical approaches based on real-time measurements. The person is anticipated to take on a role of leadership and actively create and contribute to the creation of knowledge by undertaking a specified range of activities within an established research programme and/or specific research project, which will include close collaborations with and providing immediate assistance and guidance to members of the team, as well as members of collaborating teams.

Position 1: You will be developing mechanochemical and other solid-state routes (acoustic mixing, SpeedMixing, photochemistry, etc) for the creation and discovery of new metal-organic, inorganic and/or organic materials. Experience in X-ray diffraction and structure solution techniques is required, with broad experience in solid-state methods. Experience in inorganic, metal-organic (including hybrid inorganic-organic) chemistry or crystal engineering is preferred.

Position 2:  You will work in a group that combines theory and experiment for materials discovery, and the understanding of thermodynamic and kinetic aspects of solid-state reactions and materials. Expertise is preferred with plane-wave density-functional theory calculations (VASP, QuantumEspresso, CASTEP, etc.) and/or equilibrium-based classical force field molecular dynamics, for crystalline solids. Other relevant experience (e.g., metadynamics, Monte Carlo) will be considered.

We are seeking to recruit a Postdoctoral Research Fellow to work as part of a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship research programme focussed on energy storage applications on metal-nitrogen-hydrogen materials. The programme looks to demonstrate the application of these materials as catalysts for the production of hydrogen from ammonia, solid state electrolytes, battery cathode materials and porous materials. The project is led by Dr Josh Makepeace and will be based in the School of Chemistry at the University of Birmingham. The position will involve synthesis of metal-nitrogen-hydrogen materials and analysis of their functional properties through various laboratory-based and central facilities (ISIS and Diamond) experiments.

This post is for a researcher within the Horizon Europe project AMBHER (Ammonia And MOF Based Hydrogen Storage for Europe). As part of a wider project team, this role will focus on the development of active catalysts for ammonia synthesis under milder conditions than traditional Haber-Bosch, with the aim to incorporate those catalysts in a working catalytic membrane reactor. The research will focus on synthesising and testing such catalysts, with a focus on synthesis routes which are feasible for scale-up processes. Together with partners in central facilities characterisation, the researcher will develop a deeper understanding of the mechanism of catalytic action in order to facilitate further catalyst optimisation.

One of the biggest uncertainties about future climate change is how the carbon cycle will respond to (or ‘feed back’ on) our warming planet.  The recently awarded NERC-NSF Large Grant “C-FORCE” will measure how the global carbon cycle responded from start to finish during a past period of global warming that was driven by volcanic emissions of carbon-based greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. The Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) is the largest natural climate change event of the last 65 million years, the closest natural comparator to the modern rates of global warming and carbon greenhouse gas emissions, and the only entire climate change event for which it is currently possible to measure global carbon cycle feedbacks.  During the PETM, forcing carbon emissions were supplied by the North Atlantic Igneous Province (NAIP) and palaeoclimate proxy records show how the Earth system responded to the total PETM carbon budget.  By comparing the NAIP volcanic emissions with the Earth system’s response, C-FORCE will reconstruct how the global carbon cycle evolved throughout the PETM, and show whether or not tipping point behaviour occurred.  Ultimately, an improved understanding of the carbon cycle affects future carbon budgets to limit global warming to 1.5 or 2 degrees Celcius and is therefore necessary for shaping mitigation targets and government policy.

Sugar chains, known as glycans, perform a vast array of biological functions and play key roles in various physiological and pathological events. Thus, glycans are a rich source of biomarkers for many diseases, including neurodegenerative and cardiovascular diseases, hereditary disorders, immune deficiencies, and cancer. However, a major technological bottleneck exists in the development of binding entities that can recognise glycan biomarkers with high specificity and affinity. This hampers major advances in the early and accurate diagnosis of many devastating human illnesses. The aim of this project is to generate polymeric nanoparticles with the capability to recognise a broad range of glycans with high affinity and specificity. Furthermore, the nanoparticles need to accurately detect glycans in complex biological samples. The project involves an unprecedented combination of principles and methods of polymer chemistry, supramolecular chemistry, synthetic molecular recognition and nanochemistry.

A 12-month postdoctoral research fellowship is available on the GCRF Network+ project “Disability Under Siege”. This AHRC-funded project explores the provision of education for children with disabilities in areas conflict and crisis, focussing particularly on Jordan, Lebanon, and Palestine. It is a co-created programme bringing together a community of researchers, educational practitioners, cultural institutions, advocacy organisations and disability led groups in the UK and Middle East. The Network aims to contribute to research efforts by providing intellectual and logistical resources that local practitioners need to transform education provision for children with disabilities in conflict-affected countries.

The successful candidate will work within an interdisciplinary research team and will lead on the organisation and delivery of the Work Package: Early Career Researcher Empowerment of the EU/UK-funded MEDAL project. Their main duties consist in the organisation of training events in research methods and academic skills for linguists and psycholinguists. They will also participate in research studies run by the international project team, and will handle the administrative coordination of the work package, including the ECR mentoring scheme. 

We are seeking to appoint a Research Fellow in Energy Vulnerability to work on an exciting international project, ESLatinA – Energy Solidarity in Latin America: generating inclusive knowledge and governance to address energy vulnerability and energy systems resilience. Funded through the prestigious Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF), ESLatinA responds to the urgent need for comprehensive and inclusive understanding, evidence and governance capacity on energy vulnerability in Latin America, with an in-depth focus on Colombia, Cuba and Mexico.

The mathematical analysis of nonlinear dispersive partial differential equations (PDEs), such as the nonlinear Schrödinger equations (NLS) and the nonlinear wave equations (NLW), is one of the central themes of the modern analysis. One of the most fundamental questions is to understand how initial data are propagated by these nonlinear evolution equations. As such, it is of central importance to study the well-posedness (existence, uniqueness and stability under perturbation) of these nonlinear evolution equations. Over the last thirty years, the field of nonlinear dispersive PDEs has seen significant development in the theoretical understanding of some of these fundamental questions and, in particular, multilinear harmonic analysis has played a fundamental role in this development, led by Kenig, Bourgain and Tao among others. Furthermore, in recent years, a combination of deterministic analysis with probability theory has played an important role in the field. Not only did this probabilistic perspective allow us to go beyond the limit of deterministic analysis, but it is in fact important to understand the effect of stochastic perturbation in practice since such stochastic perturbation is ubiquitous. This led to the study of nonlinear dispersive PDEs with rough random initial data and/or singular stochastic forcing. Since the seminal works [1, 2] by Bourgain, this development has been led by Tzvetkov and Burq (both France) and Oh (Edinburgh) and has been increasing more popular.

The overarching aim of this project will be to design new strategies for engineering the stem cell niche to regenerate cartilage and bone in the human joint. The PDRA will collaborate with the research group of Professor Andrew McCaskie, Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery and Dr Mark Birch at the University of Cambridge. The programme will involve identifying key agonists such as the Wnt family and targeted biomaterials which ultimately will form a potentially injectable or bandage-based solution to repair and regeneration of the knee. The Cartilage programme within the UKRMP is one strand with two other strands focusing on the lung (UCL/Kings) and the liver (Edinburgh/Kings) repair and regeneration.