08 Postdoctoral Fellowship at Durham University, England

We invite applications for a Postdoctoral Research Associate position in Mathematical and Theoretical Physics, with a focus on generalized symmetries in their broadest sense. This includes, but is not limited to, research on mathematical structures, formal advancements in quantum field theory, and applications to high-energy physics, supersymmetry, and condensed matter systems. The successful candidate will play an integral role in advancing the goals of the ERC Consolidator Grant “Symmetries and Spectra,” led by Professor Mathew Bullimore.

We are recruiting a team of ambitious early career policy sociologists to contribute to a major new £1.5million UKRI-funded project From the Centre to the Periphery –which addresses regional economic disparities within the UK, and specifically examining the role education can play to reduce deep-seated spatial divides.

We will address this major policy challenge by carrying out the first quasi-experimental evaluation of the Opportunity Areas programme, a £100million national area-based initiative that sought to close gaps in social mobility between different regions and places of the UK. It was a long-term investment in areas of the country that have the most pronounced levels of deprivation and where social mobility is the lowest. Working with our local authority partners, the Department for Education and other third-sector organisations, our research will help to shape future area-based education and social policy.

Applications are invited for a Postdoctoral Research Associate in energy management  to work on an interdisciplinary project entitled Satellite-Aided Technologies for advancing resilience – Guarding energy services under climate hazards, risks, and disasters (SAT-Guard). The role is funded through the UKRI Cross-council Responsive Mode Round 1 (https://www.ukri.org/news/first-projects-from-ukris-new-interdisciplinary-scheme-announced/). It asks ‘how to improve or optimise power grid resilience in response to escalating extreme events, aiming to align with long-term net-zero goals while simultaneously considering the diverse needs of communities, to ensure a harmonious integration of environmental sustainability, infrastructure resilience, advanced technology, and societal well-being.’

The Department of Geography at Durham University seeks to appoint two full-time Post-Doctoral Research Associates in Palaeoceanography to join the HORIZON EUROPE funded project “Past to Future: towards fully paleo-informed future climate projections (P2F)”. Both posts are available for 30 months with Post 1, focusing on sea surface temperature and Post 2, on sea ice.

Both PDRAs will be contributing to a large research project (“P2F”) where data and modelling are used in tandem: we seek candidates who have interests which could include proxy ocean temperature reconstructions, sea ice reconstructions, data-model comparison and integration, and climate changes which may vary from centennial-millennial-orbital timescales during the last ~4 million years.

The project Past-to-Future (P2F) aims at advancing our knowledge of past climatic conditions to better understand Earth’s climate response to different kinds of forcing, with considerable focus on potential abrupt climatic transitions and the crossing of tipping points. To this end, P2F will integrate information from paleoenvironmental proxy data, from Earth system models (ESMs), and from rigorous theoretical approaches. Timescales of interest include the last glacial cycle, the mid Pleistocene transition, and the Pliocene warm period. P2F is led by Anna von der Heydt at the University of Utrecht, the Netherlands, and involves 21 European institutions spanning modelling and proxy approaches. Both PDRAs will be actively involved in discussions with the modelling teams around data synthesis and data interpretation including assessment of uncertainties.

The successful candidate will join a thriving research team to work within the UK Quantum Technology Research Hub in Sensing, Imaging and Timing (QuSIT). This interdisciplinary Hub will deliver transformative advancements across sectors including infrastructure, transportation and security. These technologies are based on atomic states and entangled photons to create devices that sense and image otherwise invisible optical wavelengths, radio-frequencies, magnetic and gravitational fields, and exploit precision time.

The QuSIT Hub team believes there is no such thing as a ‘typical’ team member. Diversity is a strength that underpins the exchange of ideas and our innovations. We’ll continue to identify and reduce structural barriers to equality and we’ll foster a kind, inclusive community that works for everyone. If you are appointed, we’ll help you to thrive in this role, including providing opportunities such as mentoring, networking and wider skills development within a high-profile research environment. Applicants are expected to demonstrate academic citizenship, develop and maintain mutually respectful and supportive working relationships, and ensure their role impacts positively on others.

In this project, you join our multidisciplinary team and will work on a project to design and produce an artificial, dynamic protein cage-based vaccine able to stimulate humoral responses, gain cell entry, and open within the cell to release cargoes that further stimulate immune response. This will primarily involve two work-packages, a) Protein-Cage Design and Engineering, and b) Protein Construction, validation and testing.   The work is funded by the prestigious Academy of Medical Sciences.

We have already created and characterized a stable artificial protein cage, TRAP-cage, resembling a small virus capsid with controllable dynamic properties. This means the cage can be programmed to open on demand. We also showed that folded proteins can be displayed in multiple copy number, on the exterior of the protein while folded proteins and peptides can be placed into the lumen of the cage – foundational results for vaccines and drug delivery respectively. These cages are highly stable but the conditions under which they open can be programmed, depending on the design. Programmed opening conditions shown to date include in the cytoplasm of the cell and we have shown that cages carrying cargoes can enter cells and open to free cargo. We have also demonstrated cages responsive to low pH. We have identified Lassa Fever as a suitable vaccine target. Its reach is expanding due to climate change and there is currently no human vaccine.