About the position

Position as Postdoctoral Research Fellow available at the Njord Centre at the Department of Physics, University of Oslo

The appointment is a fulltime position and is for a period of three years.

Starting date no later than 31.07.2025. 

The appointment is a fulltime position and is for a period of three years, 10% of which is devoted to required duties, usually in the form of teaching activities. 

No one can be appointed for more than one PhD Research Fellowship period at the University of Oslo. 

Job description

We seek a physicist, geophysicist, material scientist or computational chemist for a 3-year postdoc position in the project ChemFrac (Nanoscale controls of reaction-induced fracturing from first principles) funded by the Research Council of Norway. The successful candidate will train machine learned force fields for modeling interactions between water and minerals and use these force fields to run large scale molecular dynamics simulations to explore hydration reactions and reaction-induced fracturing.

The project will be carried out at the Njord Centre, a cross-disciplinary collaboration between physics and geology. This postdoc position comes with the opportunity of a research stay with one of the project collaborators at the University of Bremen, Université Paris Cité or Harvard University.

About the ChemFrac project

The oceanic crust is constantly being altered by hydration reactions, where dry minerals are replaced by hydrated minerals that have greater volumes, causing the surrounding rock to break.

This exposes new, reactive surfaces, and accelerates the hydration process. Hydration reactions change the rock rheology and density and therefore have first-order effects on the global geochemical cycle. Over geological timescales, this exerts an important control on the global cycles of water and carbon dioxide, through the subduction of the crust into the interior of the earth near tectonic plate boundaries. However, it is not understood how the reaction-induced fracturing that exposes new reactive surface is allowed to progress at the stress conditions that the rocks are exposed to in their natural setting. The reaction itself should be able to carry on at gigapascals of confining pressure, but experimental analog processes stop at only tens of megapascals. It has been hypothesized for decades that megapascals of pressure is enough to close fluid pathways and thus shut off the supply of reactants. But the occurrence of fully transformed rocks in geological samples calls for a mechanism that allows hydration even at high confining pressures. The goal of ChemFrac is to identify such mechanisms and determine what may stop them both in the experimental setting and in natural environments. We will target the hydration of periclase, because it is simple and experimentally well characterized, and the hydration of olivine, because it is a very common hydration reaction in the crust. By exploiting recent breakthroughs in machine learning based molecular scale modeling, we will simulate directly–on the atomic scale–what happens during the hydration and the reaction-induced fracturing of minerals.

Qualification requirements

The Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences has a strategic ambition to be among Europe’s leading communities for research, education and innovation. Candidates for these fellowships will be selected in accordance with this and expected to be in the upper segment of their class with respect to academic credentials.

Required:

• Applicants must hold a degree equivalent to a Norwegian doctoral degree in physics, geosciences, material science, computational chemistry or a similar field. The doctoral dissertation must be submitted for evaluation by the closing date (28.02.2025). Only applicants with an approved doctoral thesis and public defence are eligible for appointment. 
• Experience with programming for scientific applications (e.g., Python).
• Fluent oral and written communication skills in English

Desired qualifications:

Skills in at least one of the following

• Machine learning/statistical learning

• Atomistic force fields/molecular dynamics simulations

• Implementing computational simulation methods (e.g. in C++)

• Geochemistry, fluid-rock interactions

Personal skills

• Enthusiasm, personal drive, and ability to take initiative
• Teamwork skills, as well as the ability to work independently
• Attention to detail
• Flexibility, ability to handle pressure and meet deadlines
• Good communication and interpersonal skills

We offer

• Salary NOK 579 700 – 657 300 per annum depending on qualifications in position as Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (position code 1352)
• Attractive welfare benefits and a generous pension agreement 
• Vibrant international academic environment
• Postdoctoral development programmes
• Oslo’s family-friendly surroundings with their rich opportunities for culture and outdoor activities

How to apply

The application must include: 

• Cover letter (max 3 pages: statement of motivation, summarizing scientific work and research interest)
• CV (summarizing education, positions, pedagogical experience, administrative experience and other qualifying activity) 
• A complete list of scientific publications and up to 5 academic works that the applicant wishes to be considered by the evaluation committee
• Copies of educational certificates, academic transcript of records 
• Names and contact details of 2-3 references (name, relation to candidate, e-mail and telephone number)

The application with attachments must be delivered in our electronic recruiting system, please follow the link “Apply for this job”. Foreign applicants are advised to attach an explanation of their university’s grading system. Please note that all documents must be in English or a Scandinavian language.

In assessing the applications, special emphasis will be placed on the document-ed, academic qualifications as well as the candidate’s motivation and qualifications for the project, and personal suitability. Interviews with the best qualified candidates will be arranged.

Formal regulations

Please see the guidelines and regulations for appointments to Research Fellowships at the University of Oslo.

According to the Norwegian Freedom and Information Act (Offentleglova) information about the applicant may be included in the public applicant list, also in cases where the applicant has requested non-disclosure.

UiO has an agreement for all employees, aiming to secure rights to research results a.o.

Inclusion and diversity are a strength. The University of Oslo has a personnel policy objective of achieving a balanced gender composition. Furthermore, we want employees with diverse professional expertise, life experience and perspectives.

If there are qualified applicants with disabilities, employment gaps or immigrant background, we will invite at least one applicant from each of these categories to an interview.

Contact information

For further information please contact: 

• Henrik Andersen Sveinsson, phone: +47 98421006, email: h.a.sveinsson@fys.uio.no 
• Francois Renard, e-mail: francois.renard@mn.uio.no

For questions regarding Jobbnorge, please contact HR Adviser Elin Thoresen, e-mail: elin.thoresen@mn.uio.no

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