Industrial PhD position on « Environmental and technical performance-based design of concrete produced with low carbon cement »

We are seeking a highly motived candidate who is passionate about understanding cement production and chemistry, techniques to evaluate cement quality, utilisation of SCMs in cement, grinding technologies, and numerical modelling. The project will involve material characterisation (chemistry, physics, thermal analysis, microscopy), cement hydration, Supplementary Cementitious Materials, numerical modelling (chemical reactions and kinetic modelling), collection of process data to simulate the effect of grinding on SCMs reactivity in composite cement, machine-learning approaches for soft-sensing from time-series of process data, the use of data mining, multivariate statistics, pattern recognition, detailed modelling, and hybrid models (both data-based and model-based).

Previous experience on some of the above will be highly appreciated. Engineers with a Master’s in Civil Engineering, Chemical Engineering, or Mechanical Engineering, as well as individuals with a quantitative science background in physics or chemistry with a main interest in the future of cement production are encouraged to apply.

– 3-year full-time employment contract (salary according to MSCA regulations for doctoral candidates and their family status at the time of the recruitment).

– Gaining experience abroad. First period at RWTH, DE for 18 months, second at C2CA, NL for 18 months.

– Enrolment in a PhD programme at RWTH and participation in national/international scientific meetings.

– Enlarged professional network and improved scientific career perspective in academia and industry.

– Shared research and innovative multidisciplinary and multisectoral training by senior scientists, experts, and experienced trainers from academia and industry.

– A structured training programme consisting of research-related courses, soft skill courses, targeted workshops, social events, and networking.

We welcome applications from PhD candidates from any country fulfilling the following criteria:

– Eligible candidates must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in the country of their first host institution for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately before their recruitment by the host institution (i.e. the starting date indicated in the employment contract/equivalent direct contract).

– Eligible candidates shall, at the date of recruitment by the host institution (i.e., the starting date indicated in the employment contract/equivalent direct contract), be in the first 4 years (full-time equivalent research experience) of their research careers and not have been awarded a doctoral degree.

– Eligible candidates must have a Master’s degree relevant to the chosen position (including chemical engineering, civil engineering, mechanical engineering or physics) or its equivalent that would entitle them to a doctorate.

– Candidates must have a high proficiency in written and spoken English, which will be assessed with the motivation letter and interview.

Send all the requested documentation to detocs@flsmidth.com, with the email subject “DC6″, add the following evaluators in cc, Thomas Petithuguenin (tpetithuguenin@c2ca.tech) and Prof. Thomas Matschei, PhD (matschei@ibac.rwth-aachen.de)

The opening date of the position is 15^th September 2023. The deadline for receiving the documents via email as a single PDF file is 31^st October 2023, 17:00:00 CET.

A selection committee will rank eligible applications based on their CVs and merits. The three best candidates for each position will be invited for an interview in October/November 2023, where the final candidates will be selected. Applicants with a positive evaluation but not selected will be added to a reserve list to cover eventual future positions and might be contacted at a later stage.