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(ref. BZP-2020-14)
Last modification : Tuesday, April 7, 2020
The Science, Engineering and Technology Group Leuven, Faculty of Engineering Science, Department of Materials Engineering of KU Leuven, invites scholars to apply for a full‐time research professorship in the Research unit Structural Composites and Alloys, Integrity and Nondestructive Testing. This position is funded by the Special Research Fund (BOFZAP), established by the Flemish Government. We are looking for motivated and internationally oriented candidates with an excellent research record and with educational competence in the field of “in-situ and multiscale characterization of material behavior”. The appointment is expected to start on October 1, 2021. Applications will be evaluated in parallel and independently by 1) the KU Leuven Research Council in a competitive process across academic domains and 2) the faculty advisory committee. During the first 10 years, the teaching obligations as a research professor will be limited. Afterwards, the position will be transformed into a regular professorship. More than 70% of technological innovations are directly or indirectly related to materials innovations. Industries of the automotive, aerospace and energy sector therefore rely on materials engineers to develop the materials of the future. To facilitate those developments, there is a strong need to monitor and characterize structural and functional materials during mechanical, thermal, environmental loading or a combination thereof. As such, the impact of microstructural changes on the material behavior can be monitored in situ and linked to features and events occurring at different length scales. This mandate aims at advancing the scientific research in the domain of in-situ characterization of material behavior at various length scales. If your background is linked to a single material family, we expect you to develop expertise for the other material families in the first years of your appointment. This position is experimentally oriented, but we expect that the candidate has the capacity to collaborate with modelling experts. The Department of Materials Engineering is embedded within the Faculty of Engineering Science. In the past, this faculty has systematically been given a high ranking for research and education quality by independent accreditation committees. The department boasts a solid research infrastructure, an extensive international network, connections with companies and non-profit organisations, a stable offer of highly talented PhD students and a supportive work environment
Duties
Research
It is part of the assignment of the appointed candidate to develop, within the domain of “in-situ and multiscale characterization of material behavior” an international, competitive research programme, to pursue excellent scientific results at an international level and to support and promote national and international research partnerships. The candidate must meet a strong research profile or have the potential to do so. In addition, the candidate is expected to have a multidisciplinary attitude and a willingness to cooperate intensively with other researchers within the Department of Materials Engineering and research units at KU Leuven.
The candidate:
- Is an excellent, internationally oriented researcher and develops new experimental tools and techniques for improved in-situ characterization at micro-, meso- and macroscale as well as analysis of the data.
- Bridges the gap between various length scales relevant for the various material families through the use of characterization techniques, either commercially available or in-house developed, and contributes to the modelling of the material behavior.
- Strengthens existing research lines in the department and brings complementary and/or additionally new expertise by working closely with the members of the Department of Materials Engineering, in particularly with the members of the Research Unit “Structural Composites and Alloys, Integrity and Nondestructive Testing” and the research group “Materials Performance and Non-destructive Testing”.
- Publishes at the highest scientific level.
- Develops an own research group.
- Supervises master students, PhD students and postdocs at a high international level.
- Aims to acquire competitive research funding from national and/or international agencies and submits effective research project proposals for this purpose.
- Establishes both within KU Leuven, national and international partnerships in the context of the research programme.
- Strives for excellence in research and provides a contribution to the international research reputation of the Research Unit “Structural Composites and Alloys, Integrity and Nondestructive Testing” of the Department of Materials Engineering, Faculty of Engineering Science, Group Science, Engineering and Technology, KU Leuven.
- Has a pronounced interest in fundamental research, but also pays attention to the valorization and applications of the research, e.g. by contacts with policy makers and company leaders.
Education
Although the position regards a research professorship at the start of employment, the candidate is expected to gradually contribute to state of the art teaching. The teaching assignment will be specified in consultation depending on your profile, but the knowledge to teach metal-oriented courses is a prerequisite. The number of courses is limited in the first five years of your appointment. In your further career, the faculty pays a great deal of attention to the balance between research and teaching time.
The candidate also contributes to the pedagogic project of the faculty/university. He/she develops teaching in accordance with KU Leuven’s vision on activating and research‐based education and makes use of the possibilities for the educational professionalization offered by the faculty and the university.
Service
Scientific, societal and internal services (administrative and/or institutional) are also part of the assignment.
Requirements
- You have a PhD in Materials Engineering or a related degree with a strong emphasis on in-situ materials characterization of material behavior and you are skilled in the non-destructive testing of materials. If you have recently obtained your PhD, it is important that you support your research and growth potential with academic references [e.g. demonstrate potential through at least one top publication, academic references, promising research projects and articles in preparation].
- You have a strong research profile in the field and an indisputable research integrity.
- The quality of your research is proven by publications in the domain of materials engineering.
- International research experience is considered as an important advantage.
- You have demonstrable qualities related to academic education. Teaching experience is a plus.
- You possess organizational skills and have a cooperative attitude. You also have leadership skills within a university context.
- A good command of Dutch (B2 or C1 level) and English (C1 level) is required at the start of your appointment.
Offer
- We offer full-time employment in an intellectually challenging environment. KU Leuven is a research-intensive, internationally oriented university that carries out both fundamental and applied scientific research. Our university is highly inter- and multidisciplinary focused and strives for international excellence. In this regard, we actively collaborate with research partners in Belgium and abroad. We provide our students with an academic education that is based on high-quality scientific research.
- Depending on your qualifications and academic experience, you will be appointed to or tenured in one of the grades of the senior academic staff: assistant professor, associate professor, professor or full professor. In principle, junior researches are appointed as assistant professor on the tenure track for a period of 5 years; after this period and a positive evaluation, they are permanently appointed as an associate professor.
- You will work in Leuven, a historic and dynamic and vibrant city located in the heart of Belgium, within twenty minutes from Brussels, the capital of the European Union, and less than two hours from Paris, London and Amsterdam.
- KU Leuven is well set to welcome foreign professors and their family and provides practical support with regard to immigration and administration, housing, childcare, learning Dutch, partner career coaching, …
- In order to facilitate scientific onboarding and accelerate research in the first phase a starting grant of 100.000 euro is offered to new professors without substantial other funding and appointed for at least 50%.
Interested?
More information on the content of the job can be obtained from the academic contact person prof. dr. ir. Martine Wevers, martine.wevers@kuleuven.be, +32 16 321303
More information on the guidelines, regulations and application file is available from Ms. Kristin Vermeylen (kristin.vermeylen@kuleuven.be , tel. +32 16 32 09 07) or Ms. Christelle Maeyaert (christelle.maeyaert@kuleuven.be , tel. +32 16 31 41 94).
KU Leuven seeks to foster an environment where all talents can flourish, regardless of gender, age, cultural background, nationality or impairments. If you have any questions relating to accessibility or support, please contact us at diversiteit.HR@kuleuven.be.
