Call for Postdoctoral Fellows and Graduate Students at the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies

The Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies (FIAS) at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, invites applications from young scientists of exceptional ability for several open Postdoctoral Positions and Graduate Student scholarships.

FIAS is dedicated to fundamental research on structure formation and self-organization in complex systems. Relevant fields include Theoretical Biology, Theoretical Chemistry, Theoretical and Computational Neuroscience and Theoretical Physics. FIAS strongly encourages interdisciplinary collaboration. It cooperates with the Max Planck Institutes for Brain Research and for Biophysics in Frankfurt, the Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung (GSI Darmstadt) and various institutes at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University. Additional information on FIAS can be found at the website http://fias.uni-frankfurt.de.
Applicants for the postdoctoral positions are expected to have a strong theoretical background and experience with quantitative mathematical and numerical methods.
Applications in the following research areas are especially invited:
a) Theoretical Biology: 1) Development of new mathematical concepts for systems biology and cell biology; 2) Applications to complex systems in biology of relevance in immunology and medicine: (i) modelling adaptive immune responses, (ii) theory of neuro-immune-interactions, (iii) modelling diabetes, (iv) theory of irradiation cancer therapy, (v) magnetoreception in animals and magnetic maps.
b) Theoretical Neuroscience: Modeling of functions related to perception, attention, subsystem integration, sensori-motor coupling and learning. Development of analysis tools for high-dimensional time series obtained with parallel recordings. Implementation of brain-inspired algorithms in robotic devices. Candidates should have a strong background in computational neuroscience. Experience with experimental approaches is desirable but not obligatory.
c) Theoretical Chemistry: Development of new methods: Electroweak and relativistic quantum chemistry; vibronic structure theory. Application of large-scale methods and of highly accurate ab initio approaches: Fundamental symmetries and their violation, molecular chirality; material properties (optical properties, magnetic properties, ionic liquids, liquid crystals); reaction mechanisms (catalysis, ion chemistry). For more details see http://fias.uni-frankfurt.de/~berger.
d) Theoretical and Computational Soft Matter and Biophysics: Positions are available for simulations of ionic liquids, ferrofluids, charged hydrogels, polyelectrolytes, and the study of heterogeneous nucleation in binary colloidal systems. Experience with C/mpi and with efficient MD/MC strategies for mesoscopic and atomistic simulations are expected. We will mainly use our own simulation package ESPResSo (www.espresso.mpg.de. More details about the research environment can be found under http://fias.uni-frankfurt.de/~simbio.
e) Theoretical Meso-Bio-Nano-Science: The MBN theory group (see http://fias.uni-frankfurt.de/~mbn) studies the structure formation and properties of a diversity of biomolecular, nano- and mesoscopic systems. This includes biological macromolecules, atomic and molecular clusters, fullerenes, nanotubes, nanofractals, endohedral objects, periodic structures, microundulators, microdroplets, instabilities in meso-bio-nano systems, optical, electric and magnetic properties. Under study are the dynamics, folding, conformational changes and fragmentation of these systems induced by collisions, fission and fusion processes, temperature variation, by exposure to external electric, magnetic, laser fields, clustering in systems of varied degrees of complexity, clustering in biological systems, on surfaces, in thin films, and in nanostructured materials. The work involves studies within the frame of quantum many-body and density functional theories, quantum and classical dynamics, electrodynamics, statistical mechanics, with a strong emphasis on theoretical-physics methods and numerical calculations.
f) Theoretical Heavy-Ion Physics and Astrophysics: 1) Development of nonequilibrium dynamical models for relativistic heavy-ion collisions. Study of phase transitions in strongly interacting matter and their menifestations in heavy-ion collisions and compact stars. 2) Study of complex hadronic systems (exotic nuclei, superheavy elements) and quark-gluon plasma in terrestrial and astrophysical environments. 3) Structure of the vacuum in strong fields.
The Postdoctoral Fellows will conduct research in collaboration with the FIAS Fellows, with scientists from cooperating institutions, and with Ph.D. students. The appointments are for up to three years. A tax-free scholarship of 30.000 EUR per year will be offered. Alternatively, research assistant positions in externally funded projects remunerated according to the German BAT scale may be available.
Exceptionally qualified students interested in the above research areas are invited to apply for the three-year interdisciplinary Ph.D. program of the Frankfurt International Graduate School for Science (FIGSS). The students should hold a very good diploma or M.Sc. degree or an exceptional honors B.Sc. They will be supervised by scientists from FIAS and of the faculties of science at Goethe University. All courses will be held in English; a TOEFL certificate is required. A tax-free stipend of 1200 EUR per month (plus health insurance) can be offered to successful applicants. For more information see http://fias.uni-frankfurt.de/figss.
For interested students on the B.Sc. level a Master’s program Computational Science is available, which can serve as a preparatory course for the Ph.D. program (see http://www.physik.uni-frankfurt.de/mpcs).
Applicants should send a statement of research interests naming one or two of the FIAS Fellows whom they would like to interact with, a CV, and a complete list of publications to:
Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies
Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University
Max-von-Laue-Str. 1
60438 Frankfurt am Main, Germany
e-mail: fias@uni-frankfurt.de (for Postdoctoral applications) or figss@uni-frankfurt.de (for Graduate School applications). In addition, 1 to 3 letters of reference should be sent to the above address. The review of incoming complete applications will begin immediately.