Salary Range: £32,750 - £34,500 per annum*
Full time, fixed-term appointment 2 years in the first instance

We are looking for a postdoctoral Research Associate with proven skills in novel instrumentation development and expertise in surface adsorption and complex fluids to conduct research into the formation of carbonaceous deposits (CD) in crude oils and engineering fluids in the Department of Mechanical Engineering.  The project is experimental and is part of the BP International Centre of Advanced Materials (ICAM), which is an innovative collaboration involving The Universities of Cambridge, Manchester and Illinois to carry out cutting edge research into structural and functional materials. You will work closely with the industrial sponsors and with experimentalists and computational analysts within ICAM. You will also be part of the Tribology Group, which is a world leader in both fundamental and applied aspects of tribology.

You will design and develop necessary instrumentation and investigate experiments in high pressure/high temperature conditions to gain a fundamental understanding of the physical processes that lead to carbonaceous compound precipitation. Ultimately the goal of the project is to manage and control the formation of carbonaceous compound in both upstream and downstream processes.

It is essential that you have:

• A demonstrable track record of original research in the aggregation, surface adsorption and phase behaviour in complex fluids, preferably related to asphaltene precipitation.
• Knowledge of high pressure/high temperature instrument design and development, complex fluids, thermodynamics, phase transition, dynamics, polymer and materials chemistry particularly materials synthesis.  
• A track record of refereed journal publications demonstrating both experimental and analytical skills relevant for the investigation.

You should have experience in:

• Methodology and instrumental design and development for high pressure, high temperature experiments, preferably in fluid-related research.
• Common surface modification and materials characterisation techniques, and characterisation techniques for surface adsorption including quartz crystal microbalance, ellipsometry, isothermal titration calorimetry, and atomic force microscopy.
• Laser spectroscopy and imaging with home-built setup, and modification of such setup.

You should have PhD (or equivalent, or near completion of PhD) in Mechanical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Materials Science, Physics, or Chemistry or a closely related discipline or related field or equivalent level of professional qualifications and experience.  

*Candidates who have not yet been officially awarded their PhD will be appointed as Research Assistant within the salary range £28,770 - £31,880 per annum.

Informal e-mail enquiries may be made to Dr Janet Wong at j.wong@imperial.ac.uk or +44(0) 20 7594 8991. 

Our preferred method of application is online via our website,  please click the APPLY button below, vacancy reference number, EN20140046RLB.   Please complete and upload an application form as directed. 

Please note you must submit an application form for our posts along with a CV, if you do not fill in an application form, your application will not be considered. 

Closing Date: 11 March 2014 (Midnight GMT)