Postdoctoral Scientist

Contract Type: Fixed Term – 2 years

Hours: Full time or Part-time (minimum 30 hours per week)

Location: Science and Technology Facilities Council, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Harwell, Oxfordshire

Come and do the kind of science that made you want to become a scientist. Explore the unknown and get to grips with the biggest challenges in Big Science. And, alongside world class engineers and technologists, use everything you've learnt to find real-answers that shape society and improve lives.

Put simply, discover the kind of impact you can make when you work with some of the best facilities and brightest scientists in the world.

The Central Laser Facility (CLF), part of the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), provides advanced laser research facilities for UK and international scientists. The CLF Octopus facility focuses on the development and application of advanced microscopy including super resolution and time resolved imaging such as FLIM and PLIM for applications in chemistry and life sciences.

About the Role

We are now seeking a scientist with a background in chemistry, biology or biophysics to join the biophysics team. Your primary responsibility will be to perform experiments using lasers, spectrometers and microscopes on solution and mammalian cell samples. You will work with a university research group using the facility to help deliver these experiments. This may involve some further development of the microscope.

Other tasks will include:

• performing biophysical experiments to determine light transmission into 3D biologica tissues
• performing extensive literature searches, give clear presentations and write regular reports and manage a small budget

You will be working in a facility environment which hosts academic and industrial users from across the UK and EU. We will encourage you to maintain and develop collaborations to sustain your own scientific research, to write papers, apply for facility beam-time or grants, and to attend and present at conferences. 

About You

You will need to have a PhD in chemistry, biology, or biophysics (or have equivalent relevant experience), and will also have experience operating microscopes, spectrometers, and light/laser measuring equipment.

We also expect you to have a track record of publication in peer-reviewed journals.

What we offer

We are offering a fixed term position with a whole host of benefits including:

• 30 days holiday annually (in addition to 10.5 bank holidays and privilege days)
• flexible working hours
• an excellent defined average salary pension scheme
• employee shopping/travel discounts
• excellent learning and development opportunities

Plus many more benefits and wellbeing initiatives that enable our employees to have a great work life balance!

UKRI is an Equal Opportunity & Disability Confident Employer.

We ask some of the biggest questions in the universe, to answer some of the biggest challenges in the world. Together, our scientists, technologists, engineers and business support team explore the unknown across every field you could think of. And they turn what they find into work that changes the world around us.

What could you achieve with the world-leading facilities and experts of one of Europe's largest research organisations by your side? Join us and discover what's possible.

To apply, please click on the ‘Apply’ button above