Research Assistant (Marie Skłodowska-Curie Doctoral Candidate)

Salary Range: £35,470 - £46,863 per annum

(The salary range is approximate only and may vary significantly depending on the exchange rate.)

Imperial College London is recruiting two Doctoral Candidates (DCs) to work in the Marie Skłodowska Curie Actions (MSCA) Doctoral Network (DN) “SPARK” (HORIZON-MSCA-2025-DN-01-01), devoted to spatiotemporal metamaterials and structured light fields. The DN will provide multidisciplinary training culminating in PhDs awarded by Imperial College London.

The goal of SPARK is to train a top-class cohort of 15 DCs, that will become the future R&D staff within the area of spatiotemporal metamaterials and light fields. We will create and consolidate links between strategic industry partners and leading academic partners including Eindhoven University of Technology (coordinator), Umeå University, INESC MN (Lisbon), Université de Namur, Universidad Pública de Navarra, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and Imperial College London by means of common engagement in research and training courses. This will result in the new understanding of nature and creation of new photonic technologies based on spatiotemporal metamaterials and structured light.

A crucial feature of the programme will be the close interaction with partners in both industry and academia and projects will involve a high degree of teamwork and interdisciplinary research, including secondments at a partner organisation.

The two DCs at Imperial will each work on an experimental project while they are expected to work closely within Imperial and the whole network.

The titles of the two projects are:

• Project DC4: Time-Varying Metamaterials for Light –Professor Riccardo Sapienza (r.sapienza@imperial.ac.uk)
• Project DC9: Space-Time Beams for and from Space-Time Metamaterials – Professor Riccardo Sapienza (r.sapienza@imperial.ac.uk)

It is essential to the project that you have the following:

• Masters degree in Physics or equivalent
• An interest in one of the topics listed above (nanophotonics, ultrafast optics, metamaterials)
• Experience of undertaking a Masters research project (or equivalent) in a relevant experimental field
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills and ability to develop new concepts.

In accordance with the criteria set out by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Doctoral Networks, the researchers must not have resided or carried out main activity (work, study, etc) in the UK for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior to taking up the fellowship. Also, in accordance with the criteria the researcher at the time of recruitment must not yet have been awarded a doctoral degree.

Applications must include:

• A full CV
• A two-page research statement (in addition to the supporting statement on the application form) indicating what you see are interesting research issues relating to the above post and why your expertise is relevant. Please state clearly which project you wish to be considered for.

The post is available for 36 months

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