Update: Applications for this position are now closed. Thank you for all your interest. We still accept applications for the position Reactivity Exploration for Quantum Dot Surfaces

We are looking for a PhD student to develop advance thermodynamic methods for accurately calculating solubility and solution free energy, with a particular emphasis on electrolyte systems. The focus is on improving and expanding SCM’s existing methodologies, including COSMO-RS, Pitzer-Debye-Hückel, and machine learning (ML)-based approaches. The primary goal is to develop robust methodologies and software tools that facilitate more accurate calculations for electrolyte systems.

The position involves addressing key challenges such as refining general parameters that are relevant to both short-range interactions, as modeled by COSMO-RS, and long-range interactions, as described by Pitzer-Debye-Hückel models. Furthermore, the project seeks to integrate data-driven approaches to enhance ML-based models, thereby improving solubility predictions and estimating key physical properties that required in the calculation framework.

The position is part of the European Commission-funded Doctoral Network PREDICTOR, a collaboration between several universities and companies. Salary conditions, travel/mobility allowances, and benefits will follow the attractive EU amounts for Researchers in the HORIZON-MSCA-2023-DN-01 call.

The position is open to theoretical chemistry/physics MSc graduates with an interest in thermodynamic models.

PREDICTOR Network, supervision & training

The PREDICTOR network project contains a mix of 17 experimental and theoretical research-oriented PhD projects. The candidate will be hosted at SCM but enrolled in a PhD program at the RWTH Aachen University.

• PhD supervisor: Prof. Kai Leonhard, RWTH Aachen University
• Co-supervisor: Dr. Wei-Lin Chen, Software for Chemistry & Materials B.V.
• Planned secondment for 3 months: Prof. Dr. Kai Leonhard, training on COSMO-RS model, RWTH Aachen University
• Throughout the project there will be local and network-wide training, including academic and industrial specialist courses, transferable skills training, (international) workshops and training-through-research.

Requirements

• Knowledge of thermodynamic models, with a preference for candidates who have experience in COSMO-RS, COSMO-SAC and/or electrolyte modeling.
• Ability to comprehend the underlying physics of models presented in scientific literature, enhance these models, and efficiently translate them into source code.
• MSc in Physics, Chemistry, or a related science field.
• Not being in possession of a PhD degree.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in the English language.
• EU mobility rules apply: Recruited researchers can be of any nationality and must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in The Netherlands for more than 12 months in the 36 months immediately before the recruitment date.
• The start date should be between 1 September 2024 and 31 August 2025.

Desirable additional knowledge & experience

• Some experience with programming in a team, in a large-scale software package (>100,000 lines of code).
• Working knowledge of Fortran(90) and Python. General programming skills (UNIX, debugging, etc.).
• Team player, with good two-way communication skills, highly self-motivated and able to work independently with excellent time management skills.

What we offer

SCM offers an informal working atmosphere in a small team of approx. 30 PhD-level researchers and scientific software developers from various nationalities and backgrounds. We offer our employees 34 paid holidays per year and flexible working hours, as well as occasional remote work options. All employees are enrolled in the ABP pension fund.

The PhD fellowships will consist of an initial 3-year full-time position, with a possible extension. Salary conditions, travel/mobility allowances and benefits will follow the attractive EU amounts for Researchers in the HORIZON-MSCA-2023-DN-01 call.

• Gross monthly living allowance: € 3.426,- which includes the 9.6% extra due to the country correction coefficient of 109.6% for The Netherlands for the entire period.
• Additional monthly mobility allowance of € 600,-.
• Additional monthly family allowance of € 660,- for researchers who have a family (regardless of whether the family will move with the researcher or not).

In addition, the EU provides funding for training and transfer of knowledge expenses to the institutes. Tax benefits (significant parts of salary and/or allowances paid tax-free) may be applicable in The Netherlands (depending on circumstances) for a successful candidate from abroad.

Eligibility

SCM is an equal opportunity employer; we encourage interested candidates to apply even if you think you don’t ‘tick all the boxes’. SCM will recruit & hire without regard of nationality, age, religion, sexual orientation or gender identity.

Applying

Applications for this position are now closed. Thank you for all your interest. We still accept applications for the position Reactivity Exploration for Quantum Dot Surfaces

Update: Applications for this position are now closed. Thank you for all your interest. We still accept applications for the position Reactivity Exploration for Quantum Dot Surfaces 

We are looking for a PhD student who will research and implement new combined machine learning (ML)  + molecular dynamics (MD) methods for quickly assessing the performance of redox-flow batteries based on organic electrolytes.

The work will build upon and improve SCM’s existing methods for computational chemistry, which include an advanced molecular dynamics driver and automated ML force field training. The focus of the project lies in the development of methods and software to help battery modelers worldwide more easily develop next-generation batteries.

In particular, one challenge to address includes accurately modeling long-range electrostatic effects, in order to be able to obtain atomistic insights into the structures – and the chemical reactions which drive structural changes – in the electrode, electrolyte and at the electrode/electrolyte interface.

The position is part of the European Commission-funded Doctoral Network PREDICTOR, a collaboration between several universities and companies. Salary conditions, travel/mobility allowances, and benefits will follow the attractive EU amounts for Researchers in the HORIZON-MSCA-2023-DN-01 call.

The position is open to:

• ML MSc graduates with an interest in chemistry/physics, and
• Theoretical chemistry/physics MSc graduates with an interest in ML.

PREDICTOR Network, supervision & training

The PREDICTOR network project contains a mix of 17 experimental and theoretical research-oriented PhD projects.

The candidate will be hosted at SCM but enrolled in a PhD program at the University of Amsterdam.

• PhD supervisor: Prof. Dr. Bernd Ensing, University of Amsterdam
• Co-supervisor: Dr. Matti Hellström, Software for Chemistry & Materials B.V.
• Planned secondment for three months: Prof. Dr. Piotr de Silva, Technical University of Denmark
• Throughout the project there will be local and network-wide training, including academic and industrial specialist courses, transferable skills training, (international) workshops and training-through-research

Requirements

• Proven software development skills, combined with a thorough knowledge of either chemical reaction networks, electrochemistry, density functional theory, molecular dynamics, or machine-learning methods.
• Being able to grasp complex mathematical ideas in scientific publications, improve upon them, and convert them into clean and efficient source code.
• MSc degree in Physics/Chemistry/Machine Learning.
• Not being in possession of a PhD degree.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in the English language.
• EU mobility rules apply: Recruited researchers can be of any nationality and must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in The Netherlands for more than 12 months in the 36 months immediately before the recruitment date.
• The start date should be between 1 September 2024 and 31 August 2025.

Desirable additional knowledge & experience

• Working knowledge of Fortran(90) and Python.
• General programming skills (UNIX, debugging, etc.).
• Team player, with good two-way communication skills, highly self-motivated and able to work independently with excellent time management skills.

What we offer

SCM offers an informal working atmosphere in a small team of approx. 30 PhD-level researchers and scientific software developers from various nationalities and backgrounds. We offer our employees 34 paid holidays per year and flexible working hours, as well as occasional remote work options. All employees are enrolled in the ABP pension fund.

The PhD fellowships will consist of an initial 3-year full-time position, with a possible extension. Salary conditions, travel/mobility allowances and benefits will follow the attractive EU amounts for Researchers in the HORIZON-MSCA-2023-DN-01 call.

• Gross monthly living allowance: € 3.426,- which includes the 9.6% extra due to the country correction coefficient of 109.6% for The Netherlands for the entire period.
• Additional monthly mobility allowance of € 600,-.
• Additional monthly family allowance of € 660,- for researchers who have a family (regardless of whether the family will move with the researcher or not).

In addition, the EU provides funding for training and transfer of knowledge expenses to the institutes. Tax benefits (significant parts of salary and/or allowances paid tax-free) may be applicable in The Netherlands (depending on circumstances) for a successful candidate from abroad.

Eligibility

SCM is an equal opportunity employer; we encourage interested candidates to apply even if you think you don’t ‘tick all the boxes’. SCM will recruit & hire without regard of nationality, age, religion, sexual orientation or gender identity.

Applying

Applications for this position are now closed. Thank you for all your interest. We still accept applications for the position Reactivity Exploration for Quantum Dot Surfaces

We are looking for a PhD student who will research and implement new methods for reactivity exploration, focused on surface reactions.

The work will build upon and improve SCM’s existing methods for reactivity exploration, the main example of which is based on the ab initio nanoreactor method for small molecules. The new work will make use of SCM’s general computational chemistry toolbox, which include an advanced molecular dynamics driver and machine learning potentials. The ultimate goal is to allow accurate predictions of reactions and products on the surface of quantum dots with exogenous ligands.

Important challenges are (i) reaction detection on material surfaces from molecular dynamics simulations, (ii) exploration of chemical reactivity under mild conditions, and (iii) ranking of products by analysis of the reaction network graph. Exploration can be achieved with accelerated molecular dynamics techniques, or with intelligent reaction prediction approaches (e.g. machine learning).

The position is part of the European Commission-funded Doctoral Network Track-The-Twin, a collaboration between several universities and companies. Salary conditions, travel/mobility allowances, and benefits will follow the attractive EU amounts for Researchers in the HORIZON-MSCA-2023-DN-01 call.

The position is open to theoretical chemistry/physics MSc graduates with a background in materials simulations.

Track-The-Twin Network, supervision & training

The Track-The-Twin network project contains a mix of 10 experimental and theoretical research-oriented PhD projects.

The candidate will be hosted at SCM and enrolled in a PhD program at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.

• PhD supervisor: Prof. Lucas Visscher, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
• Co-supervisor: Dr. Rosa Bulo, Software for Chemistry & Materials B.V.
• Throughout the project there will be local and network-wide training, including academic and industrial specialist courses, transferable skills training, (international) workshops and training-through-research.

Requirements

• Proven software/method development skills, combined with a thorough knowledge of either chemical reaction networks, computational (in)organic chemistry, molecular dynamics, or machine-learning methods.
• Being able to grasp complex mathematical ideas in scientific publications, improve upon them, and convert them into clean and efficient source code.
• MSc degree in Physics/Chemistry
• Not being in possession of a PhD degree.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in the English language.

• EU mobility rules apply: Recruited researchers can be of any nationality and must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in the Netherlands for more than 12 months in the 36 months immediately before the recruitment date.
• The start date should be between 1 December 2024 and 31 November 2025.

Desirable additional knowledge & experience

• Some experience with programming in a team, in a large-scale software package (>100,000 lines of code).
• Working knowledge of Python. General programming skills (UNIX, debugging, etc.).
• Team player, with good two-way communication skills, highly self-motivated and able to work independently with excellent time management skills.

What we offer

SCM offers an informal working atmosphere in a small team of approx. 30 PhD-level researchers and scientific software developers from various nationalities and backgrounds. We offer our employees 34 paid holidays per year and flexible working hours, as well as occasional remote work options. All employees are enrolled in the ABP pension fund.

The PhD fellowships will consist of an initial 3-year full-time position, with a possible extension. Salary conditions, travel/mobility allowances and benefits will follow the attractive EU amounts for Researchers in the HORIZON-MSCA-2023-DN-01 call.

• Gross monthly living allowance: € 3.426,- which includes the 9.6% extra due to the country correction coefficient of 109.6% for The Netherlands for the entire period.
• Additional monthly mobility allowance of € 600,-.
• Additional monthly family allowance of € 660,- for researchers who have a family (regardless of whether the family will move with the researcher or not).

In addition, the EU provides funding for training and transfer of knowledge expenses to the institutes. Tax benefits (significant parts of salary and/or allowances paid tax-free) may be applicable in The Netherlands (depending on circumstances) for a successful candidate from abroad.

Eligibility

SCM is an equal opportunity employer; we encourage interested candidates to apply even if you think you don’t ‘tick all the boxes’. SCM will recruit & hire without regard of nationality, age, religion, sexual orientation or gender identity.

Applying

Job applications can only be sent by filling out the form below. The application procedure will continue to run until the position is filled and new applications are welcomed. Applications should contain:

• CV
• Data to support that you are an excellent young scientist
• Letter explaining the detailed motivation for applying
• List of publications
• Clear and complete summary of your programming and method development experience (as opposed to using standard existing software).

References may be requested at a later stage.

9:58 AM

SCM regularly offers fixed-term or permanent software development jobs. Job openings are posted on mailing lists, websites and our News section. Temporary positions are typically PhD or post-doc positions funded through EU projects.

Do you have a relevant PhD (theoretical chemistry, computational physics) and a strong programming track record? Do you want to work with our experienced program developers in a growing scientific software company in Amsterdam and with our partnering academic development groups? We are always on the lookout for excellent and motivated software developers to strengthen our team – we encourage you to contact us with a resume and motivation letter.

Businesses with expertise in our field who wish to promote our software as reseller in a particular region may contact us to discuss collaboration possibilities.

Also on the business side we welcome applicants that have a relevant background and are motivated to work with the SCM team and love to discuss science with current and prospective clients. Send your motivation and CV to us, so that we can contact you when a suitable position becomes available at a later stage.

Are you a brilliant chemistry, physics, or computer science student in the Netherlands and  interested in a summer job? We can think of various projects that may fit your interest: small programming jobs, optimizing code efficiency and user-friendliness, updating support materials (documentation, tutorials, website materials), short-term scientific application projects, or other relevant topics. Only in exceptional cases can we accommodate a student from outside the Netherlands (but within the EU). Contact us for details.