The Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Göttingen conducts 
fundamental research in the field of solar system physics. With its approximately 
300 staff members, it is one of the leading institutes in the field of solar 
physics and planetary research. In particular, the institute is involved in 
numerous international space missions.

The institute invites applications for a Postdoctoral Position (m/f/d) in 
geophysical fluid dynamics.

https://www.mps.mpg.de/7742808/job_full_offer_20878981

Earth’s magnetic field is maintained by a dynamo mechanism that is driven by 
convection in the liquid iron core. The candidate will perform numerical 
simulations of the related processes. The project is part of the Special Priority 
Programm DeepDyn, which is financed by the German Science Foundation.

Your tasks
Understanding convection and magnetic field generation in Earth’s core.
Running our codes on several supercomputers.
Analyzing the simulation results and comparing them with geomagnetic observations.
Cooperate with scientist from different disciplines within the program DeepDyn.

You should have
PhD in fluid dynamics, physics, or applied mathematics with a strong computational 
background.
Experience in development of CFD code and in running on big clusters.
Understanding geophysical fluid dynamics and dynamo theory is a plus.
Very good command of English (min B2-Level)

Employment conditions
Remuneration is according to the German public salary scale TVö D-Bund E13
Social security benefits are in accordance with the public service regulations
The position is available from 1 November 2023 or as soon as possible thereafter. 
The position is available for a period of three years. Review of applications will 
start on 15 October 2023 and continue until the position is filled.

Your application
Applications should include a cover letter, a brief statement of research 
interests and achievements (max. 2 pages), curriculum vitae including the 
publication list, and the names and contact details of two potential referees. The 
reference persons will only be contacted for the shortlisted candidates.

The Max Planck Society strives for gender equity and diversity. We welcome 
applications from all backgrounds. The Max Planck Society is committed to 
employing more severely disabled people. Applications from severely disabled 
persons are explicitly encouraged.

Please apply with informative documents exclusively online via our application 
portal. 

https://karriere.mps.mpg.de/en/jobposting/d6f934d7bc89790e742d5e727a636ddb13897402
0/apply

We look forward to receiving your online application. Do not send applications 
directly! Such applications will not be considered!

Exclusively for questions regarding the application please contact: Dr. Johannes 
Wicht, wicht@mps.mpg.de , +49 551 384 979 437 or Dr. Xiaojue Zhu, zhux@mps.mpg.de 
+49 551 384 979264

Further information about the group:
https://sites.google.com/view/xiaojue-zhu/

Postdoc Fellow Position #1: 

Start Date: December 2023 or January 2024
Term: Full-time, up to 3 years

Dr. Like Li’s research group, the Thermal Energy Storage and Decarbonization 
(TESD) Lab, at the University of Central Florida (UCF), invites enthusiastic 
applications from highly motivated and talented individuals for a Postdoctoral 
Fellowship with focus on computational modeling of heat transfer in materials, 
structures, and thermochemical reactors. 

The postdoc fellowship will be supported by a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) 
Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) funded three-year project, “Reactive 
Particle Based Thermochemical Energy Storage System for Concentrating Solar‐
Thermal Power (TCES-CSP)”, focusing on the design, modeling, and lab-scale 
testing of high-temperature thermochemical reactors for solar and other 
renewable energy conversion and storage. The postdoc fellow will co-lead a 
collaborative research team with members from three universities, one clean 
energy start-up company, and a DOE national laboratory (Sandia) for a prototype 
reactor development and demonstration.

In addition, the UCF Preeminent Postdoctoral Program 
(https://graduate.ucf.edu/postdoc-funding-resources/) will also provide support 
for the recruited postdoc fellow.

The required minimum qualifications include:
1.	PhD in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Applied 
Mathematics, Applied Physics, or a very closely aligned field. 
2.	Expertise in numerical modeling of thermal-fluid systems (e.g., CFD).
3.	Strong computational skills in developing in-house code (using FORTRAN, 
C, MATLAB, or others), and in using CFD-related commercial software such as 
ANSYS Fluent or others.
4.	A team player that is able to work together with external collaborators 
on chemical reactor design, model validation, and reactor scale-up, and possess 
good oral and written communication skills.

The preferred qualifications include:
1.	Experience in numerical modeling of coupled thermal-chemical transport 
phenomena and fluid-solid interactions is desired.
2.	Research experience with studying high-temperature radiation transfer, 
solar receiver design and modeling, particulate or granular flow, reactive 
material reduction/oxidation kinetics is highly desired.
3.	Experience in using high-performance computing (HPC) and parallelization 
(e.g., OpenMPI) is desired.

Interested applicants should email Dr. Like Li (like.li@ucf.edu) the following 
documents:
1.	A CV including publications and a list of three references.
2.	A research statement that explains: (1) why you are interested in 
working with my group, and (2) your qualifications for working on the research 
project.

About the research group:

Dr. Li begins his UCF career in December 2023, as an Associate Professor in the 
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE), and an affiliated 
faculty member of the Center for Advanced Turbomachinery and Energy Research 
(CATER). He was a faculty member at Mississippi State University from 2017-2023.
The research focus in Dr. Li’s lab includes: (1) modeling and testing of 
reactive materials and structures in thermochemical energy storage systems; (2) 
fundamental understanding of thermal and chemical transport in thermo-fluids 
systems, such as fluidized beds and particle reactors; and (3) experimental 
design and testing of lab-scale thermochemical reactors for zero-carbon energy 
conversion and storage systems. Dr. Li’s group has received funding from federal 
agencies including NSF, DOE, NASA, DOD and also one grant from a utility company 
– the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA).

Dr. Li’s lab will be located in the Siemens Energy Center in the UCF Research 
Park. Siemens Energy Center has over 10,000 sqft of space for state-of-the-art 
experimental rigs, staff/student offices, Siemens meeting room, and access to 
high performance computing clusters. Adjacent to the UCF main campus, the 
Research Park has a land of 1,027 acres and more than 58 buildings for housing 
more than 125 companies for research and technology transfer. There are 
approximately 10,000 employees working in the research park.

About energy and decarbonization at UCF:

Decarbonization is one of the most important topics for a sustainable future. 
The world continues to move towards a low-carbon economy, with more than 110 
countries and 200 of the world's largest companies pledging to achieve net zero 
carbon by 2050. One thing is clear: the energy transition must be clean, 
affordable, accessible, and reliable. A transition of this size requires 
collaboration across the government, public and private sectors, academia, NGOs, 
and communities around the world. As a leader in Decarbonized Energy, the 
University of Central Florida (UCF) has committed to the challenge of shaping 
this transition through the Zero Carbon Energy (ZCE) initiative. The ZCE 
initiative will further strengthen several ongoing research and education 
activities at UCF that are focused around zero carbon energy and 
decarbonization.

UCF houses four distinct energy-related research centers or clusters: Resilient, 
Intelligent and Sustainable Energy Systems (RISES) Center, Renewable Energy and 
Chemical Transformation (REACT) Cluster, the Florida Solar Energy Center (FSEC), 
and the Center for Advanced Turbomachinery and Energy Research (CATER).
CATER was founded to focus on student training and research on turbo-machineries 
and associated energy systems for application in power generation, aviation, and 
space propulsion. CATER currently has 10 core faculty members from MAE, with a 
staff of 12 postdoctoral researchers and 75 doctoral students who brought in 
$7.9M of external funding and graduated 16 doctoral students in AY2021-2022.

More about UCF:

UCF is one of the nation's largest universities with a diverse student body of 
approximately 70,000 students and has grown substantially in size, quality, 
diversity, and reputation. Today, the university offers more than 230 degree 
programs. UCF's students represent all 50 states and over 120 countries. UCF is 
in a centralized location that is 30 minutes to Walt Disney World and Universal 
Orlando and 60 minutes to the beach. UCF has 16 sports teams, including 
football, soccer, tennis, volleyball, and 600+ cultural, academic, and social 
student clubs and organizations all led by faculty mentors. 
The Carnegie Foundation has classified UCF as a R1 Doctoral University for its 
high research activity and community engagement. According to the most recent US 
News in 2024, UCF was ranked #124 in National Universities and #14 in Most 
Innovative Schools. This past fiscal year, UCF brought in nearly $205M. For the 
fifth consecutive year, UCF has been recognized among the nation's most 
innovative universities according to U.S. News & World Report, while Kiplinger's 
and The Princeton Review have ranked UCF as one of the nation's best values for 
a college education. 

Central Florida has been also home to several global energy companies. With NASA 
Kennedy Space Center less than an hour away from Orlando, many well-known 
companies such as Siemens Energy, Mitsubishi Power, and Lockheed Martin have 
their major headquarters in Orlando. Others such as Pratt & Whitney (Raytheon) 
and Northrop Grumman have their headquarters within easy drivable distances. All 
these companies share the same talent pools available in this region.

Frazer-Nash is a values-driven and forward-thinking systems, engineering and 
technology consultancy. We help organisations deliver innovative engineering and 
technology solutions to make lives safe, secure, sustainable and affordable, and 
we specialise in using advanced digital engineering as part of these solutions 
to help our clients address high-value technical challenges.

We are a growing business, and we are developing and growing our fluid flow and 
heat transfer analysis services across a wide range of industries, including low 
carbon energy and nuclear power, aerospace, process and utilities.

What do we look for in a Senior Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) Consultant ?

As a Senior CFD Consultant, you'll be empowered to use your technical skills to 
find practical solutions to engineering challenges in different contexts, such 
as:

Delivering high quality technical analysis of fluid flow and heat transfer 
challenges, using a range of CFD software packages and hand calculations,
Defining the most appropriate, proportionate approach to use for fluids and 
thermal analysis work in high-assurance industries like nuclear, process or 
aerospace,
Developing our analysis services, maintaining a clear understanding of industry 
trends and developing our business by working closely with clients and mentoring 
and supporting less experienced people,
Working as part of multi-disciplinary teams to understand multi-physics 
challenges or support complex design projects.
What will working for Frazer-Nash as a Senior CFD Consultant be like?

You'll work closely and flexibly with colleagues on a variety of diverse 
projects, typically a few projects at once, which can last from a few weeks to 
many years of sustained support. We will support and empower you to manage the 
delivery of these projects at an early stage, meeting and communicating with 
clients to understand their requirements and managing your projects to deliver 
the right outcomes and insights.

Whatever the project, you'll be part of a trusting and capable team that 
maintains outstanding professional standards. You'll always take ownership of 
your work, whether you are part of a multidisciplinary team or managing your own 
projects to the right quality, time and cost.

You'll also be supported and empowered to develop new business by 
identifying/engaging with existing and potential clients, developing productive 
and trusting relationships, understanding their challenges, developing and 
aligning our skills and experience to address these, and writing high-quality 
bids for new work.

We value chartered engineer status, and we mentor and support our employees to 
achieve this. Working as part of a supportive group, you'll be proactive in 
developing your skills, reach out to colleagues for advice and support when 
needed, and freely share your experience with colleagues to support their 
development.

As a Senior CFD Consultant, you will have the ability to demonstrate significant 
knowledge and experience of:

A clear track record of delivering fluid flow and heat transfer analytical 
engineering services as discussed above. 

This should include experience in building, running and post‑processing models 
that include at least one of: multiphase flows, compressible flows, combustion, 
scaled-resolved turbulence, conjugate heat transfer, flow acoustics, and fluid 
structure interaction.

Developing technical solutions in high-assurance industries (e.g. process, 
nuclear, aerospace, oil and gas etc) within the related quality requirements.

Using a solid understanding of practical and fundamental thermofluid mechanics, 
gained from a Master’s Degree or PhD in thermofluid mechanics, or a similar 
level of training, to perform fluids and thermal hand calculations and system 
level flow assurance assessments.

Managing the delivery of technical tasks to the agreed time and cost.
Using excellent communication skills to engage effectively with project 
stakeholders, both verbally and through crisp, focused writing.

Due to the nature of the work that Frazer-­Nash Consultancy undertake, candidates 
will be required to undergo pre-employment screening and must be able to satisfy 
clearance criteria for UK National Security Vetting.

Research Engineer or Post-doc position in CFD of Hydrogen combustion

CONTACT: Daniel Rodriguez. 
HOST LAB: Numerical Methods in Aerospace Technology (http://numath.dmae.upm.es), 
School of Aeronautics and Space Engineering
Universidad Politecnica de Madrid. 
LOCATION: Madrid, Spain.

We are looking for a research engineer or post-doctoral researcher to work on a exciting project in the field 
of Large Eddy Simulation of Hydrogen Combustion. 
The project aims at conducting high-fidelity simulations of turbulent partially premixed H2-air flames to 
study the flame dynamics and combustion instabilities. 
As a second step, the knowledge acquired with the simulations will guide passive and active flow control 
strategies for flame stabilization.


CANDIDATE MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS
- A degree in Mechanical or Aerospace Engineering, Applied Mathematics, Physics or related fields. 
- Demonstrated experience in CFD, preferably with Finite Volume solvers (OpenFOAM, Fluent, etc.).
- Fluent English language.

PREFERABLE REQUIREMENTS
- Citizen or Resident of a Schengen country.
- Demonstrated experience in CFD for combustion, in particular: Cantera, Flamelet Generated Manifolds, 
etc.
- A completed MSc or PhD degree in topics related to CFD for combustion.
- Excellent computational skills and interest in CFD programming. Our codes are based on Fortran, but 
previous experience in C/C++ is also useful.
 
WHAT DO WE OFFER?
The contract is offered initially for 1 year starting as soon as possible. Salary: 35-45 K€/year (gross), 
depending on qualifications.

HOW TO APPLY?
Please send cover letter and resume plus relevant technical papers, reports, references, etc. to 
daniel.rodriguez@upm.es quoting the reference HCLES_UPM

WHO ARE WE?:
The Universidad Politecnica de Madrid (UPM) is the oldest and largest Spanish technical University, with 
more than 4.000 faculty members, around 48.000 undergraduate students and 6.000 postgraduates in 21 
Schools. UPM  Schools cover most of engineering disciplines, including Aeronautics. The School of 
Aeronautics ETSIAE-UPM is one the best schools of engineering in Spain and the oldest providing an 
aeronautical degree. ETSIAE-UPM was ranked 41st of the world in Shanghai’s ranking for aeronautical 
engineering in 2017. 

The Group Numerical Methods in Aerospace Technology (http://numath.dmae.upm.es), belonging to the 
Dept. of Applied Mathematics at ETSIAE-UPM, offers a young dynamic environment where currently over 10 
PhD students and 20 faculty members perform research in fluids and numerical methods for aerospace 
technology. 

The recently created team working on H2 combustion currently involves 3 Professors, 3 PostDocs and one 
PhD Student.

One of the major obstacles to Morocco’s development is the management of water 
resources. The country faces very severe hydroclimatic conditions, characterised 
by low precipitation with high inter-annual variability. Additionally, water can 
be highly variable from week to week. The weather often shifts from extreme dry 
conditions to sudden heavy rainfall episodes. Further, water demand is constantly 
increasing due to agricultural intensification, urbanisation, population increase 
and the development of tourism. This increase is very difficult to sustain under 
present conditions. As a result, Morocco is consistently confronted to water 
shortages.
In order to mitigate the negative impact of these events, a National Water 
Strategy was developed. It aims at improving water use through the construction of 
substantial additional infrastructure, like dams and inter-basins water transfer 
projects. While such projects may enhance water capture and withdrawal capacities, 
to do so, they must be combined with management tools to optimise their use. Water 
management in Morocco is still based on reactive rather than preventive policies. 
The last few years, during which many extreme events occurred, have shown how 
vulnerable this type of governance was to climatic hazards. Despite the rain, 
several dams in the kingdom dried up due to poor management. Furthermore, the risk 
for water resources related to the occurrence of climate and weather hazards 
remains little understood and improperly evaluated.
We propose here to improve on the current water management by better understanding 
and quantifying the risks related to drought and extreme rainfall. We still 
understand little about the probability, magnitude and extent of these events in 
Morocco. By definition, extreme events are rare; observations are also lacking in 
most areas in Morocco, and usually cover periods too short to yield a complete 
picture of the tail of the hydroclimatic parameters distribution. Finally, as the 
global climate is changing, stationarity is not a valid assumption anymore, and it 
becomes crucial to consider possible changes in extreme events characteristics 
over time to develop and implement effective risk management strategies.

Software Developer
Are you passionate about pushing the boundaries of fluid dynamics and acoustical 
interpretations? We're currently enhancing a cutting-edge technology used for 
diagnostic and production support across upstream, midstream, and downstream 
operations. We're on the lookout for a talented Technical Software Developer to 
join our team! The selected candidate will play a crucial role in advancing the 
state of the art by contributing intellectual property and simultaneously 
developing software to facilitate the implementation of these advancements.

What will you do? 
•	Working under general supervision, leverage your engineering and 
software development skills to analyze and define the scope and objectives of 
engineering applications.
•	Play a pivotal role in selecting and implementing technologies for 
designing, coding, testing, troubleshooting, and documenting engineering systems 
applications.
•	Actively contribute to the development and improvement of algorithms 
supporting new and existing engineering applications.
•	Potentially develop test strategies for automated regression testing of 
these systems.
•	Typically involved in projects of moderate scope and complexity, 
assisting in assignment development and scheduling.
•	Accurate performance of job tasks indirectly impacts cost containment, 
efficiency, profitability, or operations.
What do you need?
•	Skills are typically acquired through an undergraduate degree in 
Computer Science, Engineering, Physics, or a similar discipline, along with 2 
years of related experience or 6 years of related engineering and software 
development experience.
•	Candidates exceeding the minimum requirements may be considered for 
higher-level roles based on their experience, additional qualifications, and 
business needs. Depending on your education, experience, and skill level, you 
may have opportunities ranging from Technical Professional Software Developer to 
Senior Technical Professional Software Developer.
•	We value education, testing, publications, patents, and expertise in 
scientific libraries like SciPy, Pandas, Matplotlib, and their application in 
both cloud and standalone environments.

If you're excited about this opportunity, please apply and be sure to highlight 
your relevant educational and professional background. Let's explore this 
innovative opportunity together!

Large eddy simulations of rotor/propeller aerodynamics and aeroacoustics

The Department of Aerodynamics, Energetics and Propulsion at ISAE-Supaero, 
Toulouse, France, is looking for a PhD candidate to work on the Large Eddy 
Simulation of rotor and propeller aerodynamics and aeroacoustics. In future 
concepts such as those recently described by Johnson \& Silva (NASA concept 
vehicles and the engineering of advanced air mobility aircraft. (2022) The 
Aeronautical Journal, 126(1295), 59-91), the aerodynamics and aeroacoustics is 
rendered complex partly because of interactions between multiple 
rotors/propellers and airframe. In order to properly capture those phenomena, 
high-fidelity numerical simulations of the compressible Navier-Stokes equations 
can be performed.

In this framework, it is proposed to :

> Perform large eddy simulations of relevant rotor/propeller - airframe 
configurations using an in-house code

> Assess results against experimental data obtained in an anechoic room and 
aeroacoustic wind tunnel (within a companion project)

> Analyse data using advanced post-processing tools, including spatial and 
temporal modal decompositions (e.g. SPOD, BMD), to unravel the flow physics that 
leads to enhanced or reduced aerodynamic performance and aeroacoustic footprints

The work thus includes meshing (ICEM and/or GMSH), high performance computing 
(on local and national clusters) and data processing (manipulating large 
datasets).  Advanced post-processing will be performed using in-house and/or 
available research codes (Python and/or Matlab) from the literature. In this 
regard, the candidate should have a good background in fluid mechanics and be 
familiar with programming languages. Knowledge in aeroacoustics and a first 
experience in computational fluid mechanics is a plus. Furthermore, the 
candidate should be highly rigorous and demonstrate ability to work both in 
autonomy and in close collaboration with other researchers.

The candidate will be hosted at ISAE-Supaero in Toulouse, France. The PhD 
program is fully funded by the French ministry of research for three years. It 
is supervised by R. Gojon and T. Jardin at the Département Aérodynamique, 
Energétique et Propulsion (DAEP), a laboratory comprising approximately 60 
people working on aerodynamics and propulsion for aeronautics and astronautics.

Contact : romain.gojon@isae.fr, thierry.jardin@isae.fr

TotalEnergies aims to become a pioneer in the production of green H2, and thus a key player in the new 
hydrogen ecosystem. Green hydrogen is produced using an electrolyzer powered by a renewable energy 
source. The heart of an electrolyzer is an electrochemical cell consisting of a cathode and an anode 
separated by an ionically conductive membrane. Under polarization, water is dissociated into hydrogen at the 
cathode (HER reaction) and oxygen at the anode (OER), with the membrane ensuring that the gases do not 
mix. The cells are connected in series in the form of stacks with a power output of 1 to 10 MW for future 
industrial applications.
Two electrolyzer technologies are considered mature: alkaline and PEM (proton exchange membrane). In this 
context, the development of a digital twin of electrolyzers is essential to gain a competitive edge in terms of 
the design and operation of green H2 assets, as it will help us predict electrolyzer behavior.
To be successful, this digital electrolyzer model needs to encompass two different aspects:
Such a tool will also enable us to carry out predictive maintenance and optimize operations. It will also enable 
the emergence of new R&D topics to improve the performance of alkaline electrolyzers.
The DAWN project will be based on the use of two multiphase fluid simulation tools:
- canoP , a library for developing multiphase CFD applications with adaptive mesh refinement (Drui 2017, 
Chen 2019, Padioleau 2020).
- Flower.jl, a CFD code in Julia that enables the local study of bubbles and three-phase interfaces between 
gas, liquid and wall (Quirós-Rodríguez 2022, Fullana 2023).

Three-year fully-funded Ph.D. positions at the International Max Planck Research School for Solar System Science (IMPRS), including projects in the areas of

• astrophysical fluid dynamics
• magnetohydrodynamics in the Sun and stars
• helioseismology and asteroseismology
• fluid dynamics of planetary interiors
• computational flow physics and data assimilation

For a full up-to-date list (available from summer 2023) please see Open Ph.D. projects.

Please refer to the Call for applications 2023 for all details: Solar System Science Ph.D. positions: Call for applications in 2023.

Please apply exclusively through the IMPRS online application portal.