PhD fellowship in Structured Biointerfaces at Department of Pharmacy

Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences

University of Copenhagen

We are offering a three-year PhD fellowship in the field of Biomolecular Corona Structural Analysis commencing 1st March, 2024 or as soon as possible thereafter.

Project description

The project will address the question of the structure of material at the interface of particles exposed to gastrointestinal fluids and how this changes with different underlying particle structures and compositions. The candidate will receive training in advanced scattering and interfacial analysis techniques, with significant exposure to experiments at large scale facilities such as synchrotron and neutron sources.

Principal supervisor
Professor Ben Boyd, Department of Pharmacy

Start
1st March 2024

Duration
3 years as a PhD student

Our group and research

The Structured Biointerfaces group is a newly formed research group within the Department of Pharmacy led by Professor Ben J. Boyd who was awarded a Novo Nordisk Laureate Research Fellowship. The group aims to improve the understanding of the surface of particles in physiological environments for improved performance of formulated products across a range of fields including the pharmaceutical and food industries. We are a close group of 4 postdoctoral researchers and 3 PhD students, growing to 6 in 2024. Personal and professional development are key ambitions which reinforce our team approach to our science. We value individual input and opinion to help the team to grow.

Our department

The mission of Department of Pharmacy is to advance the pharmaceutical sciences by performing drug-related research and research-based teaching in topics including pharmaceutical technology and formulation, drug delivery, advanced drug analysis, and clinical and social pharmacy.

Information about the Department can be found at https://pharmacy.ku.dk/

Job description
Your key tasks as a PhD student at the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences are:

• Carrying through an independent research project under supervision
• Completing PhD courses or other equivalent education corresponding to approximately 30 ECTS points
• Participating in active research environments including a stay at another research team, preferably abroad
• Obtaining experience with teaching or other types of dissemination related to your PhD project
• Teaching of undergraduate students in pharmaceutical sciences
• Writing a PhD thesis on the grounds of your project

Key criteria for the assessment of applicants

Applicants must have qualifications corresponding to a master’s degree related to the subject area of the project, students with an experimental background in nanoscience, physical chemistry or physics, with exposure to scattering techniques will be best suited to this role. Experience in chemometric data analysis with some programming experience will be at an advantage. Please note that your master’s degree must be equivalent to a Danish master’s degree (two years).

Other important criteria are:

• Professional qualifications relevant to the PhD project
• Relevant work experience
• Previous publications
• The grade point average achieved
• Other professional activities
• A curious mind-set with a strong interest in analytical sciences
• High level English language skills are absolutely essential

Place of employment

The place of employment is primarily at the Department of Pharmacy, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, with expectation of significant time spent at large scale facilities in Europe and beyond. We offer creative and stimulating working conditions in dynamic and international research environment. Our research facilities include modern laboratories with material preparation, particle characterization, novel spectroscopic analysis equipment and strong analytical capabilities.

Terms of employment

The average weekly working hours are 37 hours per week.

The position is a fixed-term position limited to a period of 3 years.

The employment is conditioned upon the applicant’s successful enrolment as a PhD student at the Graduate School at the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen. This requires submission and acceptance of an application for the specific project to the Graduate School of Health and Medical Sciences.

The PhD study must be completed in accordance with The Ministerial Order on the PhD programme (2013) and the Faculty’s rules on achieving the degree.

The PhD student is expected to be affiliated to the graduate programme in pharmaceutical sciences, Drug Research Academy.

Salary, pension, and terms of employment are in accordance with the agreement between the Ministry of Finance and The Danish Confederation of Professional Associations on Academics in the State. Depending on seniority, the monthly salary starts at approximately 28,993 DKK/roughly 3,890 EUR (October 2023 level) plus pension.

Application procedure

Your application, in English, must be submitted electronically by clicking “Apply now” below and must include the following documents in PDF format:

1. Motivated letter of application (max. one page)

2. CV incl. education, experience, language skills and other skills relevant for the position

3. Certified copy of original Master of Science diploma and transcript of records in the original language, including an authorized English translation if issued in other language than English or Danish. If not completed, a certified/signed copy of a recent transcript of records or a written statement from the institution or supervisor is accepted. As a prerequisite for a PhD fellowship employment, your master’s degree must be equivalent to a Danish master’s degree. We encourage you to read more in the assessment database: https://ufm.dk/en/education/recognition-and-transparency/find-assessments/assessment-database. Please note that we might ask you to obtain an assessment of your education performed by the Ministry of Higher Education and Science. Applicants with a Master´s degree from abroad should also enclose a short description of the grading scale used

4. Publication list (if possible)

5. Other information to consider: References and recommendations (if possible)

The deadline for applications is 1st December, 23.59pm CET

We reserve the right not to consider material received after the deadline, and not to consider applications that do not live up to the abovementioned requirements.

The further process

After the expiry of the deadline for applications, the authorised recruitment manager selects applicants for assessment on the advice of the hiring committee. All applicants are then immediately notified whether their application has been passed for assessment by an unbiased assessor.

The assessor makes a non-prioritized assessment of the academic qualifications and experience with respect to the above-mentioned area of research, techniques, skills and other requirements listed in the advertisement.

Once the assessment work has been completed each applicant has the opportunity to comment on the part of the assessment that relates to the applicant him/herself.

The applicant will be assessed according to the Ministerial Order no. 242 of 13 March 2012 on the Appointment of Academic Staff at Universities.

Interviews are expected to be held in week 2-3, 2024

You can read about the recruitment process at http://employment.ku.dk/faculty/recruitment-process/

Questions

For further information, applicants may contact the principal supervisor Professor Ben Boyd, e-mail: [email protected], or PhD coordinator Marianne W. Jørgensen, e-mail: [email protected], phone: +45 3533 6449.

General information about PhD studies at the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences is available at the Graduate School’s website: https://healthsciences.ku.dk/phd/guidelines/

For more information on working and living in Denmark visit http://ism.ku.dk (International staff mobility) and https://www.workindenmark.dk

The University of Copenhagen wish to reflect the diversity of society and encourage all qualified candidates to apply regardless of personal background.

Kilde: Jobnet.dk