Careers

Postdoctoral fellowships at Northwestern University

Post-Doctoral Fellowships in CO₂ electrochemistry – Electrified Capture and Release, Reactive Capture, and Electrified CO₂ utilization/upgrade

Area of Research: Our research focuses on using electricity to power chemicals transformations involving carbon. The goal is to reduce the carbon intensity of the production of chemicals and fuels that, today, mostly rely on fossil hydrocarbons. We seek especially to lower the intensity of large-scale commodity chemicals and fuels.

Our approach is to unite basic and applied science in order to pursue this mission-oriented goal. Our team gathers and relies upon experts in chemistry (electrochemistry, physical chemistry such as operando spectroscopy and surface chemistry, computational chemistry) and engineering (especially materials synthesis/properties/processing, electrical engineering, chemical engineering), often with a significant role for AI/machine learning in seeking to accelerate discovery.

The specific programs we lead include:

• Reactive capture: upgrading CO₂ directly from the captured state [1].
• CO₂/CO upcycling, focusing especially on creating ever more valuable and complex molecules [2, 3].
• CO₂ capture and release, emphasizing reducing the energy cost of CO₂ release, and electrifying the full process.
• Coupled electrolysis, wherein reductive chemistries (such as CO₂-to-value) are paired with an economically valuable anodic reaction, an example of which is propylene to propylene oxide/propylene glycol [4, 5].

Description of Duties: Successful candidates will place their major focus on achieving original first-authored publications in interdisciplinary academic journals. They will work effectively in a team environment and will value the chance to reach across disciplines, and to work with partners in industry and at our partner U.S. Department of Energy national labs. Post-doctoral fellows will take advantage of the opportunity to increase their mentoring skills, helping doctoral students to develop as scientist-engineers.

Essential Qualifications:

• Applicants must have received, or be close to receiving, their PhD degree in an area of science or engineering.
• Applicants are sought who have backgrounds in a field of engineering or science relevant to CO₂ chemistry and electrochemistry, including the design of materials for electrocatalysis and/or CO₂ capture and release; mechanistic investigations of reactive pathways;  materials chemistry/synthesis including of high-entropy alloys and oxides; single-atom and other advanced catalysts; molecular strategies for CO₂ capture and upgrade, such as molecular modulators [6], metal-organic frameworks and covalent organic frameworks, and designer polymers. Candidates with expertise in fundamental electrochemistry, such as studies of ion-intercalation mechanisms, charge transfer models, PCET mechanisms, field effects, and electrolyte engineering, are of interest. Systems experts focused on the design, fabrication, and investigation of flow systems for electrochemistry, such as electrochemical flow cells and membrane electrode assembly devices, are of interest.  We also seek candidates with expertise from relevant allied fields, such as transport phenomena, membrane engineering, membrane science, thermocatalysis, photocatalysis, fuel cells, batteries, water-splitting electrolyzers, and high-temperature/high-pressure reactors.

Salary: $52,000 USD/year

Expected Start Date: July 1, 2023, or as soon as possible thereafter

Appointment: Term – (12 months) with a possible renewal

How to apply:

Please include in your application package a cover letter; your full academic CV; information on 2 referees that are prepared to be consulted; your two most relevant publications. Please send as a single combined PDF whose file name includes your first and last names to Melissa Rosen (melissa.rosen@northwestern.edu) with the subject line CO2 PDF Application by May 15, 2023. Evaluation of candidates will begin immediately and continue until filled.

Posting Date: Apr 12, 2023

Closing Date: May 15, 2023

References

• Electrochemical upgrade of CO2 from amine capture solution, G. Lee, Y. C. Li, J. Kim, T. Peng, D. Nam, A. S. Rasouli, F. Li, M. Luo, A. H. Ip, Y. Joo, E. H. Sargent*, Nature Energy, DOI: 10.1038/s41560-020-00735-z
• Selective synthesis of butane from carbon monoxide using cascade electrolysis and thermocatalysis at ambient conditions, M. G. Lee, X. Li, A. Ozden, J. Wicks, P. Ou, Y. Li, R. Dorakhan, J. Lee, H. K. Park, J. W. Yang, B. Chen, J. Abed, R. dos Reis, G. Lee, J. E. Huang, T. Peng, Y. (C.) Chin, D. Sinton, E. H. Sargent*, Nature Catalysis, DOI: 10.1038/s41929-023-00937-0
• Constrained C2 adsorbate orientation enables CO-to-acetate electroreduction, J. Jin, Joshua Wicks, Qiuhong Min, Jun Li… et al. Liqiang Mai*, Edward H. Sargent*, Yuanjie Pang*, Nature, DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-05918-8 (in press)
• Chloride-mediated selective electrosynthesis of ethylene and propylene oxides at high current density, W. R. Leow, Y. Lum, A. Ozden, Y. Wang, D. Nam, B. Chen, J. Wicks, T. Zhuang, F. Li, D. Sinton*, E. H. Sargent*, Science, DOI:10.1126/science.aaz8459
• Electrified hydrocarbon-to-oxygenates coupled to hydrogen evolution for efficient greenhouse gas mitigation, W. R. Leow*, S. Völker, R. Meys, J. E. Huang, S. A. Jaffer, A. Bardow*, Edward H. Sargent*, Nature Communications, DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-37382-3
• Molecular tuning of CO2-to-ethylene conversion, F. Li, A. Thevenon, A. Rosas-Hernandez… et al., T. Agapie*, J. C. Peters*, E. H. Sargent*, Nature, DOI: 10.1038/s41586-019-1782-2

 

Post-Doctoral Fellowships in infrared sensing – novel IR material and device concept/architecture development

Area of Research: Our research focuses on using emerging semiconductors to enable high performance photodetectors (e.g., high quantum efficiency and low dark current) in the shortwave IR and mid-wave IR regions. Our approach is to unite basic and applied science to pursue this mission-oriented goal. Our team gathers and relies upon experts in chemistry (physical chemistry, surface chemistry, computational chemistry), physics (device physics and materials physics) and engineering (materials synthesis/properties/processing, electrical/device engineering), often with a significant role for AI/machine learning in seeking to accelerate discovery.

Description of Duties: Successful candidates will place their major focus on achieving original first-authored publications in interdisciplinary academic journals. They will work effectively in a team environment and will value the chance to reach across disciplines, and to work with partners in industry and at our partner U.S. Department of Energy national labs. Post-doctoral fellows will take advantage of the opportunity to increase their mentoring skills, helping doctoral students to develop as scientist-engineers.

Essential Qualifications:

• Applicants must have received, or be close to receiving, their PhD degree in an area of science or engineering.
• We are seeking extraordinary candidates that unite excellent oral and written communications skills, outstanding leadership, and expertise in one or more of:
  • Materials synthesis, surface chemistry, and analytical characterization
  • Materials science and photo-physical characterization methods
  • Deep knowledge of solid-state semiconductors and physics of sensing
  • Device fabrication skills and experience with at least one {colloidal quantum dots, 2D materials, perovskites, silicon, organics} or other novel semiconductors
  • Physics and device multiscale modelling with tools such as COMSOL, Sentaurus, SCAPS and circuit modelling tools.
  • Data sciences and machine learning

Salary: $52,000 USD/year

Expected Start Date: July 1, 2023, or as soon as possible thereafter

Appointment: Term – (12 months) with a possible renewal

How to apply:

Please include in your application package a cover letter; your full academic CV; information on 2 referees that are prepared to be consulted; your two most relevant publications. Please send as a single combined PDF whose file name includes your first and last names to Melissa Rosen (melissa.rosen@northwestern.edu) with the subject line “Sensing PDF Application” by May 15, 2023. Evaluation of candidates will begin immediately and continue until filled.

Posting Date: Apr 12, 2023

Closing Date: May 15, 2023

References

• Clifford, J. P.; Konstantatos, G.; Johnston, K. W.; Hoogland, S.; Levina, L.; Sargent, E. H. Fast, Sensitive and Spectrally Tuneable Colloidal-Quantum-Dot Photodetectors. Nanotechnol. 2009, 4 (1), 40–44. https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2008.313.
• Sun, B.; Najarian, A. M.; Sagar, L. K.; Biondi, M.; Choi, M.-J.; Li, X.; Levina, L.; Baek, S.-W.; Zheng, C.; Lee, S.; Kirmani, A. R.; Sabatini, R.; Abed, J.; Liu, M.; Vafaie, M.; Li, P.; Richter, L. J.; Voznyy, O.; Chekini, M.; Lu, Z.-H.; García de Arquer, F. P.; Sargent, E. H. Fast Near-Infrared Photodetection Using III-V Colloidal Quantum Dots. Mater. 2022, 34 (33), e2203039. https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.202203039.
• Vafaie, M.; Fan, J. Z.; Morteza Najarian, A.; Ouellette, O.; Sagar, L. K.; Bertens, K.; Sun, B.; García de Arquer, F. P.; Sargent, E. H. Colloidal Quantum Dot Photodetectors with 10-Ns Response Time and 80% Quantum Efficiency at 1,550 Nm. Matter 2021, 4 (3), 1042–1053. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matt.2020.12.017.
• Morteza Najarian, A.; Vafaie, M.; Johnston, A.; Zhu, T.; Wei, M.; Saidaminov, M. I.; Hou, Y.; Hoogland, S.; García de Arquer, F. P.; Sargent, E. H. Sub-Millimetre Light Detection and Ranging Using Perovskites. Nature Electronics 2022, 5 (8), 511–518. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41928-022-00799-7.