PhD Studentships in Computational Physics

Netherlands. Centre for Mathematics and Computer Sciences (CWI) the Department of Applied Physics at Eindhoven University of Technology (TUE) offer 4 years PhD studentships for students who wish to pursue a PhD in Computational physics. Candidates should be able to understand and develop physical models and explanations, and they should have talent and experience in scientific computing.

A Master degree in natural sciences, preferably in physics, mathematics or engineering is required that has to be recognized as a qualification for Ph.D. research by Eindhoven University of Technology.The salaries are competitive and in accordance with the collective labor agreements (CAO) for Dutch research institutes or universities and based on experience.

The salary for a first year PhD student is almost 2000 Euro/month; it increases in yearly steps to more than 2500 Euro/month in the fourth year; no tuition fees are required; the appointments are for 4 years and should lead to a Ph.D. at the end of the period.

The project will be carried out within the research program on Multiscale Simulation Techniques of the Netherlands Foundation for Technological Research STW that is part of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research NWO.

Project Description

Lighting as well as lightning start with the extending fingers of streamer discharges; they determine the initial evolution when an energy saving discharge lamp is being turned on, or when a lightning stroke paves its way through the air. The streamer process is ubiquitous in nature and technology, it is intricate through its velocity as well as through its multiple scales, but a proper experimental and theoretical characterization is now within reach.

The present project will strengthen the computational side of streamer research; it will be carried out in close collaboration with experiments and pulsed power technology at the departments of applied physics and electrical engineering at Eindhoven University of Technology and with Philips Lighting, Eindhoven, and with the scientific computing groups at CWI Amsterdam. Contacts with lightning oriented geophysical research are maintained through European and international collaborations. The computations will be based on the expertise of U. Ebert (CWI and TUE) in streamer modeling, of W. Hundsdorfer (CWI) in numerical mathematics, and of J. van Dijk (TUE) in developing the user friendly plasma simulation platform plasimo. This Dutch computational and experimental team has built up a world-class position in the field.

Research questions concern the interaction of several streamers with each other, with dielectric walls and with the external electric circuit, and the generation of chemically excited states, of run-away electrons and of X-rays in the streamer head (a hot topic in lightning research). In narrow ionization fronts around the streamer head, individual electrons need to be followed, but in large parts of space, a density or fluid approximation is sufficient. Electrostatic fields as solutions of the Poisson equation need to be calculated with high local accuracy in 3D in each time step of the evolution. Evolutions on very different time scales need to be followed. On the computational level, adaptive grids, parallelization, and hybrid computations are the methods of choice.

Application

Applications should be sent as soon as possible, but certainly until May 16 with a statement of your interest, curriculum vitae, diplomas, possible publications and at least two letters of recommendation to:

Prof. Ute Ebert (for the position in Amsterdam)
telephone +31-20-592-4206
e-mail: ebert@cwi.nl ,

or to

Dr. Jan van Dijk (for the postion in Eindhoven)
e-mail: j.v.dijk@tue.nl
+31-40-247-4871 .

Besides the salary, both employers (CWI and TUE) offer attractive and flexible terms of employment, as well as a collective health insurance, pension-fund, and assistance with housing for foreigners.