Call for postdoc candidates interested in applying for an MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowship in Nanotechnology and Optics

UiT The Arctic University of Norway has established «The Arctic MSCA-PF program» (uit.no/project/arcticmsca) to recruit excellent young researchers planning to apply for a Marie Skƚodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship (MSCA-PF) to pursue a career in research. We invite applications from promising young researchers within the field of Technology (nanotechnology) and Physics (optics). The selected candidate will write a proposal for a 24-month MSCA-PF at UiT together with Professor Olav Gaute Hellesø. This is an opportunity to accelerate your research career while living in the urban research city of Tromsø, uniquely located at the top of the world surrounded by some of Europe’s last pristine wild nature.

This call is one of 70 from pre-selected supervisors at UiT The Arctic University of Norway through the “Arctic MSCA-PF program”. Successful postdoc candidates will be invited for a three-day MSCA-PF symposium June 4-6, 2024 (hybrid physical/digital event, see details at uit.no/project/arcticmsca/program-structure). At this event, the candidates will present their past research achievements, discuss future plans with their potential supervisor and learn how to write a successful MSCA-PF application. The selected candidates will, jointly with the supervisor, write the MSCA-PF application by the deadline of September 11, 2024.

In this call we search for talented, young researchers within the field of Technology (nanotechnology) and Physics (optics) as presented by Professor Hellesø:

I aim to develop an optical chip for Raman-spectroscopy of large numbers of extracellular vesicles (EVs), giving one spectrum for each EV. Extracellular vesicles are bilayer membrane vesicles released from various cells, with size 30-1000 nm. Raman-spectra give information about chemical composition of the EVs, which can be linked to the conditions of the organism producing the EVs and to various disease states. As EVs are small, optical trapping and Raman-spectroscopy must be combined to acquire the Raman-spectra. This gives several challenges for the optical system, such as small mode-volume, many sites for simultaneous trapping, low losses at visible wavelengths, and low Raman-background of the material. We are pursuing several approaches to solve this, based novel optical waveguides and bound states in the continuum. We are also exploring new methods to analyse the Raman-spectra. A suitable background is experimental optics, fabrication of nanooptics (i.e. cleanroom experience), simulation/theory of nanooptics, spectral analysis, or machine learning methods. The optics group at UiT consists of approx. 30 people, including three recipients of ERC Starting Grants. Advanced optical equipment is available, a dedicated lab, and possibly a new cleanroom. 

Please send your CV (max 3 pages) and describe a research project that will strengthen and complement the presented research (max 2 pages) to olav.gaute.helleso@uit.no by Feb 16th 2024. Mark your application "Arctic MSCA". Successful candidates will be contacted in late March 2024.