SENTINEL: 15 positions available for Marie Skłodowska-Curie ITN Early Stage Researchers (PhD Students)

SENTINEL is a four-year Marie Skłodowska Curie European Training Network which began in January 2019 and will be co-ordinated by Dr Paolo Actis at the University of Leeds. Applications are invited for highly qualified and motivated young researchers to work full time on projects under a three-year PhD program hosted across seven European countries.

Through a series of secondments each ESR will have the opportunity to benefit from the expertise offered by other organisations within the SENTINEL consortium. Secondments will be 1-4 months duration each ( 7 months in total for each ESR over the whole project programme). Refer to the details of each ESR position below for more information about the planned secondments.

What is SENTINEL about?

The SENTINEL program will tackle electrochemistry at the level of individual entities such nanoparticles (metal, semiconducting, soft matter), living cells at the nanoscale, as well as single redox-active (macro) molecules. The study of systems at this level is a hugely important emerging area of electrochemistry which is inter/multidisciplinary and cross-sectoral.

Electrochemistry is the enabling science to address key problems of major societal relevance, spanning from electrocatalysis, in the context of energy conversion (e.g. fuel cells and solar cells) and energy storage (battery and water splitting technologies), to the development of advanced analytical tools for environmental monitoring and point-of-care medical diagnostics. The aim of SENTINEL is to join leading teams from across Europe, with global partners in industry (SMEs and multinationals) and the academic sector in the USA and China so that together they can equip a next generation of scientists with the skills to help impact society with new technological developments in this critical area of science.

SENTINEL will complement its scientific training with innovative and world-class coaching techniques. For example, employing sport related concepts to empower the researchers with leadership skills, engaging them in the art of scientific illustration through a successful science-art business with over 800K likes on Facebook, and using a campaigning charity to equip them with the skills needed to make their voices heard in public debates about science. These training sessions will be supplemented by business leaders from the (electro) chemical community sharing lessons in product development, IP protection and project management.

SENTINEL is distinct, new and ambitious.

How to apply:

All applications must be submitted in PDF format to sentinel@leeds.ac.uk quoting the ESR number of the post you are applying for in the subject line. More information on submission documents can be found under the requirements section below.

The deadline for applications is 11.00pm on 28^th February 2019.

List of SENTINEL positions:

ESR1: Investigation of Brain Cancer Evolution Enabled by Single-Cell Nanobiopsy
Host Organisation - University of Leeds (UK), Supervisor – Dr Paolo Actis

ESR2: Electrochemical Nanosensors to Monitor the Metabolic Activity of Organs-on-Chip
Host Organisation - University of Leeds (UK), Supervisor – Dr Paolo Actis

ESR3: Single-Nanoparticle Electrocatalysis
Host Organisation – Ruhr University Bochum (DE), Supervisor – Prof Wolfgang Schuhmann

ESR4: Nanoscale Electrocatalysis with Nano Impacts
Host Organisation – Ruhr University Bochum (DE), Supervisor – Prof Kristina Tschulik

ESR5: Nanoscale Electrocatalytic Activity at Individual Carbon Nanostructures
Host Organisation – CEA (FR), Supervisor – Dr Renaud Cornut

ESR6: GHz-AFM Spectroscopy of Electrochemical Processes with 0.5 aF Sensitivity
Host Organisation – Keysight Technologies (AT), Supervisor – Dr Ferry Kienberger

ESR7: Next Generation High Frequency Instrumentation
Host Organisation – Keysight Technologies (AT), Supervisor – Dr Ferry Kienberger

ESR8: Towards 3D Spectroelectrochemical Nanoscopy
Host Organisation – University of Paris Diderot (FR), Supervisor – Dr Frederic Kanoufi

ESR9: Surface charge of lipid rafts in neuron signalling investigated by SICM
Host Organisation – Aarhus University (DK), Supervisor – Prof Mingdong Dong

ESR10: Advanced Nanoscale Electrochemical Imaging: Applications from Electrocatalysis to Living Cells
Host Organisation – University of Warwick (UK), Supervisor – Prof Patrick Unwin

ESR11: Electrochemical Nanoprobes for Single-Entity Analysis
Host Organisation – University of Warwick (UK), Supervisor – Prof Patrick Unwin

ESR12: Pico-Potentiostat for Nano-Electrochemical Measurements
Host Organisation – Elements SRL (IT), Supervisor – Dr Federico Thei

ESR13: Single-Polymer Detection
Host Organisation – University of Twente (NL), Supervisor – Prof Serge Lemay

ESR14: CMOS-Based Nanocapacitor Arrays
Host Organisation – University of Twente (NL), Supervisor – Prof Serge Lemay

ESR15: Force-Controlled Sub-Compartmental Perturbation of Primary Cells
Host Organisation – ETH Zurich (CH), Supervisor – Prof Tomaso Zambelli