Full Professorship in Materials Process Informatics and Data-Driven Process Engineering

Research Alliance

The Research Alliance is a joint undertaking of the three major universities in the Ruhr area and was initiated by the Ruhr Conference. Its four research centers focus on One Health, Chemical Sciences and Sustainability, Trustworthy Data Science and Security, and Future Energy Materials and Systems. In addition, the Research Alliance has established the College for Social Sciences and Humanities.

The Research Alliance will appoint up to 50 research professors in the next few years and also offer numerous positions for research assistants. Join us now to create innovations for the world of tomorrow in Europe’s densest university landscape, where you can find a wide range of scientific and industrial partners right on the doorstep.

The position is to be filled as soon as possible.

The successful candidate will establish a cutting-edge, internationally visible research programme at the intersection of process engineering, data science and materials development. This professorship focuses on the advancement of materials process informatics, emphasising the design, optimisation and automation of synthesis and transformation pathways for the production of advanced materials. In contrast to materials informatics, which primarily targets the prediction and discovery of materials based on property databases, this role highlights process informatics: leveraging data to enhance process understanding, design, efficiency, scalability and reproducibility.

Key responsibilities include initiating and leading interdisciplinary, collaborative research projects with national and international visibility; acquiring competitive third‑party funding; actively contributing to the strategic development of the RC FEMS and the Research Alliance; and engaging in academic self-governance.

The teaching load is reduced to four (45-minute) teaching units per week. The successful candidate is expected to actively contribute to English-language instruction in master’s degree programmes.

• data-driven process development: application of machine learning and AI to analyse and optimise process parameters in high-temperature gas-phase synthesis and other advanced processing technologies; development of predictive models using real-time process data (e.g., digital twins)
• automation and self-driving laboratories: implementation of high-throughput and automated experimentation workflows to accelerate materials process discovery; digitalisation of laboratory environments
• process-property relationships: investigation of how synthesis and processing conditions influence materials structure and properties; development of computational frameworks for process design
• experimental validation and scale-up: integration of simulations and experiments to validate processes and scale them for industrial relevance
• sustainable processing: development of environmentally friendly, energy-efficient process technologies aligned with the principles of green chemistry and the circular economy

Applicants are expected to have experience in leading research groups and supervising doctoral candidates and to have an excellent publication record. Willingness to engage in collaborative research within RC FEMS, the interdisciplinary Center for Nanointegration Duisburg-Essen, the Faculty of Engineering and the UA Ruhr is expected.

Expertise in leadership of research groups as well as publications in peer-reviewed journals and successful acquisition of competitive, externally funded projects are mandatory. Strong organisational skills, the ability to cooperate with other researchers and the willingness to independently initiate and guide large research proposals are also required.

In addition, criteria for the appointment are based on Sections 36 and 37 of the North Rhine-Westphalia Higher Education Act (Gesetz über die Hochschulen des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen, HG NRW).

The Research Center…