Job description

Maternity cover: Postdoctoral research associate position to assist running the research group of Dr Clare Bakewell and provide teaching cover whilst she is on maternity leave (11 months total position). The position involves: 

• Day-to-day support of research students in pursuit of their PhD and Masters degrees (technical lab skills and project management)
• Laboratory management
• Group safety (supervision and administration)
• Teaching cover (including lectures, workshops, lab supervision, marking)

The person appointed will be the primary point of contact for the research group and will be based at KCL Chemistry (Britannia House). As is the nature of the role, a willingness to be contactable between 8am and 6pm Mon-Fri (building working hours) and for out of hours emergencies is necessary.

Research in the group is centred around the synthesis and reactivity of main-group organometallics compounds in unusual oxidation states, therefore a strong back ground in synthetic inorganic chemistry is essential.

The applicant will gain experience in supervision, management and academic teaching, and it would be a great opportunity for a candidate looking to enhance these skills in order to pursue an academic career.

Please note: Due to the requirements for an August start date, we will be unable to support applicants that to not have a right to work in the UK.

This post will be offered on an a fixed-term contract for 11 months

This is a full-time post - 100% full time equivalent

Key responsibilities

• Supervision and training of undergraduate and post-graduate students 
• Lab management
• Technical support (running SCXRD samples etc)
• Group safety (preparation of SOPs, safety management, signing risk assessments)
• Synthesizing materials to support on-going projects
• Teaching cover (lectures, workshops, lab supervision, marking)
• Administrative tasks

The above list of responsibilities may not be exhaustive, and the post holder will be required to undertake such tasks and responsibilities as may reasonably be expected within the scope and grading of the post.  

Skills, knowledge, and experience 

Essential criteria  

1.       PhD in synthetic chemistry 

2.       Synthetic inorganic chemistry skills (including the ability to handle, isolate and characterise air and moisture sensitive compounds)

3.       Research management and previous experience of student supervision

4.       Synthetic analysis techniques such as NMR spectroscopy, mass spectrometry, IR, UV-vis spectroscopy 

5.       Experience collecting and solving single-crystal XRD data

6.       Excellent oral and written communication skills, including the ability to write publications and present research results 

7.       Track record in publishing in peer reviewed journals 

8.       Ability to start early to mid-August 2023 (this is not flexible)

Desirable criteria

1.       Experience of computational chemistry (DFT)

2.       Experience in main-group chemistry

3.       Teaching experience