Careers

Position Opening: Postdoctoral Scholar

Overview/Summary

We are seeking a Postdoctoral Scholar in Critical Materials Recovery and Advanced Separations at the Institute for Decarbonization and Energy Advancement (IDEA) University of Kentucky Lexington, Kentucky

The Institute for Decarbonization and Energy Advancement (IDEA) at the University of Kentucky invites applications for a Postdoctoral Scholar to support research in advanced separations, industrial wastewater treatment and material recovery, and sustainable process development. This position will contribute to projects involving recovery of valuable materials from postconsumer photovoltaic modules, purification and recovery of magnesium hydroxide from power-plant wastewater and zero-liquid-discharge systems, and development of intensified separation technologies for complex solid-liquid systems.

The successful candidate will be expected to execute bench-scale and pilot-relevant experiments per pre-established SOPs, analyze complex solid and liquid samples, and contribute to process development from laboratory validation toward larger-scale implementation. The role requires a strong hands-on experimental background and the ability to work across chemical processing, materials characterization, thermodynamic modeling, and applied engineering research related to critical materials and value-added resource recovery.

Responsibilities

  • Conduct independent and collaborative research in chemical, electrochemical, and physical separation processes relevant to critical materials recovery
  • Design and execute experiments involving leaching, dissolution, electrochemical recovery, precipitation, crystallization, washing, filtration, and solids handling
  • Characterize feedstocks, intermediates, and recovered products using chemical and materials characterization tools
  • Perform thermodynamic and process analysis for concentrated aqueous and multiphase systems
  • Analyze process performance, establish mass balances, and interpret data for optimization and scale-up
  • Prepare technical reports, presentations, journal manuscripts, and proposal contributions
  • Mentor graduate and undergraduate students in the laboratory

Required or Strongly Preferred Technical Experience Applicants should have experience in some combination of the following:

  • Hydrometallurgy, advanced separations, water/wastewater treatment, electrochemistry, or related areas
  • Acoustic separation, particle manipulation, or high-solids slurry processing
  • Materials and chemical characterization techniques such as ICP-MS, XRD, TGA, and SEM
  • Experimental design, data analysis, and interpretation of complex multiphase systems
  • Laboratory operation, method development, and troubleshooting of research and analytical instruments

Minimum Qualifications

  • Ph.D. in chemical engineering, materials science and engineering, chemistry, environmental engineering, mechanical engineering, or a closely related field
  • Demonstrated record of experimental research and scholarly writing
  • Strong communication skills and the ability to work effectively in a multidisciplinary team
  • Ability to work independently while contributing to collaborative research programs

Preferred Qualifications

  • Experience with one or more of the following: electrochemical recovery, crystallization, solid-liquid separation, wastewater treatment, or pilot-scale process development
  • Experience operating and interpreting data from analytical instruments including ICP, XRD, TGA, and SEM
  • Experience with high-ionic-strength brines, precipitation/crystallization systems, or electrolyte thermodynamic modeling
  • Interest in translational research with industrial relevance and scale-up potential

IDEA at the University of Kentucky advances research in decarbonization, critical materials recovery, advanced separations, water and wastewater treatment, carbon management, and resource recovery. The successful candidate will join an active research environment with ongoing collaborations in academia and industry and access to laboratory and pilot-scale infrastructure supporting process development, solids handling, water chemistry, and advanced separation studies.

Application Materials Applicants should submit:

  • Cover letter describing research interests and fit for the position
  • Curriculum vitae
  • Brief summary of prior research experience
  • Contact information for three references

If interested, please send application materials to: idea.info@uky.edu

Review of applications will begin immediately and continue until the position is filled.

 

Position Opening: Postdoctoral Scholar

 

Overview/Summary

 

We are seeking a Postdoctoral Scholar to conduct research at the intersection of engineering sciences and artificial intelligence (AI), in the field of energy production and distribution. The ideal candidate will have a strong foundation in engineering first principles and demonstrated expertise in the development and application of AI/ML methods to real engineering problems. We are particularly interested in candidates whose work goes beyond generic machine learning and shows deep engagement with the underlying engineering physics, constraints, and governing mechanisms of the application domain.

 

Skills/Knowledge/Abilities

 

  • Candidates should be able to bridge physical insight and data-driven methods, and should be comfortable working on research problems where mechanistic understanding, modeling, simulation, and AI techniques are all important.

  • Demonstrated research experience at the intersection of AI/ML and engineering

  • A solid understanding of engineering fundamentals / first principles, such as thermodynamics, transport phenomena (heat/mass transfer & fluid dynamics), reaction engineering

  • Strong knowledge of modern AI / machine learning methods, such as deep reinforcement learning, scientific machine learning, surrogate modeling, optimization, uncertainty quantification, reinforcement learning or control-oriented AI

  • Prefer some form of academic background in Chemical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or Thermal Engineering

  • Experience with physics-informed machine learning, hybrid modeling, or scientific AI

  • Experience working with engineering simulation tools, digital twins, or multiphysics models

  • Familiarity with one or more of the following: CFD / FEA / process simulation tools, optimization and control systems, experimental data analysis, high-performance / cloud computing, sensor data, time-series modeling

  • Ability to work effectively, both independently and as a member of an interdisciplinary research team

Qualifications

 

Applicants must have a PhD in a relevant field, such as Chemical Engineering, Thermal Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science (Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning), Applied Mathematics, or a closely related discipline.

We welcome candidates from multiple academic pathways, examples of suitable candidate profiles include:

  • an undergraduate degree in thermal/chemical/mechanical/process engineering with a PhD focused on AI/ML applied to engineering systems

  • an undergraduate degree in AI/data science/computer science with a PhD involving practical AI applications in thermal, chemical, mechanical, or process engineering domains.

Key Responsibilities

 

The successful candidate will be expected to:

  • Conduct research in AI-enabled engineering analysis, modeling, optimization, and control

  • Develop and apply machine learning / AI methods to solve practical engineering problems

  • Integrate engineering first-principles models with data-driven approaches, including hybrid or physics-informed methods where appropriate

  • Build predictive, diagnostic, or decision-support models for engineering systems and processes

 

If interested, please send CV and cover letter to: idea.info@uky.edu

Review of pre-applications will continue until the position is filled.

Position Opening: Postdoctoral Scholar

Overview/Summary

The Institute for Decarbonization and Energy Advancement (IDEA) at the University of Kentucky invites applications for a Postdoctoral Scholar to support energy research using analytical tools. We are seeking a motivated and detail-oriented researcher to join our analytical team. The successful candidate will contribute to cutting-edge research projects on solvent degradation, contaminated water and trace-amount chemical identification involving advanced analytical methodologies, data interpretation, and experimental design. This role offers and opportunity to work in a collaborative, interdisciplinary environment and publish in high-impact journals.

Responsibilities

  • Design and conduct analytical experiments. Characterize complex feedstocks, intermediates, and recovered products using analytical tools
  • Develop and validate analytical methods. Develop and apply advanced analytical techniques such as chromatography mass spectrometry (LC-MS, GC-MS), to study chemical composition and transformations
  • Conduct data reduction for process performance, establish mass balances, and interpret data for optimization and scale-up
  • Ensure optimal performance of analytical instrumentation through QA/QC, including calibration, maintenance, troubleshooting, and more
  • Prepare technical reports, presentations, journal manuscripts, and proposal contributions
  • Mentor graduate and undergraduate students in the laboratory and foster a collaborative laboratory environment

Required or Strongly Preferred Technical Experience Applicants should have experience in some combination of the following:

  • Experience with analytical techniques, including HPLC, LC-MS, IC, GC-MS, and ICP-MS, and with material characterization techniques, including XRD, TGA, and SEM
  • Experimental design, data analysis, and interpretation of multiphase systems
  • Laboratory operation, method development, and troubleshooting of research and analytical instruments
  • Minimum Qualifications
  • Ph.D. in Chemistry, Materials Science, or a closely related field
  • Strong background in analytical techniques (e.g., chromatography, spectroscopy, mass spectrometry, or similar)
  • Demonstrated record of experimental research and scholarly writing
  • Communication skills and the ability to work effectively in a multidisciplinary team
  • Ability to work independently while contributing to collaborative research programs

Preferred Qualifications

  • Experience operating and interpreting data from analytical instruments, including HPLC, LC-MS, IC, GC-MS, and ICP-MS, XRD, TGA, etc.

Application Materials Applicants should submit:

  • Cover letter describing research interests and fit for the position
  • Curriculum vitae
  • Brief summary of prior research experience
  • Contact information for three references

If interested, please send application materials to: idea.info@uky.edu

Review of pre-applications will continue until the position is filled.