Application deadline 21 April 2018
3D printing has become a technology which has pervaded many application fields, having enabled the production of tiny structures with a hitherto unparalleled precision. One major drawback, however, seems to be left: mechanical integrity. Namely, the successively downlaid layers may entail inherent weaknesses. How to overcome this limitation?
The present project funded by the Austrian Academy of Sciences and jointly realized by the University of Vienna and Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien) wishes to venture into this unknown territory; by targeting the mechanical secrets of the highly mechanically competent 3D printing systems employed by the large animal class of polychaetaeor bristle worms. This class is still be discovered from a purely biological or genetical viewpoint, but in cooperation with world-class Vienna-based biologists, it is now the time for interdisciplinarily inclined engineering mechanicians with expertise in mechanical modeling of multiscale biological systems, to start, from a clear theoretical basis, a very first systematic experimental protocol which aims at understanding the chitin-made chaetae, or bristles, which are miracles in terms of geometrical and functional diversity.
In this context a postdoc position is made available for an excellent engineering mechanician (or closely related engineering scientists) who not only strives for new discoveries, but also shares the vision for combining and merging largely separated fields of research.
The post-doc position may start on June 1, 2018 for a duration of two years. The gross salary is € 3,711.10 per month.
Interested candidates should send a letter of application, curriculum vitae, and names and addresses of three references to Prof. Christian Hellmich, Christian.Hellmich@tuwien.ac.at.
Full information can be found here