The LSRE – Laboratory of Separation and Reaction Engineering – in partnership with the LCM – Laboratory of Catalysis and Materials – holds the statute of “Laboratório Associado” since December 2004. Both the LSRE and the LCM are located in the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto.
The attribution of the statute of “Laboratório Associado” was based on the verification of the needs for developing certain areas of the national industrial tissue and the will of enlarging its influence area to the society in general, realizing missions of public interest which, beyond the R&D activities, can be classified as rendering services to the chemical and similar industries, with the objective of a sustained technological and industrial development.
Information about the past, recent and current research projects in which the LSRE and the LCM were involved, together with a short description of the achieved results, can be found in the Website of the Laboratório Associado (http://lsre.fe.up.pt/).
The R&D activities of LSRE comprise the execution of national and international projects, financed by FCT and other national institutions, by The European Union (JOULE, BRITE, ALFA programmes) and by other international agreements and programmes (CYTED, ERASMUS). The LSRE counts also projects in collaboration and financed by national end european companies and industries. The outcome of the work done in the LSRE is well expressed in terms of its scientific production, with more than 50 PhD theses and more than 250 scientific publications in international journals since 1996.
Innovation and technology transfer are key objectives of the LSRE, which counts currently with four pending international Patent requests. Several works developed in the LSRE were recently awarded, including a first prize and a honor mention in the CUF Prize for the best PhD thesis and the first prize in the Solvay Ideas Challenge. Two spin-off companies originated in the LSRE were recently launched, one in the Perfumes Engineering area – the I-Sensis – and another in the Fluid Engineering area – Fluidinova.
By this announcement, the LSRE intends to hire one post-Doc Researcher for a five years period. The selected candidate(s) will work on the prediction of thermodynamic properties by molecular simulation and/or based on macroscopic approaches.
In the scientific field of molecular simulation and prediction of properties, the LSRE was involved in the last few years in the (i) Prediction and validation of equilibrium and kinetic properties for the adsorption of compounds in zeolites; (ii) Application of the new technique of Monte Carlo method with configurational bias to the calculation of thermodynamic properties of flexible molecules; (iii) Development of hybrid methods for the prediction of the solubility of macromolecules, incorporating the hydrophobicity concept.
Taking advantage of the enormous amount of experimental data of equilibrium and mixture, adsorption and reaction kinetics accumulated along the years by the LSRE and of the ever increasing need of data corresponding to new systems with the aim of simulating their behavior in various situations, it looks natural to develop a more fundamental study that enables their prediction from first principles, i.e., involving molecular simulation; on the other hand, for immediate application in biological systems, of very complex nature, this prediction will not be possible in a medium run temporal horizon and that is why, based on macroscopic concepts of thermodynamic nature (such as hydrophobicity), other methods have to be developed. The LSRE intends to hire one researcher for this scientific area, who will be dedicated to the molecular simulation approach and/or to the macroscopic prediction of thermodynamic properties of fluids with application in biotechnology.
Besides the participation in ongoing projects, the activity of the successful candidate(s) will include the supervising of PhD students and other young researchers, the preparation of proposals to R&D projects both at national and international levels, the accompanying of master projects and the participation in the management of the LSRE - Laboratório Associado.
The selection will be based on the appreciation of the curriculum vitae of the candidates and of one three-year R&D research program (maximum of two A4 pages) written by the candidates. If necessary, the evaluation may be done in two phases, the second one reserved to candidates selected in the first phase; in the second phase one personal interview, the presentation of a seminar or the elaboration of a project can be required.
The applications, including a detailed curriculum vitae, graduation certificate, reference letters, one three-year R&D research program (maximum of two A4 pages), as well as an application letter directed to the Director of the LSRE - Laboratório Associado, should be personally delivered or sent by registered surface mail to the LSRE until August 30, 2007.
Application deadline: 30-08-2007