a Scientist or a PostDoc (Project ORDZeroPM)

Empa - the place where innovation starts
Empa is the research institute for materials science and technology of the ETH Domain and conducts cutting-edge research for the benefit of industry and the well-being of society.

In line with Empa’s mission, the Technology and Society Laboratory (TSL) creates and transfers knowledge to support the transition to a more sustainability society. In particular, TSL analyses novel materials and emerging technology applications with a focus on associated material and energy stocks and flows, and evaluates them with regard to both natural environment and societal constraints.

a Scientist or a PostDoc (Project ORDZeroPM)

responsible for developing and applying a toolbox for open data on the chemical and material uses in the frame of the ETH Domain project OpenChemUses and the Horizon 2020 project “Zero Pollution of Persistent, Mobile Substances (ZeroPM).”

OpenChemUses belongs to the Open Research Data initiative, with the aim to enable and engage the wide scientific and regulatory communities to work towards open FAIR data on the uses of chemicals and materials by developing and disseminating a “big-data” toolbox that address both existing and future use reporting. The ZeroPM project will establish an evidence-based multilevel framework to guide policy, technological innovation, and market incentives to minimize use, emissions and pollution of persistent and mobile substances to the environment. The overall goal of the work performed at Empa is to build databases of chemicals and materials on the global market towards better understanding of their uses and fate in the technosphere. The project implementation will be achieved in close collaboration with the project partners, including IBM Research Europe, the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute and the University of Luxembourg.

Your profile

• PhD in environmental/natural sciences, computer sciences, or engineering
• The field of expertise is ideally in big data analytics or cheminformatics, along with some experience/interest in environmental chemistry or pollution research.
• Skills in a relevant programming language (e.g., R, Python) are essential, ideally including machine/deep learning and natural language processing.
• Practical experience or good familiarity with textual nomenclature for diverse chemical structures and substructures (InChI, SMILES/SMART) and other identifiers (CAS numbers and names, IUPAC names, etc.) is desirable.
• Proficiency with working with large database and relational database structures (e.g., PostgreSQL) is desirable, and experience in cloud-based implementations of these databases is beneficial.
• Willingness to work closely and cooperate actively in a larger team
• Experience in scientific writing and publishing
• Excellent communication skills and fluency in English (both written and oral)

For further information about the position please contact Prof. Dr. Bernd Nowack, Head of the Environmental Risk Assessment and Management (ERAM) Group of TSL  bernd.nowack@empa.ch and Dr. Zhanyun Wang, Scientist at ERAM  zhanyun.wang@empa.ch and visit our websites www.empa.ch/tsl and Empa-Video
We look forward to receiving your online application including a letter of motivation, CV, diplomas with transcripts and contact details of two referees. Please upload the requested documents through our webpage. Applications via email will not be considered.
Empa, Esther Zürcher, Human Resources, Lerchenfeldstrasse 5, 9014 St. Gallen, Switzerland.