SCHOOL OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING AND ADVANCED MATERIALS

Postdoctoral Researchers 
£25,134 - £28,289

Process 2020 Innovation SatNav

A Postdoctoral Research Associate (PDRA) position is available in the School of Chemical Engineering and Advanced Materials in the area of knowledge management. The project seeks to develop a framework that is applicable within the process industries that will allow the more rapid and efficient realisation of product opportunities in a multilevel organizational business structure. One of the most common representations for such an approach is a sequential series of activities including: screening ideas, market assessment, business/financial analysis, product design, chemical route selection, process development and manufacture. However this generic and simplifed linear representation of a fairly complex chain has materialised in an 'over-the-wall' mode of operation. This is clearly inefficient as it results in locally convenient solutions that can fail to satisfy the overall design problem in an optimal manner. An alternative and more logical approach to improving the situation is through the sharing of the data-to-decision inputs across all activities. Such an approach encourages interaction between the business drivers, the chemist, the process engineers and production personnel, by providing a sytstematic approach to the integrated, concurrrent, design of products and their related processes, including manufacture and support.  

A two year position is available on an EPSRC supported project. The project is in conjunction with Robinson Brothers Ltd, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson Mathey and the Universities of Manchester, Oxford and York. The Newcastle University component will focus on managing and modelling the extreme complexity in a data lean, information poor environment and in steering data and information management to ehnance innovation 

The research project requires expertise in knowledge management with a specific focus on mechanistic and empirical modelling of dynamic, multi-component processes, data mining and feature extraction in a data lean environment. Critical to the success of the project is the need to be able to handle qualitative and quantitative data and incorporate human understanding into the analysis.

The successful candidates will join an RAE Grade 5 research School which is recognised for its world class research and training and it also has an outstanding reputation for research and collaboration with industry. 

Candidates interested in either of these positions should have a PhD or equivalent experience in any of the following disciplines: Chemical Engineering, Physics, Operational Research, Applied Mathematics or Statistics. They should be able to demonstrate good communication skills and be willing to work for periods at company sites in the UK.  The salary will be at an appropriate point of F (£25,134 - £28,289) per annum depending on qualifications and experience.  

To apply for the positions, please send a CV and a covering letter, together with a completed Employment Record Form, to Elaine Martin, Professor of Industrial Statistics, School of Chemical Engineering and Advanced Materials, Merz Court, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, UK. 

Further details can be obtained from Professor Elaine Martin. Contact details as follows  - Tel: +44 191 222 6231; Fax: +44 191 222 5292; e-mail: [log in to unmask]

Closing date for applications is 16th September 2007.