Research Fellow in Heat Transport & Advanced Thermal Management

About us

The photonic innovations lab (pi-lab) at UCL's Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering invites applications for one (1) postdoctoral research position in heat transport phenomena and advanced thermal management as part of a recently awarded European Research Council (ERC) Advanced grant in radiative cooling. ERC advanced grants, one of the most competitive and prestigious schemes in Europe, support frontier research with the potential to generate groundbreaking scientific discoveries.

The research project's main objective is to push radiative cooling systems to their thermodynamic limits, aiming to achieve fully passive refrigeration temperatures. This breakthrough could impact a broad range of applications, including building and vehicle cooling, data centres, biomedical material storage, and cold-chain logistics, offering a major step toward global energy reduction and carbon neutrality. Shielding radiative cooling systems from thermal losses, such as heat conduction and convection, is of paramount importance to achieve this aim and will be the core activity of the successful candidate.

About the role

We are seeking an exceptional postdoctoral researcher who can translate fundamental research into real‑world impact. You will design, model and fabricate advanced thermal management solutions that suppress conductive and convective losses in radiative cooling devices, then scale and deploy the most promising prototypes at multiple field sites around the world via our global collaborator network.

An important part of the work will be publishing high quality research papers in high-profile journals and conferences and pursuing intellectual property (IP) protection. Working alongside our established team of researchers in pi-lab with complementary expertise in materials science, photonics, energy modelling and fabrication, you will accelerate the project toward its ambitious goal of electricity free, deep‑freeze radiative cooling.

The post is available for 24 months in the first instance. Further funding to support the post may be available.

About you

Applicants must have a rigorous foundation in heat transport phenomena, proven proficiency in computational fluid dynamics (CFD) for laminar and turbulent flows, and hands‑on expertise with thermal conductivity characterisation techniques such as guarded hot‑plate, laser flash, time or frequency domain thermoreflectance (TDTR/FDTR) or similar. You should also excel at building and automating heat‑flux and temperature measurement set-ups using LabVIEW, MATLAB or equivalent software. Familiarity with ultra‑low‑conductivity materials (e.g. aerogels, nanofoams or vacuum panels) is highly desirable.

Application details:

• To apply for the role, click the 'Apply' button
• Applications close on 15th September at 23:59
• A job description and person specification can be accessed at the application link, as well as contact details for enquiries about the post

What we offer

As well as the exciting opportunities this role presents, we also offer some great benefits.

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Our commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

We particularly encourage applications from candidates who are likely to be underrepresented in UCL's workforce. These include people from Black, Asian and ethnic minority backgrounds; disabled people; LGBTQI+ people; and for our Grade 9 and 10 roles, women.

Our department holds an Athena SWAN Bronze award, in recognition of our commitment to advancing gender equality.

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