Tenure-track Professorship (W1) „Autonomous Particle Accelerators“

Area of research

Other

Starting date

Job description

We are looking for a personality (f/m/d) who will expand KIT's role in research, teaching, and innovation in establishing novel methods in the design, operation, and research of particle accelerators. This applies both to future accelerators, which can only be made possible through the development of new concepts, and to the efficient autonomous operation of existing accelerators.

The professorship works on topics such as innovative (including AI‑based) methods for operating accelerators in a nonequilibrium state, the development of accelerator designs with reduced size, improved stability, and higher cost and energy efficiency of existing and novel systems, such as compact storage rings. Challenges include the diagnosis and real‑time control of instabilities in accelerators across the entire scale, from heat to collective effects in electron bunches. The implementation and demonstration of research results at the test facilities of the Accelerator Technology Platform (ATP) at KIT and, if applicable, at cooperation partners is expected.

The successful candidate will establish and independently lead a working group on autonomous particle accelerators at the Institute for Beam Physics and Technology (IBPT). They will participate in the program‑oriented funding of the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centers, particularly in the “Matter and Technologies” program. Research topics and tasks in the program include new accelerator technologies, methods of electron beam control and diagnosis.

The successful candidate will work closely with colleagues of the ATP, particularly in the fields of physics, electrical engineering, and computer science. They will raise third‑party funding from national and international sources and actively Karlsruhe Institute of Technology Human Resources (PSE) Kaiserstraße Karlsruhe support the transfer of scientific/technological results into applications. In teaching, appropriate participation in courses, special lectures, and export lectures is expected.

The candidate has acquired a junior research group in a competitive funding program (e.g., DFG Emmy Noether Junior Research Group, Helmholtz Junior Research Group, ERC Starting Grant, junior research group from ministries) no later than three years prior to this call for applications.

You will execute large‑scale research tasks with a teaching obligation of 6 hours per week per semester, if you have been evaluated positively. In other cases, your teaching obligation will be 4 hours per week per semester.

This research center is part of the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centers. With more than 42,000 employees and an annual budget of over €5 billion, the Helmholtz Association is Germany's largest scientific organisation.