Postdoctoral Fellow in Thermodynamic Modelling and Equations of State

About the role

The Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), the largest Swiss research institute for natural and engineering sciences, is recruiting a Postdoctoral Fellow in Thermodynamic Modelling and Equations of State for its Laboratory for Waste Management (LES) in Villigen. The contract is limited to 2 years and is fully academic.

Key responsibilities

• Develop and apply equations of state and activity models for fluid-rock interaction in hydrothermal systems and the mobility of critical elements.
• Compile, evaluate and interpret experimental thermodynamic data and use physical, statistical and/or machine learning methods to estimate missing model parameters.
• Contribute to internally consistent thermodynamic databases such as the Mines thermodynamic database.
• Contribute to the GEMS / ThermoEcos open-source ecosystem (ThermoFun, ThermoExp, GEMS, GEMSFITS).
• Collaborate with researchers at PSI and New Mexico Tech (USA), contribute to publications and present results at international conferences.

Required profile

• PhD in geochemistry, physical chemistry, chemical engineering, computational science or a related field, with a background in chemical thermodynamics.
• Experience with scientific programming in Python and/or C++, or demonstrated ability to develop scientific software including AI programming support.
• Experience with non-linear least-squares fitting, parameter optimisation and uncertainty estimation.

Required skills

• Advantageous: experience with geochemical modelling codes (GEMS, PHREEQC, SUPCRT / SUPCRTBL, Reaktoro), the HKF model or density-based equations of state, and thermodynamic database development.

Applications must include a list of publications, code and model development, and referee addresses, and are submitted online by 1 December 2026.