Job description

NMR spectroscopy has been standardized as a single sample – single coil – single measurement methodology. Through hardware miniaturization, there is the opportunity to extend far beyond this current standard towards parallelized measurement, both by increasing the number of coils, by increasing the number of experiments per coil, and by increasing the information content of each experiment. There is, however, a gap at the interface between software and experiment which prevents taking full advantage of these hardware advances.

The research task of this position is to directly address this interface. Specifically, you will discover the most efficient experiment protocols within, and compatible with, commercial NMR software (TopSpin, ParaVision) capable of i) RF and gradient signal delivery and reception from multiple NMR sample sites, ii) raw data handling, sorting, and processing accounting for sample meta-data, and iii) integration of external control signals for experiment manipulation during run-time. To accomplish these tasks, significant NMR pulse sequence and method programming will be necessary, as well as interaction with the hardware development team. Once the basic system is up-and-running, the project holds the potential to expand into one or more directions based on opportunity and interest.

You will be joining the Institute of Microstructure Technology (IMT), who is well equipped with state-of-the-art electronics and software running an 11.7 T (500 MHz) wide-bore NMR system with an 8-channel NEO spectrometer and a recently installed (07.2021) 8-channel 15.2 T (650 MHz) BioSpec MRI system. You will join a research team experienced in NMR hardware development, with active research projects in parallel NMR spectroscopy for drug screening (ERC Synergy Grant HiSCORE) and parallel NMR spectroscopy for accelerated materials discovery (HiT-NMR).

Starting date

01.03.2022

Personal qualification

Applications of excellent candidates with a M.Sc. degree in Chemistry, Mechanical Engineering or Physics are welcome. General programming experience (Python, C/C++, Matlab, or similar), with specific experience in NMR spectroscopy and magnetic resonance imaging pulse sequence programming seen as highly advantageous. Experience with NMR hardware is also viewed positively.