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The Faculty of Engineering of the University of Southern Denmark (SDU) invites applications for a 1+1 year postdoc position within sustainable cooling and heating technologies. The candidate will be offered the exciting opportunity to cost-effectively optimize the operations of combined refrigeration systems, heat recovery units, energy storages and renewable energy technologies in interaction with district heating networks. All the activities will be carried out within the DH4FREE project in close collaboration with relevant Danish industrial partners.

The application deadline is 15 June 2024 at 11.59 PM/23.59 (CET/CEST)

Unique opportunity

The SDU Cooling and Heating Research Group is a recently established investigation unit at the Institute of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering (IME). IME is continuously building up a mechanical engineering degree and laboratories to support the educational activities as well as its research and commercial activities. Therefore, the candidate will have the unique opportunity to influence the further development of both the research group and institute.

Workplace description

IME covers innovation, research, and education spanning from fundamentals to applications of engineering science. All our courses are taught in English reflecting the fact that more than half our students and staff are international. The Cooling and Heating Research Group is located at SDU's beautiful campus in Sønderborg, in the inspiring building of Alsion, which is a centre for science, culture and learning in the heart of Sønderborg and perched on the strait of water separating the island of Als from the mainland. The university has very close relations to the industry in Sønderborg, Southern Denmark and Northern Germany, among others. A significant fraction of the projects in the centre are conducted in close cooperation with the industry, which count world leading companies in crucial fields, such as e-mobility and energy efficiency.

Research project

The successful candidate will be involved in an exiting research project. In 2022, Denmark decided to convert 50% of the households using natural gas for heating purposes to district heating (DH). On the one hand, currently about 33% of the consumers in rural and urban areas in Southern Jutland lacks access to DH networks. On the other hand, a local supermarket is typically situated in the vicinity of these end-users. Thus, the targets of the projects are:

  • selection of the most suitable strategy for waste heat recovery from refrigeration systems of the local supermarkets in favour of district heating purposes.
  • development and demonstration of a cost-effective optimization strategy for the selected waste heat recovery strategy.
  • coupling of the aforementioned strategy with an overall cost-effective optimization algorithm to maximize the use of photovoltaic/thermal (PV/T) solar panels with and without the simultaneous integration with cold thermal energy storages and/or novel electricity batteries.

All the tasks involved in the DH4FREE project will be conducted in close collaboration with Danfoss A/S, DanSolar and SONFOR. The DH4FREE project has received funding from Fonden for Retfærdig Omstilling.

Job description

The successful candidate will:

  • carry out the technical, dissemination and management activities related to the DH4FREE project.
  • be involved in the daily supervision of PhD, master and bachelor students working on similar scientific topics.
  • publish her/his work in scientific journals with high impact.
  • assist in teaching activities.
  • engage in funding applications.

Profile and requirements

The ideal candidate has:

  • a PhD degree within mechanical engineering (or energy or similar).
  • a strong background in thermodynamics, heat transfer, control engineering and energy conversion systems.
  • experience in implementing advanced simulation models of energy systems (preferably of vapour-compression cooling and/or heating systems) by using Simscape and/or Simulink and/or OpenModelica and/or Dymola.
  • experience in experimental activities.
  • great capacities to work both in team and independently.
  • strong communication skills in English, both spoken and written.

Contact

For further information, please visit www.sdu.dk/ime and contact Associate Professor Lars Duggen, (Head of Centre for Industrial Mechanics, tel. +45 65501640, e-mail: duggen@sdu.dk) or Associate Professor Paride Gullo (tel. +45 65507314, email: parigul@sdu.dk) or Associate Professor Hossein Ramezani (tel. +45 65509217, email: ramezani@sdu.dk).

If you experience technical problems, you must contact hcm-support@sdu.dk.

Application procedure

Before applying the candidates are expected to read the SDU information on how to apply and specific faculty information for application at the Faculty of Engineering.

The application shall include the following documents in English:

  • Letter stating the interest, motivation, and qualifications for the DH4FREE project (max. 2 pages).
  • Detailed Curriculum Vitae, including personal contact information and a description of your research as well as any other relevant qualifications, e.g. teaching experience, computational skills, experimental experience, etc.
  • Verified copies of Certificates/Diplomas (Bachelor, Master, and PhD degree) – Danish and/or English transcripts with full list of exams graduated during both BSc and MSc programme.
  • Complete list of publications.
  • 3 publications most relevant to the position. Please attach as one PDF-file for each publication (only full text publications (i.e. no links) can form the basis for assessment of the application).
  • References (names and emails) and/or reference letters may also be included.

UPLOAD GUIDE: CV shall be uploaded as ‘Resume’, Letter stating the interest etc. shall be uolpaded as ‘Cover letter’. All additional documents shall be uploaded as ‘Micsellaneous documents’ when applying.

Assessment and selection process

Read about the Assessment and selection process.

Applications will be assessed by an assessment committee. Shortlisting may be applied. Only shortlisted candidates will receive a written assessment. Read about shortlisting at SDU.

Interviews and tests may be part of the process.

Conditions of employment

The appointment as postdoctoral researcher is temporary and for an initial 1-year period, with the opportunity for an additional 1-year extension depending on the candidate’s performance during the first year of employment. Extension beyond 2 years may be possible contingent upon the candidate’s performance and available funding.

The preferred starting date is 2 September 2024.

Employment as a postdoc requires scientific qualifications at PhD level at the time of employment.

The successful applicant will be employed in accordance with the agreement between the Ministry of Finance and the Danish Confederation of Professional Associations. Further information on salary and taxation.

The application deadline is 15 June 2024 at 11.59 PM/23.59 (CET/CEST)

Formalities

  • According to the University of Southern Denmark’s internal guidelines, there must be at least three qualified applicants to a position before it can be filled.
  • Documents should not contain a CPR number (civil registration number) – in this case, the CPR number must be crossed out.
  • The application and CV must not exceed 10 MB.

The University of Southern Denmark wishes to reflect the surrounding community and therefore encourages everyone, regardless of personal background, to apply for the position.

Further information for international applicants about entering and working in Denmark. You may also visit WorkinDenmark for additional information.

Further information about The Faculty of Engineering.

Please note in your application that you found the job at Jobindex

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