Research professor in Hard Condensed Matter Theory (BOFZAP)

The appointed candidate will develop a successful research programme to pursue excellent scientific results at an international level and to support and promote national and international research partnerships. The candidate must have a strong research profile. In addition, the candidate is expected to have a multidisciplinary attitude and a willingness to cooperate intensively with other researchers and research units at KU Leuven.

The candidate:

• Is an excellent, internationally oriented researcher with a clear vision for developing a research programme at the forefront in the field of theoretical condensed matter physics.
• Is able to strengthens existing research lines and to bring complementary and/or additionally new expertise by working closely with the members of the Institute for Theoretical Physics and the Department of Physics and Astronomy.
• Is publishing at the highest scientific level in leading international research journals.
• Develops their own research group and explores links with experimental quantum physics programs.
• Will supervise master students, PhD students and postdocs at a high international level.
• Aims to acquire research funding from national and/or international agencies such as ERC and FWO and submits effective research project proposals for this purpose.
• Can establish national and international partnerships in the context of the research programme.
• Strives for excellence in research and provides a contribution to the international research reputation of the Institute for Theoretical Physics, the Department of Physics and Astronomy and KU Leuven.

Although the position will start as a research professorship, the candidate will be expected to gradually contribute to state-of-the-art teaching.

The candidate will also contribute to the pedagogic project of the faculty and the wider university. They will develop teaching in accordance with KU Leuven s vision for activating and research based education and will make full use of the opportunities for educational professionalisation offered by the faculty and the university.

The appointed candidate will also take on a teaching assignment at master level.

• You have a PhD in Physics.
• You have a strong research profile in theoretical condensed matter physics and an indisputable research integrity.
• International research experience is considered an important advantage.
• You are passionate about teaching and have relevant teaching experience.
• You possess organisational skills and have a cooperative attitude. You also have leadership skills within a university context.
• Your spoken and written English is excellent. The official administrative language used at KU Leuven is Dutch. If you do not speak Dutch (or do not speak it well) at the start of your employment, KU Leuven will provide language training to enable you to take part in administrative meetings. To teach in Dutch or English, you will be given the opportunity to learn the language to the required standard.

• We offer a full-time position in an intellectually stimulating environment. KU Leuven is a research-intensive, internationally oriented university that carries out both fundamental and applied scientific research. Our university is highly inter- and multidisciplinary focused and strives for international excellence. In this regard, we actively collaborate with research partners in Belgium and abroad. We provide our students with an academic education that is based on high-quality scientific research.
• Depending on your qualifications and academic experience, you will be appointed to or tenured in one of the grades of the senior academic staff: assistant professor, associate professor, professor or full professor. Normally, junior researchers are appointed as assistant professors on the tenure track for a period of 5 years; after this period and a positive evaluation, they are permanently appointed as an associate professor.
• You will work in Leuven, a historic, dynamic, and vibrant city located in the heart of Belgium, within twenty minutes from Brussels, the capital of the European Union, and less than two hours from Paris, London and Amsterdam.
• KU Leuven is well set to welcome foreign professors and their families and provides practical support regarding immigration and administration, housing, childcare, learning Dutch, partner career coaching, together with other support services.
• To facilitate the initial stages of the academic career of newly appointed professors without substantial external funding KU Leuven provides a starting grant of 110.000 euro.

More information on the content of the job can be obtained from the academic contact person Prof. Dr. Wojciech De Roeck (wojciech.deroeck@kuleuven.be , tel. +32 16 32 72 38).