Assistant Professor

Working at Durham University  

A globally outstanding centre of teaching and research excellence, a warm and friendly place to work, a unique and historic setting – Durham is a university like no other.

As one of the UK's leading universities, Durham is an incredible place to define your career. The University is located within a beautiful historic city, home to a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and surrounded by stunning countryside. Our talented scholars and researchers from around the world are tackling global issues and making a difference to people's lives.  

We believe that inspiring our people to do outstanding things at Durham enables Durham people to do outstanding things in the world. Being a part of Durham is about more than just the success of the University, it's also about contributing to the success of the city, county and community.

Our University Strategy is built on three pillars of research, education and wider student experience, but also on our keen sense of community and of inspiring others to achieve their potential. 

Our Purpose and Values

We want our University to be a place where people can be free to be themselves, no matter what their identity or background. Together, we celebrate difference, value one another and are each responsible for creating an inclusive community that is respectful and fair for all.

Find out more about the benefits of working at the University and what it is like to live and work in the Durham area on our Why Join Us? - Information Page

Discover more about our total rewards and benefits package here.

The Department 

The Department of Chemistry at Durham is one of the very best in the UK, with an outstanding reputation for excellence in research, teaching and employability of our students. We are an active and vibrant department, with a strong cohort of early career academics and future leaders. We hold an Athena Swan Silver Award, recognising our commitment to gender equality. Our undergraduate programmes are ranked fifth in the Complete University Guide 2026. At postgraduate level, our students come from all over the world to carry out research.

Our research strategy is focussed around three interdisciplinary grand challenge themes: Chemistry for Health; Chemistry
for Sustainability; and Chemistry for Change and there is a strong culture of collaboration within the Department and with other Departments and Institutes within the University, including the Biophysical Sciences Institute, the Durham Energy Institute, Institute of Advanced Study and the Institute for Data Science. We have strong links with many national and international universities, research centres, and a long tradition of working closely with industry both in the North East region, across the UK and overseas.

The Department of Chemistry at Durham University seeks to appoint a talented and motivated individual to the role of Assistant Professor. We are particularly keen to hear from applicants with interests in the broad field of experimental spectroscopy. This can include, but is not limited to, spectroscopic method development and/or applications in inorganic, organic, or biological chemistry. The successful candidate will be required to teach aspects of core chemistry through lectures, tutorials, workshops and laboratory classes.

This post offers an exciting opportunity to make a major contribution to the development of internationally excellent research and teaching. The successful candidate will join a department with excellent research infrastructure, including mechanical, electrical and glass-blowing workshops, as well as state-of-the-art in-house analytical facilities. The appointee will be expected to establish and maintain an internationally leading research group and to engage in the full departmental range of teaching activities at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. This includes the development of new postgraduate courses (taught and research) in chemical sciences.

For more information, please visit our Department pages at 

Assistant Professors at Durham 

Assistant Professors on the Education and Research track are encouraged to focus on research and teaching, but are also expected to engage in wider citizenship to enhance their own development, support their department and discipline, and contribute to the wider student experience. 

Academic colleagues are supported to publish excellent research in their area of interest with a focus on high quality outputs (including monographs and journal articles), rather than quantity. We aim to support your research needs, including practical help such as resources to attend conferences and to fund research activities, as well as a generous research leave policy and a designated mentor.  

Durham University is also committed to ensuring outstanding teaching quality, stimulating learning environments, and innovative curricula for all our students. You will be supported to develop your teaching expertise and skills. 

We are confident that our recruitment process allows us to attract and select the best talent to Durham. We, therefore, offer a reduced probation period of 1 year for our Assistant Professors and thereafter, subject to satisfactory performance, your position will be confirmed as permanent. 

Applicants must demonstrate high quality research in the field of experimental spectroscopy, with the ability to teach our students to an exceptional standard and to fully engage in the services, citizenship and values of the University. 

We strive to provide a working and teaching environment that is inclusive and welcoming and where everyone is treated fairly with dignity and respect. Candidates will be expected to demonstrate these key principles as part of the assessment process. 

Key responsibilities: 

• To pursue research that is high quality in terms of originality, significance and rigour.  
• To develop clear plans for the pursuit of national and international funding opportunities to support research and end-user engagement. 
• To play a role in relevant teaching and research supervision, and contribute to ongoing curriculum development. 
• Contribute to enhancing the quality of the research environment in the Department, the wider University and beyond through collaborative research activity. 
• Demonstrate a willingness to contribute to the administrative work, citizenship and values of the Department.  
• To deliver lectures, seminars, laboratory demonstrating and tutorials at undergraduate and taught postgraduate levels, as well as engaging in related activity such as assessment.
• To fully engage in and enhance the values of the Department.
• To contribute to attracting and supervising research students, and to enhance the Department's commitment to its vibrant and inclusive postgraduate culture.  
• Carry out other duties as specified by the Head of Department. 

Durham University is committed to equality, diversity and inclusion 

Equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) are a key component of the University's Strategy and a central part of everything we do.  We also live by our Purpose and Values and our Staff Code of Conduct.  At Durham we actively work towards providing an environment where our staff and students can study, work and live in a community which is supportive and inclusive.

We welcome and encourage applications from those who are currently under-represented in our work force, including people with disabilities and from racially minoritised ethnic groups.

If you have taken a career break or periods of leave that may have impacted on the volume and recency of your research outputs and other activities, such as maternity, adoption or parental leave, you may wish to disclose this in your application. The selection committee will take this into account when evaluating your application.

The University has been awarded the Disability Confident Leader status. If you are a candidate with a disability, we are committed to ensuring fair treatment throughout the recruitment process. We will make adjustments to support the interview process wherever it is reasonable to do so and, where successful, reasonable adjustments will be made to support people within their role. 

Person Specification

Candidates will have completed their PhD in experimental chemistry (or a closely related subject) and undertaken postdoctoral research and should outline their employment history, experience, skills and achievements to date which demonstrate that they meet the essential criteria.

Research  

Candidates must have the capacity for and be progressing towards the independent development of internationally excellent research that produces high-quality outcomes, including some work that is recognised as world-class or that has world-class potential.   

Essential Research Criteria

1. Qualifications – a PhD and postdoctoral experience in experimental spectroscopy or a very closely related subject.
2. Outputs – evidence of high-quality outputs, some of which are recognised as internationally excellent or world-class. Candidates are asked to submit two exemplar outputs or research papers with their application (as outlined in the How to Apply section below). Candidates may additionally choose to submit evidence such as external peer review of their outputs.  
3. Personal Research Plan – an internationally competitive personal research plan in the broad area of experimental spectroscopy. The plan should demonstrate how you will support and enhance the Chemistry Department's research and/or impact, and demonstrate how you will reinforce and/or complement our existing strengths in the areas of chemical dynamics, chemical catalysis, applied spectroscopy, materials, sustainable chemistries, and biochemistry. The personal research plan should be no longer than 2 pages and will be assessed based on the criteria of excellence and alignment to research areas and department.

Education 

Candidates must demonstrate the development and delivery of high-quality teaching that contributes to providing a supportive and enabling learning environment and curricula which encourage students to achieve their potential.

Essential Education Criteria 

1. Quality – evidence of the development and delivery of effective and engaging teaching/training in the field of Chemistry. (Candidates may choose to provide student evaluation scores and/or peer reviews of teaching or equivalent evidence). 
2. Innovation – experience, skills and/or achievements that demonstrate your contribution to new programme development and innovation in the design and delivery of high-quality teaching and assessment of learning. This can include lectures, small group learning and/or using technology or other techniques to enhance learning and/or assessment.
3. Strategic – evidence of strategic teaching development, or achievements that demonstrate the potential to engage in the design of excellent teaching programmes which are research informed and led. 

Services, Citizenship and Values

Active engagement in administrative and citizenship requirements and to fostering a respectful environment, including a demonstrable commitment to equality, diversity, and inclusion.

Essential Services, Citizenship and Values Criteria

1. Citizenship contribution – evidence of participation in the citizenship/administrative activities of an academic Department, Faculty or University. (Candidates may choose to evidence departmental or University roles, mentoring activity, pastoral and academic support of students, engagement with widening participation, carrying out departmental and interdepartmental activities effectively. Being involved in departmental activities such as open days, employability events, departmental meetings and committees. Involvement in equality and diversity initiatives and membership or engagement with external bodies).  
2. Leadership – experience, skills and/or achievements that demonstrate engagement in activities that contribute to the administrative functioning of an academic Department, Faculty, University and/or discipline, including leadership or responsibilities in an academic context. (Candidates may choose to detail any leadership roles which they have undertaken, preferably in, but not limited to, an academic context). 
3. Communication – candidates must have excellent oral and written communication skills with the ability to engage with a range of students and colleagues across a variety of forums.  

Desirable Criteria – 

The desirable criteria for this post (for which candidates should provide evidence of some if not all criteria) are: 

1. Qualification – candidates to hold or have the ability to attain the rank of Fellow of the Higher Education Academy ), which is the national body that champions teaching excellence (or Equivalent).   

1. Research Leadership – experience, skills and/or achievements that demonstrate experience of, or the potential to, contribute to the leadership of research groups and mentoring of early career researchers. (Candidates may choose to include information about research group leadership, mentoring of research colleagues, invitations to external events, engagement with international networks or projects).  

1. PhD Supervision – involvement in the provision of excellent supervision for PhD students.    

1. Research Impact – evidence of or the potential to demonstrate the impact of the Candidate's research beyond their institution.     

1. Income Generation – evidence of engagement in the development of successful research projects and quality research grant proposals.

Contact Information 

Department contact for academic-related enquiries 

Candidates who require more information or wish to discuss the role informally should contact Professor Robert Pal

Contact information for technical difficulties when submitting your application 

If you encounter technical difficulties when using the online application form, we prefer you send enquiries by email.  Please send your name along with a brief description of the problem you're experiencing to  

Alternatively, you may call from the UK, or from outside the UK. This number operates during the hours of 09.00 and 17.00 Monday to Friday, UK time.  We will normally respond within one working day (Monday to Friday, excluding UK public holidays).  

University contact for general queries about the recruitment process

How to Apply  

We prefer to receive applications online.    

Please note that in submitting your application Durham University will be processing your data. We would ask you to consider the relevant University Privacy Statement Job Applicants/Potential Job Applicants - Durham University which provides information on the collation, storing and use of data.

  What to Submit  

All applicants are asked to submit: 

• A CV (maximum 2 pages)
• A covering letter which details your experience, strengths and potential in the requirements set out above. (maximum 2 pages)
• Personal research plan. (maximum 2 pages)
• Two of your most significant research outputs. Where possible your outputs should have been published or submitted since 2019, however work prior to 2019 may be submitted where candidates have had career breaks.
• An optional summary table (e.g. prepared as a Word document) providing key factual evidence in a concise format of how you meet each of the essential requirements and any of the desirable requirements for the role.

Where possible we request that you provide accessible web links to your publications, which the hiring Department will use to access your work. The application form contains fields in which to enter each of the web links.

Please note we are unable to access publications behind a paywall.  

In the event you are unable to provide accessible links to online hosting of your work, publications should be uploaded as PDFs as part of your application in our recruitment system.

Please ensure that your PDFs are not larger than 5mb. Your work may be read by colleagues from across the Department and evaluated against the current REF criteria. 

All application documents should be uploaded with your name and document type as PDF files. 

We will notify you on the status of your application at various points throughout the selection process, via automated emails from our e-recruitment system.  Please check your spam/junk folder periodically to ensure you receive all emails. 

Referees 

You should provide 3 academic referees they should not (if possible) include your PhD supervisor(s).  The majority should be from a university other than your own.

References will be requested for candidates who have been shortlisted and will be made available to the panel during the interview process. 

As part of your application, you will be asked whether you give your consent to your academic references being sought should you be invited to attend an interview. We will only request references where permission has been granted.  

Next Steps 

All applications will be considered; our usual practice is for colleagues across the Department to read the submitted work of long-listed candidates.   

Short-listed candidates will be invited to the University, either virtually or in-person and will have the opportunity to meet key members of the Department. The assessment for the post will include presentations to staff and students (research- and teaching-orientated) in the Department followed by interviews. We anticipate that the assessments and interviews will take place over two days in the week commencing 2 March 2026. 

If you are unable to attend on the date offered, it may not be possible to offer you an interview on an alternative date. 

Applicant Guidance  

For further guidance on your application please see HERE