Research Fellow

**Location***

University of Warwick Campus, Coventry

**Department***

Chemistry

**Position Type***

Fixed Term, Full Time

**Duration***

Ending 30 September 2026

**Salary***

£33,966 to £44,263 per annum

**About the Role***

Applications are invited for a Research Fellow to work on a Royal Society funded Project under the supervision of Dr. Sebastian Pike at the University of Warwick. The Research will involve the synthesis and characterisation of nanoscale, photoactive, molecularly defined metal-oxo clusters built from earth-abundant metals.

Metal oxides, such as TiO2 and CeO2, are important earth-abundant photoactive materials used widely as photocatalysts and self-cleaning surfaces. Utilising abundant elements and the energy from sunlight to drive useful chemical processes or to produce fuels is a crucial challenge for a sustainable society. This project will study metal-oxo clusters, which are molecular analogues of oxide materials, occurring at the 1-2 nm size scale. These clusters have similar photoactivity to bulk metal oxides, but, crucially, are atomically precise and highly tuneable. This allows for detailed study of photoreaction mechanism and modification of properties. Photoactivation of a metal-oxo cluster leads to a redox-active state containing (reducing) metal-based electrons and (oxidising) oxygen-based holes and, usefully, a cluster is able to store multiple electrons in a small, defined space, allowing onward multielectron processes to occur. This project will explore new cluster designs, including developing new structures that can sequentially absorb two visible photons. The researcher will establish the energy positions of photoexcited (proton-coupled) charge carriers and explore the precise mechanism of photoexcitation and charge transfer required for small molecule activation and catalysis.

The researcher will work within the Pike group in the Chemistry Department of the University of Warwick based in the interdisciplinary Materials and Analytical Science building. The research group have dedicated lab space well-furnished with fume hoods, Schlenk line and glovebox equipment for synthesis. Alongside the excellent departmental facilities (including NMR spectroscopy and mass spectrometry) the group have regular access to state-of-the-art X-ray and electron diffraction, and (ultrafast) spectroscopy equipment through the X-ray diffraction and Spectroscopy Research Technology Platforms and the Warwick Centre for Ultrafast Spectroscopy. Furthermore, the Group have regular access to specialised diffraction and spectroscopy experiments at Diamond Light Source.

**About You***

The researcher should have expertise in a range of advanced characterisation techniques including ultrafast spectroscopies, UV/visible spectroscopy, electrochemistry, EPR and NMR spectroscopies, and X-ray crystallography.

The researcher will have leadership skills and scientific enthusiasm which will allow them to manage and motivate the surrounding research group and they will strive to aid the research group in delivering scientific outputs. The researcher will be an excellent communicator capable of working effectively, both independently and as part of a team. They will possess excellent planning and time management skills. They will assist in the supervision of research students, in addition to ensuring their own research objectives are achieved effectively. They will prepare regular presentations and written reports detailing research progress and will present research results at national and international conferences. They will have ambitions to publish results in high impact journals and will take a leading role in preparing manuscripts and associated supplementary information.

If the researcher has not yet been awarded a PhD but is near submission or has recently submitted a PhD, any offers of employment will be made as Research Assistant on level 5 of the University grade structure. Upon successful award of a PhD and evidence of this fact, they will be promoted to Research Fellow on the first point of the level 6 of the University grade structure.

**About the Department***

The Department of Chemistry at Warwick is a thriving community of students, academics, researchers, and support staff.

Our fundamental research pushes boundaries in all major fields of Chemistry. Through collaborations with the wider science community and industry, our applied work aims to tackle huge global issues from antimicrobial resistance, to solar energy harvesting, and sustainable materials.

The world-leading facilities at Warwick provide access to cutting edge equipment including a recently acquired electron diffractometer and a wide suite of spectroscopy, microscopy and diffraction equipment available to departmental researchers.

We provide an inclusive, vibrant and friendly environment where our students have dedicated support to explore their passion for chemistry.

**Athena SWAN** **Silver Award**

**About the