AN Ambitious PHD Candidate

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Job offer

• JOB - Netherlands - University of Amsterdam (UvA) via AcademicTransfer - Posted on: 11 September 2026

11 Sep 2026

University of Amsterdam (UvA) Research Field

• Chemistry » Applied chemistry
• Chemistry » Physical chemistry
• Engineering » Materials engineering
• Physics » Applied physics
• Physics » Chemical physics

First Stage Researcher (R1)

Netherlands Type of Contract

Temporary Job Status

Not Applicable Hours Per Week

38.0 Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme?

Not funded by a EU programme Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure?

No

Offer Description

Are you fascinated by the intersection of Physics, Chemistry and materials science? Do you want to contribute to protecting monuments including World Heritage Sites from degradation caused by rising damp?

The Institute of Physics at the University is seeking an ambitious PhD candidate to investigate the effectiveness of damp-proofing products across multiple length scales.

Join Us!

Rising damp from groundwater represents a critical threat to buildings worldwide. Some building-preservation treatments (most of the times polymers) are used to reduce rising damp , that is the moisture uptake from the ground moving upward through porous brick, stone, or mortar by capillary action. These treatments are supposed to create a water-repellent zone in order to interrupt upward moisture transport.

However, the fundamental mechanisms governing the spreading and polycondensation at the microscale, and thus the effectiveness, of such treatments in porous building materials remain largely unexplored. Critical knowledge gaps exist regarding the multiscale behaviour of these treatments, from microscale pore interactions to macroscale building performance.

This project will advance beyond the state of the art by elucidating for the first time the dynamics of spreading and polycondensation o...