Research Assistant - salary grade E13 TV-L Berliner Hochschulen

Over 4 million hospital patients acquire a healthcare-associated infection (HAI) in the EU each year. Moreover, the global crisis of antimicrobial resistance means that HAI is posing an increasing cost and risk of mortality. There is clear evidence that airflow controls the dispersion and exposure to airborne pathogens and determines the contamination of critical surfaces in the human-centric climate (HCC), which is defined as the microenvironment which surrounds and is close to a human body. This points to a significant need for innovation in healthcare indoor environments to tackle the challenge of infection control, while improving thermal comfort and energy efficiency in hospitals.

Bringing together 8 leading academic teams, 4 healthcare facilities and 8 HVAC industry partners, the HumaniC network aims to build a new approach to hospital environmental design through the concept of HCC and the training of 15 Early Career Stage Researchers to address these needs.
HumanIC will create and disseminate fundamental and applied science to improve the knowledge base and innovate new technologies for designing and operating hospital ventilation and thermal systems and for reducing infection risk by at least 30%, meanwhile satisfying requirements of thermal comfort, safety and energy.

We are looking for a person who is interested in developing experiments and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations, enjoys dealing with scientific issues and would like to actively participate in the above-described research project. If you would like to contribute your skills and conduct research for a better healthcare environment, then apply.

Tasks:
Investigation specifically aims to characterize the transient motion effects, transport medium and deposition of pathogens. The behaviour (trajectories and deposition effects) of particles of different sizes will be characterized under different indoor airflow patterns. The influence of moving doors and persons on pathogens emission and transport will be investigated both through experimental measurements and simulations. Investigation on electrophoresis-induced resuspension and its significance for the concentration of airborne contamination will be conducted to provide validated models.

• Successfully completed university studies (diploma, master or equivalent)
• Be team-oriented and have good interpersonal skills
• Good knowledge of German and/or English required; willingness to acquire the respective missing language skills

We are looking for a person with in-depth knowledge at a scientific level in the fields below:

• Be interested in topics related to indoor ventilation and indoor air quality (aerosol dynamics, indoor particulate matter, human exposure, etc)
• Have strong interest and aptitude in experiments and measurement of indoor air distribution and contaminant dispersion
• Previous experience with CFD (pref. Star CCM+)
• Programming and data handling skills (MATLAB, R, Python, or similar) are desirable
• Previous publications and scientific communications

In your application, state which required qualifications you have acquired so far.

Eligibility criteria:
Specific Eligibility Criteria of the Horizon Europe Marie Sklodowska-Curie programme apply, including the mobility rule and the PhD rule:

• Mobility rule: Researchers must not have resided or carried out their main activity (e.g., work, study) in the country of the host organisation for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately before the recruitment date (i.e., start of employment)
• PhD rule: Applicants must be doctoral candidates, i.e., must not already be in possession of a doctoral degree at the date of recruitment.

Applicants of all nationalities are welcome to apply.

Please send your application with the reference number and the usual documents (combined in a single pdf file, max. 5 MB) by email to Prof. Dr. Martin Kriegel (kontakt@hri.tu-berlin.de) or in writing to Technische Universität Berlin - Die Präsidentin - Fakultät III, Institut für Energietechnik, FG Energie, Komfort und Gesundheit in Gebäuden, Prof. Dr.-Ing. M. Kriegel, Sekr. HL 45, Marchstr. 4, 10587 Berlin.

For cost reasons, the application documents will not be returned. Please submit copies only.

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To ensure equal opportunities between women and men, applications by women with the required qualifications are explicitly desired. Qualified individuals with disabilities will be favored. The TU Berlin values the diversity of its members and is committed to the goals of equal opportunities.