As one of the world’s leading analytical instrumentation companies, Bruker covers a broad spectrum of advanced solutions in all fields of research and development. All our systems and instruments are designed to improve safety of products, accelerate time-to-market and support industries in successfully enhancing quality of life. We’ve been driving innovation in analytical instrumentation for 60 years now. Today, worldwide more than 6,200 employees are working on this permanent challenge, at over 90 locations on all continents.

At Bruker R&D we are a team of leading physicists, chemists, and data scientists, who daily take on the challenge of developing mass spectrometry instrumentation that can unravel fundamental properties of molecular systems. We have a strong network of collaborators from industrial partners as well as academic institutions and are thus deeply involved in state-of-the-art academic research. We deeply value reproducible, transparent results and support open-source software developments.

MobiliTrAIN is a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Action Doctoral Network aiming to bring new fundamental understanding of ion mobility high resolution mass spectrometry (IM-HRMS), provide reference materials and guidelines for standardisation, develop state-of-the-art methods for the application of IM-HRMS in biopharmaceutical development, biological omics studies and non-target screening of contaminants, and lay the foundations for the adoption of IM-HRMS in industry by training 13 doctoral candidates.

The MobiliTraIN network brings together some of the most innovative minds in the ion mobility and mass spectrometry communities, thereby covering a large range of applications from biomedicine to environmental science. The network is formed by different academic and industrial partners from all around Europe and foresees a close interaction between all partners in the form of joint symposia and training workshops. This strong international scientific background, combined with the direct interaction between academia and industry and the possibility of performing research stages at different institutions, represent an ideal framework for the personal and scientific development of a young researcher. Visit the website for additional job details: https://www.mobilitrain.eu

More specifically, this position offers:

• A thorough scientific education in the frame of an EU doctoral training programme.
• A strong involvement in a research project with high international visibility.
• The possibility to participate in specific international training courses, workshops, and conferences.
  The possibility to perform research visits to internationally renowned research labs in Europe.
• A prestigious three-year MSCA Fellowship.
• Working in the international R&D environment of one of the most renowned mass spectrometry vendors.
• Acquiring direct experience in merging fundamental research with instrument development.
• A competitive PhD salary
• Yearly travel allowance to perform research internships as part of the doctoral network, as well as visiting international conferences and workshops.
• Yearly family allowance (if applicable)

The PhD candidate will be employed by Bruker Daltonics GmbH & Co. KG (Bremen, Germany) and will be enrolled in the PhD program of the Jena University Hospital. The candidate will use state-of-the-art instrumentation to investigate fundamental characteristics of tandem ion mobility spectrometry (TIMS) devices. In an interdisciplinary research and prototyping team at Bruker, the candidate will work in collaboration with other university research labs, using the gained fundamental insights to develop novel biomedically relevant workflows and interpret the corresponding results.  

Some of the specific tasks are:

• Locate, quantify, and control the effect of the ion’s translational temperature on their internal temperatures and potential fragmentation in different TIMS configurations.
• Develop and demonstrate a 1st order CCS determination. From the TIMS theory, this technique will be comparable to the well-established 1st order CCS determination on the drift tube IMS instruments.
• Translate the deep understanding of TIMS technology to the biomedical investigations of the different research labs present on the doctoral network.
• Contributing to a general way of evaluating and compare fundamental physical properties and result outcomes using different ion mobility spectrometry techniques.

• Diploma or M.Sc. in Physics, Physical Chemistry or corresponding qualification.
• Knowledge and experience in one or more of the following areas:
  • Ion mobility spectrometry
  • Mass spectrometry
  • Ion optics and physics
  • Python programming
  • Gas phase instrument development
• Strong analytic, logical, and innovative thinking.
• Good communication skills, team-mindedness.
• First experience in the preparation and writing of scientific publications.
• Solid scientific English language skills (oral and written).
• Fluid German language skills would be beneficial.