Do you have a Master’s degree and are looking for fully funded PhD opportunities? The Leiden University, Leiden, Netherlands is now accepting applications for several funded PhD programs across a range of research areas.
1. Fully Funded PhD in ultrafast broadband-THz spectroscopy of perovskite materials
Summary of Funded PhD Program
Metal-halide perovskites (MHP) are optically active materials, which hold great promise as light-absorber (e.g. in photovoltaic devices and photodetectors) and as light-emitter (e.g. in LEDs). The material is both ionic and soft, meaning that electrons strongly ‘talk’ to the vibrations in the lattice. These lattice vibrations have frequencies in the 0-5 THz range and are thus thermally active at room temperature, meaning that the material is in a constant state of vibrational motion, which acts a source of dynamic disorder. This disorder is poorly understood, and can localize electrons on short length- and time scales.
Application Deadline: 13 October 2024
2. Fully Funded PhD in Targeting electron transport chain in Listeria monocytogenes for novel antibiotic development
Summary of Funded PhD Program
In this PhD project, the candidate will join a friendly, creative and interdisciplinary research team that studies the molecular mechanisms of bacterial respiration and develops novel antibiotics. The PhD student will learn and apply a range of biochemical and biophysical approaches to discover the molecular pathway of electron transfer in L. monocytogenes and select inhibitors against selected proteins of this pathway to validate EET as a potential antibiotic target. Besides the cloning, expression and purification of key proteins in the EET pathway, the candidate will develop activity assays to confirm hypothesized functions in oxidoreduction and membrane transport, and use single-particle cryoEM to elucidate the molecular structure, mode of action and inhibition. These results will provide the necessary foundation for future antibiotic development.
Application Deadline: 15 January 2025
3. Fully Funded PhD in Central Asian (Tarim Basin) Palaeography
Summary of Funded PhD Program
In “Patterns of writing” it is to be investigated how the Indic Brāhmī and Kharoṣṭhī scripts have spread to the non-Indic languages of the Tarim Basin, how they had to be adapted, and how script varieties have influenced each other. The goal is to trace a web of contacts between the Tarim Basin languages based on the script that does not necessarily match the linguistic web of contacts exactly. The comparative analysis of the two scripts and their variants will also help decide several issues in the interpretation of the sound systems of the Tarim Basin languages.
Application Deadline: 30 September 2024
4. Fully Funded PhD in Ancient Central Asian (Tarim Basin) Contact Linguistics
Summary of Funded PhD Program
In “Sogdian and Bactrian wanderers”, the linguistic influence of the Middle Iranian languages Sogdian and Bactrian in the Tarim Basin is to be investigated systematically. Both languages are not native to the Tarim Basin, but were extremely influential, as evidenced by many loanwords and names. It is known that Sogdian was spread by Sogdian traders, who also settled in different places throughout the Tarim Basin. Bactrian was the language of the Kuṣānas, but it is not well understood how exactly it reached into the Tarim Basin. While Sogdian and Bactrian influence in Tocharian is recognised, no systematic investigation exists. Although similar influence is to be expected in Khotanese, little research has been done on the topic.
Application Deadline: 30 September 2024
5. Fully Funded PhD in Critical Field Archaeology Studies
Summary of Funded PhD Program
The PhD candidate’s research will be part of the Field Research Education Centre (FREC). The FREC was created in 2021 with the main objective to establish a Fieldwork Center of Expertise for the Faculty of Archaeology, underlining the pivotal importance of fieldwork (both aimed at heritage studies and at collecting archaeological data and materials) as core of the discipline. The FREC works at the interface of education and research. The past years, the FREC has worked to strengthen the practical skills of our alumni and their employability in the professional archaeology market by coordinating faculty fieldschools and internships in the Netherlands and abroad.
Application Deadline: 20 September 2024
6. Fully Funded PhD in Feature-based machine learning for precision diagnosis of neuromuscular diseases
Summary of Funded PhD Program
In this project, experts in computer science and clinical neurophysiology will collaborate with a commercial partner to develop an artificial-intelligence platform integrating feature-based and deep learning approaches to automatically, objectively and accurately interpret nEMG data to improve the diagnosis of neuromuscular disorders ensuring explainability and responsible AI practices. Researchers of this project will validate the method using real nEMG data from around the world and take first steps towards integrating the platform into the existing software for clinical use. This position offers a unique opportunity to contribute to the cutting-edge research that will significantly impact the clinical landscape of neuromuscular disorders.
Application Deadline: 22 September 2024
7. Fully Funded PhD in Social Anthropology
Summary of Funded PhD Program
The project, ‘Futuring Heritage: Conservation, Community and Contestation in the Eastern Himalayas’, led by Dr. Erik de Maaker, funded by a grant from the Dutch Research Council (NWO), is looking for a PhD candidate for research in Sikkim (India). The project is hosted by Leiden University’s Institute of Cultural Anthropology & Development Sociology, with Ashoka University in Delhi-NCR as its prime academic partner. The PhD will be jointly supervised by Dr. Erik de Maaker (Leiden) and Dr. Swargajyoti Gohain (Ashoka). The Futuring Heritage project consortium encompasses international organisations, Indian governmental agencies, several NGOs as well as a tourism operator active in the eastern Himalayas.
Application Deadline: 1 October 2024
8. Fully Funded PhD in Software Optimization and Compiler
Summary of Funded PhD Program
We are looking for a PhD candidate in Software Optimization and Compiler Techniques. This is an exciting and fully-funded dual-appointment PhD candidate and junior software administrator position that allows you to both conduct cutting-edge research leading to a PhD thesis as well as gain experience in system administration in a scientific computing environment. Both require in-depth knowledge and understanding of low-level computer systems and as such these positions reinforce each other. The practice helps the theory, and the theory helps the practice. As such, this unique position allows you to become a highly specialized researcher in the field of structure and optimization of computer systems.
Application Deadline: 4 October 2024
9. 02 Fully Funded PhD in transcription factor binding at the single-molecule level
Summary of Funded PhD Program
Precise regulation of transcription is essential to ensure that the correct genes are expressed in the correct tissue at the correct time. At the basis of gene regulation are gene-specific transcription factors (TFs), which are essential to activate or repress transcription of their target genes in specific tissues. Previous work from our and other labs (Pomp, Mol Cell, 2024) have shown that many TFs bind to DNA cooperatively, but how this cooperativity is established is largely unclear. In the first project (Tineke Lenstra group, NKI), we aim to uncover how transcription factor binding dynamics and cooperativity are regulated by nucleosomes, self-interactions, and DNA shape, and how these mechanisms regulate single-cell transcription dynamics.
Application Deadline: 30 November 2024
10. Fully Funded PhD in StorytimeLM project
Summary of Funded PhD Program
Language models (LMs) are one of the pillars of the “generative turn” in AI and have revolutionised how we think about language processing in machines. Following evidence that capabilities scale with size, we have seen a trend towards ever bigger models in terms of parameters and training data size, which has led to a number of concerns including energy consumption and the impossibility of checking immensely large datasets for such crucial factors as information quality and copyright. In this project we research whether using narrative data for pre-training language models can help to make them smaller and more versatile.
Application Deadline: 11 October 2024