PRISM programme - PhD student in Physics for Project NWARPS (MSCA COFUND)

ÉCOLE SUPÉRIEURE DE PHYSIQUE ET DE CHIMIE INDUSTRIELLES DE LA VILLE DE PARIS - PSL; France; Sur place; EUR 23 000 - 26 000; Plein temps

Résumé du poste

Le programme PRISM propose des bourses doctorales à Paris PSL, démarrant le 1er mars 2027, financées par Horizon Europe COFUND. Le projet NWARPS vise à élucider les mécanismes microscopiques des surfaces polymères et leurs applications durables, avec une forte dimension internationale et interdisciplinaire.

Les doctorants seront embauchés par ESPCI Paris, avec un salaire net mensuel d’environ 2 200 €, et des aides à la mobilité et à la famille.

Qualifications

• Le candidat doit posséder un diplôme en physique, chimie ou discipline proche.
• La maîtrise de l’anglais scientifique est obligatoire et le candidat doit pouvoir communiquer professionnellement.
• Une expérience en laboratoire et des capacités de programmation pour l’analyse des données sont appréciées.

Formation

Master's degree (physics, chemistry or closely related)

Programming for data analysis

Scientific English proficiency

Outils

AFM

Ellipsometry

Description du poste

Organisation/Company ÉCOLE SUPÉRIEURE DE PHYSIQUE ET DE CHIMIE INDUSTRIELLES DE LA VILLE DE PARIS - PSL Department Laboratory LPENS Research Field Physics » Statistical physics Chemistry » Physical chemistry Researcher Profile First Stage Researcher (R1) Positions PhD Positions Application Deadline 31 Oct 2026 - 23:59 (Europe/Brussels) Country France Type of Contract Temporary Job Status Full-time Hours Per Week 35 Offer Starting Date 1 Mar 2027 Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme? Horizon Europe – COFUND Reference Number PRISM-2026-747267 Marie Curie Grant Agreement Number 101261637 Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure? Yes

Offer Description

*PRISM programme*

The PRISM (PhD Research Programme for International Training in Sustainable Soft Matter) programme has launched its first call for applications, offering up to 14 fully funded PhD fellowships starting from 1 March 2027 at Paris Sciences & Lettres (PSL) University. The programme trains researchers to address ecological transition challenges through sustainable soft matter science, with projects focused on eco-friendly chemical processes, circular economy, renewable energies, and carbon capture, storage, and valorisation. Co-funded by the European Union under Horizon Europe MSCA COFUND (Grant Agreement 101261637) and partner institutions, PRISM provides interdisciplinary, international, and intersectoral training, including mobility opportunities, secondments, and courses in sustainability, innovation, entrepreneurship, career development, and transferable skills.

*The PhD project*

NWARPS: Nucleation, Wetting, Adhesion, and Rheology of Polymeric Surfaces

The Folding Sliding Stretching Lab is seeking a PhD candidate to elucidate the microscopic mechanisms at play on soft interfaces to design smart materials for a sustainable future. This project is driven by the need for surfaces capable of efficiently harvesting dew—a vital resource in arid environments—and advancing thermal management and anti-icing technologies. Candidates can also engage in related projects, such as studying granular materials rendered cohesive by polymer coatings to produce “reversible” concrete. Crucially, the fundamental physics governing water condensation and droplet depinning on these soft interfaces extend far beyond dew harvesting. The underlying mechanisms—specifically heterogeneous nucleation and contact line dynamics—share profound analogies with fluid transport and precipitation processes essential for next-generation building materials. By understanding how polymer architectures control capillary trapping and phase transitions at the microscale, this project will provide critical physical insights to optimize CO2 mineralization and fluid dynamics within both carbon-capturing and reversible concrete.

When moist air contacts a cold surface, it forms a breath figure composed of numerous small droplets, with nucleation occurring heterogeneously at discrete sites or homogeneously, depending on the substrate. While traditional studies on rigid substrates have established universal scaling laws for droplet size distributions, polymer-coated surfaces introduce complexities that remain poorly understood, but offer the promise of controlling nucleation. To harvest dew, drops must be evacuated by sliding over the surface. Here, polymers or microscopic heterogeneities significantly modify drop motion to control dynamics—facilitating sliding or pinning. Both droplet nucleation and contact line depinning are similar, as their underlying physical description relies on thermal hopping over energy barriers.

The team and their collaborators at the University of Twente have made initial studies in both soft‑nucleation [10.1103/PhysRevLett.134.188204] and the dynamics of a drop [10.1038/ncomms12545]. Candidates are invited to elaborate one or both of these questions in their thesis proposal, or present related situations of polymers at interfaces, where they govern critical physical phenomena such as wetting, nucleation, adhesion, and rheology. The thesis will pair a significant experimental component with analytical modelling and/or numerical simulation.

A new setup to study vapor transport via diffusion or convection will improve upon a system currently at the University of Twente. This allows studying mechanical coupling between substrate elasticity and droplet density by varying the polymer architecture – from elastomers, to gels and networks with dangling ends, and the transition from nanoscale nucleation to macroscopic droplets via AFM or ellipsometry.

The depinning transition and the role of thermal activation on drop motion are active research topics, but experimental access to contact line thermal motion is difficult. To drive drop motion, we propose shaking the liquid surface with the spectral density of Brownian noise, creating artificial “thermal” fluctuations at optical scales. Since these fluctuations can be observed, this provides an ideal system to address how depinning happens at the scale of fluctuations.

INTERNATIONAL: The team has a longstanding collaboration with Pr. Snoeijer at the University of Twente, including the preliminary study of breath figures, which is relevant for the proposed thesis. He is a leading expert in (soft) wetting dynamics and is working on the development of predictive models for nucleation on polymeric surfaces, a core challenge in this project. It is therefore natural that the candidate spends a period of time at Pr. Snoeijer’s lab.

INTERSECTORAL: The research division of the French multinational Saint-Gobain is a natural industrial partner for this project and we will support the candidate to make a connection to them during the thesis.

INTERDISCIPLINARY: The theme of soft‑condensation sits at the frontier between physics and chemistry. For example, it is necessary to be able to model and account for diffusion, convection and degree of supersaturation in the environment. Statistical physics underpins the description of the nucleation and growth of drops as well as the thermally‑activated motion of the contact line. In the case of soft substrates, polymer architecture at the surface is known to play a role, so an understanding of the nature of polymers at the microscopic scale is important, for instance, to determine the role of vapor permeation in the polymer network, or if condensation nuclei or contact‑line pinning centers correspond to free chains or other local heterogeneities.

The candidate should hold a degree in physics, chemistry or closely related sub-discipline. They do not need to have prior expertise in both the physical and chemical aspects of the problem, but should have a strong interest in fundamental research and interdisciplinarity with a desire to participate in experiments. Prior experience in a laboratory setting is highly appreciated, as well as a comfort with programming for data analysis.

Proficiency in scientific English is obligatory and the candidate must be able to communicate in a professional environment, be able to write clearly and speak in front of an audience of scientists. The candidate is expected to be curious about the scientific problem they propose to work on, show personal initiative, and to be able to work independently, with scientific rigor.

Languages ENGLISH Level Excellent

Research Field Physics Years of Research Experience 1 - 4

Additional Information

The PRISM programme offers a competitive salary above the national average for PhD candidates in France to attract and support excellent researchers.

Doctoral candidates will receive an approximate net monthly salary of€2,200, with additional family and mobility allowances available for eligible fellows.

The salary is subject to French income tax, with the exception of the family and mobility allowances. Depending on the candidate's individual tax situation, income tax may represent approximately 2–5% of the net salary and is levied by the French tax authorities independently of the employer.

To ensure consistent management and equal employment conditions across the programme, all PRISM doctoral candidates will be employed by ESPCI Paris, regardless of the host laboratory where their research is carried out.

Remote working opportunities, access to sports and leisure activities, free access to public Paris city council’s swimming pools, access to CROUS canteen, scientific campus in central Paris, professional development programs, well‑being workshops, social benefits through CNAS, partial health insurance support, and 75% support for sustainable mobility.

Eligibility criteria

• At the time of application, candidates must be in possession of their Master’s degree or equivalent/postgraduate degree which formally entitles them to start a doctorate. All applicants with a doctoral degree are ineligible.
• A minimum English proficiency level of C1 (Advanced) is required for applicants from non-English-speaking countries. No French language skills are required.
• Applicants must fulfil the transnational mobility rule: open to all nationalities but all incoming applicants must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in France for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior to the call for applications deadline.
• Applicants must be available to start the program on schedule: 1st March 2027.
• Completeness of the application, submitted in English on the PRISM dedicated website, before the deadline of 31 October 2026.

Selection process

The applications will go through the following assessment steps:

1) Eligibility check to ensure the administrative compliance of the applications (mandatory documents provided and eligibility conditions met).

2) Remote evaluation of each application by different reviewers depending on the open PhD projects selected by the applicants. The selected applicants will be informed of their results, their ranking and invited to participate in the next step of interviews. Unsuccessful applicants will receive a detailed report by email.

3) Interview and selection of the shortlisted applicants via videoconference, comprising:

• A presentation (maximum 10 minutes) by the applicant of their motivation for applying to the program, including their experience and training in the field. Applicants will be explicitly asked to explain the fundamentals of the selected PhD research project and its scientific literature. The applicant will have the opportunity to make suggestions to shape their future PhD project.
• A series of questions (10 minutes) put by the committee to the applicant. These will include technical questions on the fundamentals of the topic. In addition, in the interests of fairness, a list of common questions will be asked to each applicant.

4) Recruitment: once a candidate has been selected and has accepted the offer, the management team will initiate their recruitment process. For some nationalities, in compliance with French national requirements, the mandatory security clearance procedure will be launched at the final stage of recruitment. In the event of an unfavourable decision, the position will be offered to the next candidate on the reserve list.

Additional comments

*Name of the school of PSL*

*Research Unit*

The Folding Sliding Stretching Lab is located at the Ecole Normale Supérieure in the heart of Paris’ Latin Quarter. Our research themes are fluid and solid mechanics in conjunction with other disciplines: non-linear physics, out-of-equilibrium statistical physics, geomorphology and planetology. We use a combination of laboratory experiments, theory and numerical simulations. The group activity is fundamental in nature and collaborations with industry, geophysicists and with the medical field give it a taste of applied science.

The candidate will have access to the research support infrastructure at the ENS Physics Department including a class‑10000 cleanroom and microfabrication facility, in‑house mechanical workshop and engineering design office, and their full‑time support staff. Equipment such as an AFM and a Phase Doppler Interferometer (aerosol droplet sizing) may be useful for the proposed thesis and already exist in the group.

Candidates are encouraged to contact the project supervisors to discuss the proposed research topics before applying. All projects are open PhD projects, meaning that the research plan will be further developed collaboratively by the selected doctoral candidate and the supervisors.

*Keywords*

Soft matter, polymer, wetting, nucleation, thermal activation, dew harvesting