APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS:

• CURRENT PENN STATE EMPLOYEE (faculty, staff, technical service, or student), please login to Workday to complete the internal application process. Please do not apply here, apply internally through Workday.

• CURRENT PENN STATE STUDENT (not employed previously at the university) and seeking employment with Penn State, please login to Workday to complete the student application process. Please do not apply here, apply internally through Workday.

• If you are NOT a current employee or student, please click “Apply” and complete the application process for external applicants.

 

Approval of remote and hybrid work is not guaranteed regardless of work location. For additional information on remote work at Penn State, see Notice to Out of State Applicants.

This is a term position; length of the term will be discussed during the interview process. Continuation past the term length discussed will be based on university need, performance, and/or availability of funding.

 

POSITION SPECIFICS

The Department of Materials Science and Engineering (MatSE) at The Pennsylvania State University invites applications for a full-time Assistant Research Professor position in the areas of thermoelectric materials, energy conversion materials, and advanced functional materials.

The successful candidate will lead research efforts in the design, synthesis, processing, characterization, and performance optimization of advanced materials for thermal energy conversion, waste heat recovery, solid-state cooling, and sustainable energy technologies. This position emphasizes the discovery and development of next-generation energy materials with high electrical and thermal transport performance through materials design, defect engineering, microstructure optimization, and advanced manufacturing approaches.

The research program will involve the synthesis and processing of thermoelectric and multifunctional materials, development of bulk and thin-film energy conversion materials, fabrication of prototype devices and modules, and detailed characterization of electrical, thermal, structural, and microstructural properties. The successful candidate will contribute to ongoing interdisciplinary research programs involving advanced ceramics, intermetallic compounds, semiconductors, and emerging energy materials for terrestrial, aerospace, and defense applications.

The ideal candidate should have strong expertise and demonstrated research experience in thermoelectric materials, electronic transport phenomena, thermal transport, energy harvesting technologies, and advanced functional materials. A solid background in materials synthesis and processing techniques, including powder processing, spark plasma sintering (SPS), hot pressing, crystal growth, or related processing methods is required. Experience with transport property measurements, microstructural characterization, diffraction and microscopy techniques, and materials optimization through compositional and defect engineering is highly desirable. Experience with computational materials design, machine learning for materials discovery, or multifunctional energy materials will be considered a