Reticular chemistry post-doc position available

A post-doctoral research assistant/associate position is available at the University of Cambridge in the Computational Modelling Group under the supervision of Prof. Markus Kraft. The successful candidate will join a multi-disciplinary team developing intelligent data-driven methods for the digital discovery of reticular materials. To date, the team has mined the literature to create a database of materials, developed data structures to describe their Lego-like nature, designed algorithms that exploit the data structures to predict the existence of new materials, implemented workflows for calculating the properties of materials, and used large language models to extract synthesis knowledge from the literature and infer the steps required to synthesise new materials. The vision of the team is to automate materials discovery and synthesis by tightly integrating knowledge engineering, computational modelling, various machine learning techniques (e.g. Chemprop, etc.) and artificial intelligence to design materials with properties tuned for specific applications. The work forms part of The World Avatar (TWA) project, a disruptive approach pioneered by Prof. Kraft to leverage knowledge-based technology to share data and create interoperability across different technical and social domains.

Appointment at Research Associate level is dependent on having a PhD; those without a PhD will be appointed at Research Assistant level. Those who have submitted but not yet received their PhD will be appointed at Research Assistant level, which will be amended to Research Associate once the PhD has been awarded.

The duration of the contract is 12 months in the first instance, with the possibility of being extended following satisfactory performance.

Applicants must have:

1. A Master’s or PhD degree or equivalent experience in a relevant science or engineering discipline (essential).
2. Excellent oral and written communication skills (essential).
3. An interdisciplinary and collaborative research approach (essential).
4. The ability to work as part of a dynamic, multidisciplinary team (essential).
5. A developing bibliography of publications in a relevant research area (desirable).
6. Experience in quantum chemistry, molecular dynamics or other aspects of computational chemistry (desirable).
7. Experience in machine learning approaches for chemistry, including cheminformatics (e.g. familiarity with RDKit and state-of-the-art models, such as graph neural networks) (desirable).
8. Experience in software engineering using Python, Java, JavaScript, or other languages (desirable).

If this sounds interesting, don't hesitate to get in touch.

Ever wondered whether the world could run entirely on renewable electricity?

A new study published in Advances in Applied Energy explores the energetic feasibility of a fully renewable global electricity grid powered only by wind and solar. Framed as a thought experiment, the work investigates a theoretical “bounding case” — testing how far global interconnection alone could, in principle, reduce variability in renewable generation. The results suggest that global interconnection could reduce wasted renewable electricity by more than 90% compared with isolated regional grids.

The study examines a “transmission-only” scenario, isolating how much variability in renewable generation could be smoothed simply by moving electricity around the planet. The results indicate that transmission losses would average only about 3.6% of global demand — far lower than the losses associated with long-distance chemical energy carriers such as hydrogen.

The work provides a physical benchmark for future studies. By establishing an upper bound on what transmission alone could achieve, the research helps frame the scale of the global energy transition challenge.

CoMo group open to Feodor Lynen Research Fellows

In 2016, Prof. Markus Kraft was awarded the Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Award and is therefore eligible to host Feodor Lynen Research Fellows sponsored by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. The Feodor Lynen Research Fellowship covers the salary and travel expenses of researchers from Germany to work at the host institution for 6-24 months. In addition, the fellowship enables the successful candidate to apply for alumni sponsorship from the Humboldt Foundation after the end of the fellowship and become part of their international network of academics.

If you are interested in working at the University of Cambridge and in joining the CoMo group as a post-doctoral researcher, please check your eligibility on the official Feodor Lynen Research Fellowship website and familiarise yourself with the application procedure. You will need to write a research proposal that aligns with your professional expertise. The topic might be of computational or experimental nature but should lie within the research areas of the CoMo group.

Highly Commended: IChemE Global Awards 2025

The Computational Modelling and The World Avatar research team is proud to share that our project, “Revolutionizing Laboratory Automation Across Sectors and Regions with The World Avatar,” was Highly Commended for the Process Automation and Digitalisation Award at the IChemE Global Awards 2025.

The award acknowledges our work on the Digital Laboratory Framework, a knowledge-model-driven system that connects laboratory assets, software, and distributed experimental platforms via semantic interoperability and autonomous computational agents. Built upon The World Avatar, the Digital Laboratory Framework integrates laboratory operations, data provenance, optimisation workflows, and real-time experimentation across global sites.

Key contributors to this work include Dr Simon Rihm, whose doctoral research at CARES shaped the Digital Laboratory Framework architecture, and Professor Markus Kraft, who has led the development of The World Avatar. Demonstrations across the CARES Laboratory, the University of Cambridge, and the Pharma Innovation Programme Singapore (PIPS) have shown the potential to accelerate scientific discovery, reduce environmental impact, and support sustainable, automated research ecosystems.

The award was accepted on behalf of the team by Dr Jethro Akroyd at the ceremony in Manchester.

Completed Paper Series on Lab Automation

The publication of our latest article “The Digital Lab Facility Manager: Automating operations of research laboratories through ‘The World Avatar’", completes a series of papers detailing our approach to the transformation of research laboratories with the help of digital twins.

We introduce the Digital Lab Framework, a holistic approach to laboratory automation and digitisation powered by The World Avatar. This framework not only guides the development of flexible and distributed self-driving laboratories based on interoperable knowledge models – it also includes peripheral aspects such as building infrastructure and inventory management and thereby allows automation of tasks typically handled by lab managers or facility managers. The implementation of these different aspects is demonstrated based on different use cases in our Singapore-based chemistry lab.

Prof. Kraft awarded Royal Academy of Engineering Fellowship

Professor Markus Kraft has been named a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng). The Academy awards these fellowships to the nation’s best engineering researchers, innovators, and entrepreneurs each year in recognition of their outstanding and continuing contributions to the profession.

For more details, see the department's recent profile article titled "Master of his Kraft" linked below.