Wednesday, January 22, 2020

[DMANET] Two PhD positions in Optimization -University of Groningen

Two PhD positions in Optimization at the University of Groningen

The two PhD positions (each 1.0 FTE) are located in the Department of
Operations at the Faculty of Business and Economics, and require expertise
in Operations Research. We also appreciate experience in Industrial
Engineering and Data Analytics. This vacancy is part of a large,
inter-disciplinary project, HEAVENN (Hydrogen Energy Applications for
Valley Environments in Northern Netherlands), involving 31 public and
private projects from six European countries. The consortium's call
application was supported by over 65 national and international parties
from all over the world, including California, Japan and New Zealand. You
will work together with dr. Evrim Ursavas, Albert Schrotenboer, prof. dr.
Kees Jan Roodbergen and prof. dr. Iris Vis.

The project involves the large-scale production of green hydrogen as a
feedstock for industry, storage, transportation and distribution of
hydrogen and hydrogen applications in industry, the built environment and
the mobility sector. We are looking for PhD candidates to investigate the
opportunities and challenges related to energy transition. We focus on the
situation where an integrated and systematic view of a hydrogen economy is
established from the supply of renewable energy to the end use in industry,
mobility and domestic use. This requires the design of an efficient
hydrogen network that balances the needs and requirements of producers,
distributers, controllers and end-users. The envisioned contributions of
the PhD projects are:

• To contribute to the establishment of a framework for the regional
scale-up of hydrogen, including
o renewable energy resource planning and allocation; electrolyser size
optimization; the design of infrastructure and storage capacity
optimization; design of distribution networks; high volume industrial and
mobility applications; design of bunkering locations for mobility for road
and water transport
• To identify the optimisation challenges of key-interest within the
above-mentioned areas
• To develop appropriate Operations Research models and methods to solve
the identified optimisation challenges. Examples include, but are not
limited to:
o mixed integer programming based decomposition methods for hydrogen
network design problems; robust optimisation for dynamic power to gas
storage policies; optimal or heuristic dynamic decision making (e.g.,
Reinforcement Learning, Rolling Horizon heuristics) while controlling the
different incentives of stakeholders in a hydrogen distribution network or
hydrogen market
• To use Operations Research models and methods to assess different
scenarios of future hydrogen adaptation by society using input and data
provided by partners in the consortium.

Qualifications
• master's degree (MSc, MA, or MPhil) in Operations Research, Applied
Mathematics, Industrial Engineering or related fields
• strong academic record and demonstrated competence in quantitative
modeling (i.e. Operations Research)
• a background in Energy and Logistics is appreciated, though not required
• excellence in written and verbal English
• affinity with or experience in working in business or service settings.

Conditions of employment
We offer you in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch
Universities:

• a salary of € 2,325 gross per month in the first year, up to a maximum of
€ 2,972 gross per month in the fourth and final year
• a full-time position (1.0 FTE) for a period of in principle four years,
under the condition of a positive assessment at the end of the first year
• a holiday allowance of 8% gross annual income in May
• an 8.3% year-end bonus in December.

An assessment may be part of the procedure, consisting of psychological
tests and an interview.

Application
Do you meet our qualification criteria? If yes, your application should
include:

1. your CV
2. a motivation letter
3. a scan of your diploma including transcripts
4. proof of English proficiency
5. other relevant documents.

The documents 1-4 are compulsory and please note that incomplete
application packages will not be taken into consideration.

You can submit your application until 09 February 11:59pm / before 10
February 2020 Dutch local time (CET) by means of the application form
(click on "Apply" below on the advertisement on the university website

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our University.
We are committed to building a diverse faculty so you are encouraged to
apply. Our selection procedure follows the guidelines of the Recruitment
code (NVP), https://nvp-plaza.nl/download/?id=7714 and European
Commission's European Code of Conduct for recruitment of researchers,
https://euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/charter/code

Unsolicited marketing is not appreciated.

Information
For information you can contact:

Dr Evrim Ursavas, e.ursavas@rug.nl

To apply please follow the link below:

https://www.rug.nl/about-us/work-with-us/job-opportunities/?details=00347-02S0007IBP

--

dr. ir. Evrim Ursavas

Associate Professor of Energy and Logistics

Faculty of Economics and Business
University of Groningen
P.O. Box 800 9700 AV Groningen
The Netherlands

+31 50 363 7086

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