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I would be very grateful if you would draw this notice to the attention of potential candidates, either personally, or by forwarding the email to your internal distribution lists or by posting a copy on the appropriate notice board. Thank you. ----------------------------------------- A PhD position is available within the Laboratory Astrochemistry team at the University of Rennes 1 in Brittany, France, to be supervised by Prof Ian R Sims and Dr Sebastien Le Picard. Brief details are given below: Thesis subject: Laboratory astrochemistry – atomic and molecular collisions under extreme conditions Brief introduction: Astrochemistry, or understanding both the synthesis of molecules and grains in space, in order to predict their abundances, and their subsequent chemical and physical behaviour, not only represents a major scientific challenge but is of vital importance to the field of astrophysics. Molecules play a crucial role not only in mapping the Universe via the radio astronomical observation of molecular emissions, but also by acting as vital cooling agents during the process of star formation. Astrophysical environments display a wide variety of exotic conditions, ranging in temperature from close to absolute zero up to several thousand Kelvin. The speciality of our group is the use of methods which rely on flow reactors under extreme conditions, for example the CRESU (Cinétique de Réaction en Ecoulement Supersonique Uniforme or Reaction Kinetics in Uniform Supersonic Flow) technique for chemical reactions and energy transfer down to 7K which was awarded one of the first EU Descartes prizes in 2000. We combine these with state-of-the-art laser techniques to initiate and probe reactive and inelastic processes within the supersonic flow, using the exceptionally wide range of pulsed and cw lasers now available within our group. The experience that will be acquired by the student in the areas of aerodynamics, laser techniques and chemical physics will be widely applicable not only in academic subjects but also for applied science and engineering, providing an excellent basis for future careers both in academic research and in industry. Research topics: It is planned to develop three new areas here in Rennes: (i) Reactions and relaxation of atomic free radicals (ii) Product branching ratios for reactions of astrochemical relevance (iii) Rotational energy transfer rates for key interstellar atoms and molecules Funding and eligibility: A three year grant to cover living expenses is available from the French Education and Research Ministry. To be eligible, students must be French or other EU nationals (or from a country in the following list: Andorra, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Russian Federation, Iceland, Norway, Romania, Switzerland, Turkey, Vatican State). In addition, they must currently be in the final year of either a French DEA or equivalent programme in their country as listed above (effectively, a Master level programme which gives access to PhD studies). Finally they must usually be less than 25 years old. Full details of eligibility may be found (in French) at <http://dr.education.fr/Alloc_doc/alloc_2.html#conditionalloc> http://dr.education.fr/Alloc_doc/alloc_2.html#conditionalloc Further details: Please check our website ( <http://www.palms.univ-rennes1.fr/ASTROEXP/> http://www.palms.univ-rennes1.fr/ASTROEXP/ ) for further information including a more detailed description of the proposed PhD. Interested candidates should send their CV's (including results obtained at University level) by email to either Ian Sims ( <mailto:[log in to unmask]> [log in to unmask]) or Sebastien Le Picard ( <mailto:[log in to unmask]> [log in to unmask]), as soon as possible. ----------------------------------------- Ian Sims PALMS - UMR 6627 du CNRS Equipe: "Astrochimie Expérimentale" Bat. 11c, Campus de Beaulieu, Université de RENNES 1, 35042 RENNES Cedex, FRANCE tel.: +33 2 23 23 69 18 fax.: +33 2 23 23 67 86 email: < <mailto:[log in to unmask]> mailto:[log in to unmask] > web: < <http://perso.univ-rennes1.fr/ian.sims/> http://perso.univ-rennes1.fr/ian.sims/ > To join or leave the molecular-dynamics-news email list, go to: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/molecular-dynamics-news.html