We offer a fully funded three year PhD position in quantum computing for computational chemistry in an extraordinary environment.

During your doctorate, you will work in our quantum computing team (lead by Dr. Christian Gogolin) and computational quantum chemistry in the Digital Research & Development department of Covestro, while benefiting from the scientific environment at the University of Cologne, which will also grant the degree. The PhD will contribute to a BMBF (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung – German ministry for education and research) funded research project in partnership with experimental quantum computing groups at the Universities of Mainz and Heidelberg. In addition there will be the opportunity to contribute to a multi-year collaboration between Covestro and Google AI Quantum. With this setup, you will get the opportunity to work on a cutting edge technology and do basic science and research, but will also acquire industry experience.

In your three years here you will be a part of the diverse, international, and interdisciplinary Digital R&D team at Covestro and will perform the following tasks:

- You will learn about quantum computing and work on quantum algorithm development and quantum programming through hands on experience - You will learn and apply classical computational chemistry methods - You will collaborate with people towards the goal of pushing boundaries in quantum computing research - Moreover, you will contribute to estimating and realizing the potential of quantum computing for research and development in the chemical industry - As an additional benefit you will acquire scientific programming, software development, and high performance computing skills - Finally, you will communicate the results of your work to the team and publish them in scientific journals for the wider research community

This position is designed for three years, with a flexible starting date. Review of applications will start immediately.

WHAT YOU OFFER

- You are a curious person and strongly interested in doing research - You hold a Master’s degree in Computer Science, Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, Data Science or similar, or have comparable relevant prior experience in these areas - You have experience with software development in Python, and have already experimented with one of the quantum computing libraries - You have experience with and interest in learning software development workflows and tools - To complete your profile, your command of English is excellent