Postdoctoral Research Associate in Modelling of Subcontinuum Heat Transfer

Overview

Description

Position: Postdoctoral Research Associate in Modelling of Sub continuum Heat Transfer

Salary: Grade 7 (£37,694 - £47,389)

Contract: Full-Time (35 hours per week), Fixed Term for 24 months

Holiday Entitlement: 33 days annual leave, plus 9 buildings closed days for all full time staff. Use our total rewards calculator to see the value of benefits provided by Heriot-Watt University.

Interview expectations: we expect interviews to take place the week commencing 23 February 2026.

Applications are invited for a Postdoctoral Research Associate position in heat transfer modelling at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh. The position is available from 1 May 2026 for a two-year, full-time contract.

Advanced chip designs are lowering the energy consumption of microelectronic components, devices, and systems, while increasing performance. Addressing energy consumption and heat dissipation is a key challenge underpinning development of mobile devices, large data centres and smart edge devices. This role focuses on sub-continuum and mesoscopic modelling of heat transfer in nanoelectronic devices, bridging atomistic insights and continuum-scale thermal management strategies.

In particular, the postdoctoral researcher will:

• Develop and apply phonon Boltzmann Transport Equation (BTE)–based models to capture non-diffusive heat transport at the nanoscale.
• Couple BTE-based models with information from atomistic simulations (DFT) of advanced materials and thermal interfaces.
• Investigate phonon scattering, thermal conductivity, heat generation and dissipation in electronic nanodevices, including thermal switches, energy harvesters, and phase-change materials (PCMs).
• Coarse-grain subcontiuum information in BTE-based models and support the development of surrogate continuum models to study heat dissipation and PCM integration in 2D/3D nanodevice arrays and micro-packaging.
• Interface sub-continuum modelling outputs with chip-level and package-level multiphysics simulations, supporting system-level thermal optimisation.

The role involves close collaboration with international partners across Europe, including experts in DFT, materials synthesis, thermal characterisation and nanoelectronics, and contributes to the delivery of open-source modelling tools developed within SPARK-e. This position offers an opportunity to work at the interface of statistical mechanics, heat transfer engineering, nanoelectronics and advanced materials within a high-profile European research programme.

• Take a leading role in the xFlow research group, contributing to the development of new research directions aligned with SPARK-e and related projects.
• Lead research activities including model development, numerical implementation, and analysis of multi-scale heat transfer phenomena.
• Co-supervise PhD students and contribute to mentoring early-career researchers involved in related modelling activities.
• Attend and actively contribute to the bi-weekly xFlow research group meetings and SPARK-e research meetings.
• Interact closely with other partners, postdoctoral researchers and PhD students working on SPARK-e and complementary projects.
• Contribute to the organisation of local seminars, workshops, and project meetings as required.
• Disseminate research outcomes through high-quality journal publications, conference presentations, and project deliverables.

Essential Criteria

• PhD in Mechanical Engineering, Applied Mathematics, Solid-State Physics, or a closely related discipline.
• Strong background in heat transfer and thermal transport modelling.
• Experience with numerical methods for transport equations (e.g. BTE, kinetic methods, finite-volume / finite-difference approaches).
• Programming experience in C / C++ / Python, or similar, and familiarity with scientific computing environments.
• Ability to work independently and as part of a multidisciplinary, international research team.

Desirable Criteria

• Experience with phonon transport, nano-scale heat transfer, or non-Fourier heat conduction.
• Familiarity with quadrature methods of moments.
• Familiarity with…