The Faculty of Natural, Mathematical & Engineering Sciences (NMES) comprises Chemistry, Engineering, Informatics, Mathematics, and Physics – all departments highly rated in research activities and a wide-ranging portfolio of education programmes. 

 

  Celebrating diversity and supporting staff is important to us and we offer a range of provision including flexible working, caring support (including a Parenting and Carers Fund and the Carer’s Career Development Fund), training, and a variety of diversity and inclusion networks. Staff can apply for flexible working to help them balance the demands of their professional and personal commitments and we offer comprehensive leave policies for parental, adoption, surrogacy, dependant and shared leave.

 

The university is making investment in NMES, and both student and staff numbers are growing. Our staff come from over 45 countries and 56% of our students are from outside the UK. 

 

Further details available at  www.kcl.ac.uk/nms

We are seeking a highly motivated Research Associate to join a 12-month project focused on building generative AI tools to accelerate the discovery of new homogeneous CO₂-to-methanol catalysts. This project leverages diffusion models and large open-source organometallic datasets to design multi-centered ligands using earth-abundant metals, inspired by enzymatic systems. You will work at the intersection of computational chemistry and machine learning, adapting state-of-the-art generative models for catalyst design. 

 

The role involves data preparation, dimensionality reduction, and integration of open-source packages for diffusion modeling. The project is an interdisciplinary collaboration between 4 academic groups (Dr. Micaela Matta and Dr. Francisco Martin-Martinez, computational chemistry and machine learning; Dr. Clare Bakewell and Dr. Rebecca Musgrave, organometallic synthesis and catalyst design), as well as industry partners (Dr Charlie Adams, Dr David Wright, Kuano AI) specializing in pharmacophore design and AI for drug discovery.

 

This is a full-time (35 hours per week) post offered on a fixed-term contract for 12 months.  

 

Research staff at King’s are entitled to at least 10 days per year (pro-rata) for professional development. This entitlement, from the  Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers, applies to Postdocs, Research Assistants, Research and Teaching Technicians, Teaching Fellows and AEP equivalent up to and including grade 7. Visit the  Centre for Research Staff Development for more information.