Join the Computational Mechanics of Soft Materials Group

Postdoc in computational mechanics of soft materials

Project 21 focuses on electro-chemo-mechanical modeling of self-healing hydrogel electronics.

The project aims to develop a computational framework for assessing the durability of self-healing, electrically conductive hydrogels used in soft electronics, wearable and implantable devices, and soft robotic systems. Conductive hydrogels are attractive because of their compliance, biocompatibility, stretchability, and ability to autonomously repair damage, but their long-term reliability under cyclic loading, fluid transport, ionic migration, and external fields remains difficult to predict.

The work will formulate a thermodynamically consistent multiphysics model coupling finite-strain poroelasticity, ionic transport, electromigration, phase-field fracture, and self-healing. This framework will enable virtual testing of hydrogel-based devices subjected to mechanical fatigue, chemically active environments, and remote electromagnetic actuation.

The successful candidate will derive the governing equations, implement the model within a finite element framework, and validate it against benchmark experiments reported in the literature. Expected outcomes include a robust open-source implementation, benchmark simulations of fracture and self-healing, and publications in high-impact journals in mechanics, materials science, and computational physics.

We are searching for a postdoctoral candidate through the CROP Postdoctoral Fellowship Programme.

Candidates should apply for topic 21.

According to the official CROP call, candidates prepare their own research proposal based on one of the offered topics.

PhD in soft-material modeling and simulation

Possible directions include constitutive modeling, variational formulations, numerical methods, and open-source implementations for advanced soft-material systems.

Applicants should have solid preparation in mechanics, mathematics, numerical methods, or related engineering disciplines.

We are searching for a PhD candidate through the PICTUS PhD Fellowship Programme.

Candidates should apply for topic 3.

Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship — we host applicants

We support applicants for Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowships who want to work on the modeling of soft materials.

Both variants of the scheme are open to us. In a European Fellowship the whole project is carried out here in Prague. In a Global Fellowship the outgoing phase is spent at a host outside Europe and the group hosts the return phase.

A fellowship proposal is written by the candidate together with the host, so there is no fixed topic. We are interested in proposals on surface mechanics and surface energy, instabilities, contact of highly deformable bodies, fracture and failure, dynamics and wave propagation, active and multiphysics materials, and on the numerical methods and open-source software behind them. We help with shaping the proposal, and the project has our simulation tools and computing resources behind it.

Because a proposal takes time to prepare, get in touch well before the call deadline.