Junior Professor Chair - Virtual metallurgy

The Center for Materials and Structural Sciences (SMS Center) of Mines Saint-Etienne conducts research and educational activities in the field of mechanics and physics of materials, focusing on metals, composites, and ceramics. Its activities, experimental and numerical, concern the optimization of the in-service properties of volumetric and/or surface materials. The Center offers training programs at all levels of education at the Saint-Etienne Mines. To support its activities, the SMS Center relies on its experimental characterization facilities and industrial technologic platforms. In particular, it houses a platform dedicated to the development and modification of model alloys for the study of specific compositions, as well as an additive manufacturing facility using Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing (WAAM) technology. This enables the production of large components as well as the repair, strengthening or functional enhancement of existing parts. The materials science research conducted at the SMS Center is housed in the Georges Friedel Laboratory (LGF, UMR 5307 CNRS), which brings together the skills of the École des Mines de Saint-Étienne in the fields of materials, mechanics and processes, in partnership with industry to solve the challenges of sustainability, energy efficiency and the transformation of materials into industrial components.

The main activity of the PMM (Physics and Mechanics applied to Metallurgy) team at the LGF laboratory focuses on the measurement, modelling and prediction of microstructural evolution resulting from advanced forming and manufacturing processes. In addition, the team is also engaged in the development of alloy design methodologies, using their expertise in development processes to evaluate the performance of newly designed alloys. The team's work benefits from LGF's intensive computational resources, which facilitate the development and maintenance of internal codes dedicated to alloy design, material characterization methods, and microstructural evolution simulation

The position focuses on the development of numerical and experimental tools for the design of new metallic materials and tailor-made microstructures to facilitate the production of high-performance and environmentally friendly innovative materials. The development of digital solutions combining physics-based models, artificial intelligence (machine learning) models and database analysis will open new perspectives in the aerospace, automotive, energy and industrial sectors. This approach will enable the exploration of new high-performance materials and the optimization of existing materials, for example to reduce carbon footprints or promote the use of recycled materials.

• The junior professor chair is intended for researchers in the first part of their career, with strong potential for supervising and leading a research team, as well as the ability to participate in national, European or international projects.
• The chair will receive € 200k in ANR funding. This recruitment system is part of the research programming law. The terms of this recruitment are taken pursuant to Decree No. 2021-1710 of December 17, 2021 relating to the junior professor chair contract.
• The research and teaching activities will be carried out on the Saint-Etienne campus. Occasional involvement in the other campus’ activities is possible. Associated transport and accommodation costs will be covered if necessary.

•    Teaching
The teaching mission consists of giving courses, tutorials and practical work, as well as supervising projects and internships, mainly within the Civil Mining Engineer and Research Masters programs. The candidate should have broad expertise in materials, physics, mechanics and processes and actively contribute to courses and tutorials on digital methods applied to materials science, among other advanced courses, projects and training initiatives. These courses may include Ph.D., post-graduate and professional training (ISTP). The appointed person will play an active role in the educational teams responsible for the above- mentioned programs. Therefore, the design of new activities and the use of innovative teaching methods, in particular the use of digital tools, are essential components of the teaching role. Fluency in English is required.

•    Research
The research mission addresses the challenge of computational and experimental design of new metallic materials, integrating new constraints of sustainability, sovereignty, frugality, and holistic considerations of sustainable development. Materials design must be understood in a broad sense, including the optimization of alloy chemical composition, microstructure, and the development of internal architectures (metamaterials). The successful candidate will ideally specialize in one or more of these areas. S/he will have access to an intensive computing center (cluster) with significant parallel computing resources. In addition, his/her work will benefit from the almost unique capabilities of the LGF, either in the production of model alloys using the cold crucible technique, or in the development of architected materials using additive manufacturing techniques to evaluate the performance of the designed materials.

The candidate should hold a PhD degree in the field of Materials Science and Engineering and/or Mechanics with a strong emphasis on the development of digital approaches. A French CNU habilitation in section 28, 33 or 60 will be considered but is not mandatory.
The recruited person will contribute to strengthening the expertise in new materials design and microstructure control through digital modelling. Using metallurgical and thermodynamic models developed within the PMM team, he/she will lead the development and optimization of alloys and processes to achieve improved trade-offs in mechanical properties and durability of materials. The ideal candidate will have a strong background in physical metallurgy and the use of numerical methods, combined with a keen interest in exploring machine learning and artificial intelligence techniques in general to analyze and predict trends and future directions in materials development.
Fluency in English is essential. Given the envisioned international development projects, a significant international experience is strongly favoured. Otherwise, an international mobility with a foreign partner institution should be carried-out during the three years following recruitment.
The successful candidate must :

-    Have demonstrated research and/or industrial transfer capabilities (publications, patents, conferences, participation in industrial or collaborative projects, etc.).
-    Be able to innovate in teaching and research methods.
-    Must be able to work in a team in an international environment to ensure the link and collaboration between academic and industrial actors around common themes and projects.

Main candidate evaluation criteria:
-    The capacity to actively contribute to and eventually take the lead in the "alloy design" domain, especially concerning the management of critical resources, thriftiness, and eco- responsibility,
-    Ability to contribute to LGF's research fields related to the development of advanced materials elaboration and processing,
-    Scientific production: number and impact of publications in journals and conferences indexed by the main electronic databases (Scopus, Web of Science, PubMed, Nature Index, arXiv.org, etc.), animation of national and international workshops,
-    Significant teaching experience (production of digital courses, books, etc.) in the above- mentioned fields at the second or third cycle level,
-    Achievements in the implementation of new forms of education,
-    Capacity to integrate in the project of the team and the research laboratory.
-    Experience in partnership research: direct industrial partnerships, collaborative research, support for start-ups, etc.
-    International experience and/or partnerships,
-    Proficiency in English demonstrated by significant international experience,
-    Ability to work in a team,
-    Implementation of new projects,
-    Desire to establish international collaborations.

Fixed-term contract as junior professor of public law for 3 to 6 years as senior lecturer in IMT management. At the end of the 3 to 6 year fixed-term contract, tenure as a professor will be granted under the following conditions:

- Validation by the tenure commission after a hearing at the end of the 3 to 6 year fixed-term contract.

- HDR ('habilitation') obtained before the end of the 3 to 6-year fixed-term contract.

- Be a national of a member state of the European Union or of another state party to the Agreement on the European Economic Area (Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein) at the end of the 3-6 year fixed-term contract.