Materials Science Advanced Ceramics Summer Placement 2024

By 2050, the planet could be using twice as much electricity compared to today. Are you interested in contributing and helping to shape the future of the world’s energy? If so, read on.

Fusion, the process that powers the Sun and Stars, is one of the most promising options for generating the cleaner, carbon-free energy that our world badly needs.

UKAEA leads the way in realizing fusion energy, partnering with industry and research for groundbreaking advancements. Our goal is to bring fusion electricity to the grid, supported by tomorrow's power stations. In pursuit of our mission, UKAEA embraces core values: Innovative, Committed, Trusted, and Collaborative."

The Role

Are you looking for an exciting opportunity to make a difference? Join our team and contribute to the future of fusion energy. 

Atomic scale defects are incredibly difficult to measure experimentally, but determine critical properties of a material's performance. Continuing the work of a summer student in 2023, this placement will involve atomistic modelling to investigate defect migration and evolution, simulating the effects of fusion-relevant irradiation. This will help us to interpret experimental results and predict the evolution of advanced ceramics in a fusion reactor by informing multi-scale materials models as a wider part of UKAEA’s strategy. The student will be using high performance supercomputers to conduct simulations, and there may be opportunities to conduct correlative experiments. 

We offer excellent opportunities for motivated and enthusiastic undergraduate students studying at UK Universities to join our 8-12-week summer placement scheme. The scheme is designed for students entering their penultimate or final year of studies, with potential opportunities post-graduation. 

Our scheme gives you a unique opportunity to contribute to the development of one of the most advanced sources of sustainable and clean energy. During your summer programme, you will experience a broad range of diverse tasks, work on real projects, and gain invaluable experience within the fusion energy sector. UKAEA offers a nurturing and supportive community for you to gain some valuable work experience in a fascinating and rapidly evolving industry. 

Essential Requirements:

• To be considered you will need to be working towards a relevant degree and will be required to have the right to work in the UK. 

This role requires employees to complete an online Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) , including The Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) checks for criminal convictions.

We welcome applications from under-represented groups, particularly from individuals from black and other ethnic minority backgrounds, including nationality and citizenship, people with disabilities, (visible and hidden) and women. The Executive team with support from our EDI ‘Equality, Diversity and Inclusion’ (EDI) partner and Inclusion Ambassadors, is actively promoting EDI and taking steps to increase the diversity of our people through reinforcing best practice in recruitment and selection, and revaluating approaches where it is clear we can remove barriers to success. We are easily accessible by car and are a 10-minute walk from Culham Railway Station in Oxfordshire. 

Please be advised that this vacancy is due to close on Wednesday 31st January 2024.  We may close earlier than this date if large or sufficient numbers of applications are received, so please apply now!  

Please note all employees working at the UK Atomic Energy Authority will be required to complete an online Disclosure Certificate application as part of their clearance – The Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) checks will show the details of all current criminal convictions (convictions considered unspent under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974) or will confirm that there are no such convictions.