The suggested areas for the policy board are:

• Finance/Legal
• IT
• Energy
• Community
• Research
• Residential
• Environment
• Health/leisure (split into sports?)
• Construction
• Transport
• Innovation Centres
• Inward Investment
• Brand/Vision
• Exploitation

The project overview can be downloaded here.

Slides from the presentations will be made available here:

• Introduction – Lisa Hall
• Site Master Plan – Hasim Altan
• Financials – Adrian Hackett
• Sports Facilities – Gavin Bailey, Jonathan Pickess
• Latent Sport Needs – David Barrett
• Generation Alliance – Nick Morgan

The project is aimed at forging closer ties between the University and industry in the area of low carbon technology, sustainable living and futuristic buildings.  Research funding has been allocated for a number of buildings related projects, which aim to tackle existing challenges within this theme.  This may be, for example, energy use or generation, insulation, materials, architecture, “smart” buildings etc.

The projects will be industry led and a consultation process with companies is now taking place with the object of highlighting specific problems or challenges faced by companies.  The University will then allocate the research moneys and other resources to hopefully resolve those problems for and with the company in question.  In addition, several events will be run during the project lifecycle, which aim to bring together significant players in this field, in order to identify possible solutions and create collaborations between companies and the University of Sheffield.

Excelscient is very keen to hear from any companies, who have identified challenges in this topical area.  Please contact Lisa Hall via the Contact page.

The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) is an international organisation supported by 32 States*. Its prime objectives are the operational production of analyses, medium-range forecasts of weather and ocean waves and seasonal forecasts as well as scientific and technical research directed to the improvement of these forecasts.
ECMWF operates a large computing facility including supercomputers, data archiving systems and networks. For details see:

The person selected will be the Head of the Servers and Desktops Section. In this capacity, the successful candidate will manage a team of nine analysts/consultants and co-ordinate the work of the Section, covering the following technical areas:

Qualifications:

A university education to degree standard or equivalent is required, coupled with at least 10 years of relevant professional experience. A broad comprehension of principles and practices of computing technologies is expected. The successful candidate should have experience in system administration and supporting users, preferably in a heterogeneous environment. Experience in or knowledge of some of the following technologies would be a distinct advantage: Unix systems, Linux, Windows systems, Active Directory, LDAP, VMware or other virtualisation systems.
Applicants should be experienced in leading teams and should possess a theoretical understanding of project management as well as practical experience of it. Experience of dealing with sales personnel, technical staff and managers from vendors of IT equipment and software would be advantageous.
Applicants should possess good analytical and interpersonal skills. Excellent communication skills, both oral and written, are essential.
Staff members are normally recruited from among the nationals of the following Member and Co-operating States: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Montenegro, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom.

Remuneration:

For Grade A4: within the range of £5,440.69 to £7,211.69 basic salary per month net of tax.
In principle, a staff member will be engaged at the lowest step of the grade of the post for which he or she is selected.

A deduction is made from the basic salary for the Pension Scheme and for Partial Invalidity (currently 8.8% , rising to 10.8% from 01.01.2011 for the Pension Scheme and 0.2% for Partial Invalidity). A further 1.46% of basic salary and related allowances is currently deducted for the ECMWF Supplementary Health Insurance Scheme.

Starting date: 1 February 2011, or as soon as possible thereafter.

Length of contract: Maximum of 4 years for initial contract, with the possibility of renewal.

Applications: http://www.ecmwf.int/newsevents/employment/en/AP10-23-en.html

Closing date: 26 October 2010.

Location:

ECMWF Headquarters at Shinfield Park, near Reading, Berkshire, United Kingdom

Environment:

The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) is an international organisation supported by 32 States*. Its prime objectives are the operational production of analyses, medium-range forecasts of weather and ocean waves and seasonal forecasts, as well as scientific and technical research directed to the improvement of these forecasts. ECMWF operates a large computing facility including supercomputers, data archiving systems and networks. For details see:

The Reanalysis Section works in close collaboration with other sections of the Research and Operations Departments to develop, produce and disseminate state-of-the-art atmospheric reanalysis datasets. The latest ECMWF reanalysis is ERA-Interim, which covers the period 1989 to the present and continues to be updated in near-real time.

This position is intended to help the section prepare for an ambitious new atmospheric reanalysis project spanning the entire twentieth century (ERA-20C).

The main duties include:

• To help develop the data assimilation system for ERA-20C
• To prepare climate-quality atmospheric forcing data and boundary conditions
• To conduct model simulations and data assimilation experiments in preparation for ERA-20C
• To help improve the use of observations in reanalysis by means of observing system experiments
• To conduct scientific research on reanalysis performance and/or methodology as needed

Qualifications:

PhD level or equivalent, with postgraduate experience in atmospheric data assimilation and exploitation of meteorological observations. Experience in Fortran programming and developing complex scientific codes and systems is required. Familiarity with the main components of the global atmospheric observing system is strongly preferred.

The working languages of ECMWF are English, French and German. Candidates must be able to work effectively in English and have a good knowledge of one of the other working languages of ECMWF. Interviews will be conducted in English.

Remuneration:

Typically within the range of £3,795.00 to £5,255.00 per month net of tax, depending upon qualifications, experience, personal situation and eligibility for expatriation allowance. A deduction of either £33.62 per beneficiary or 4.38% of the monthly remuneration will be made for the supplementary health insurance scheme.

Starting date: 1 January 2011, subject to approval of the FP7-funded ERACLIM research project.

Length of contract: One-year with a possible extension of two further years.

Applications: http://www.ecmwf.int/newsevents/employment/en/AP10-26-en.html

Deadline: 28th October 2010

ECMWF’s current High Performance Computing Facility comprises two IBM compute clusters running the AIX UNIX operating system, each with 274 x 32-CPU nodes based on POWER6 technology, and two storage clusters serving 1.2 petabytes of disk storage. This system is at the core of a highly available IT infrastructure for the daily production of weather forecasts according to a tight operational schedule.

The post is in the HPC group in the Systems Software Section of ECMWF’s Computer Division.
The HPC group supports the High Performance Computing Facility, providing computing resources for ECMWF’s operational activities and research programme as well as to its Member States*. The successful applicant will work as part of a small team that ensures that the systems continue to provide the high levels of service that are expected of them.
The main duties of the post include:

• Planning and scheduling upgrades to the ECMWF’s HPC system
• Installing, maintaining and configuring the operating system and standard utilities on the HPC facilities
• Configuring the user environment on these systems
• Resolving user and operational problems relating to the operating system or to software packages maintained by the section
• Providing general day-to-day support, including 24-hour on-call support
• Ensuring that the HPC Facilities are used efficiently, and to that end, providing ECMWF’s support groups and users with the tools to enable this
• Participating in meetings with supercomputer vendors and at international technical conferences
• From time to time, contributing to the research and evaluation of successor systems to ECMWF’s current High Performance Computing Facilities

Qualifications:

A university education, or equivalent, is required, coupled with at least five years of experience in Unix systems administration. A professional background in massively parallel processing computer systems, large-scale Linux clusters or other machines of similar architecture, in particular IBM SP clusters running AIX, would be a distinct advantage. A good knowledge of Unix shells, Perl or Python, software configuration management and operating system security is essential. Some familiarity with parallel programming using C, Fortran, MPI and/or openMP is considered beneficial.
The successful candidate should be proactive, methodical and have good analytical skills, able to demonstrate an ability to progress multiple tasks to completion and solve problems under pressure. Good written and oral communication skills are essential as is the ability to work responsibly and reliably as a member of a small team.
Staff members are normally recruited from among the nationals of the following Member and Co-operating States: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Montenegro, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom.

Remuneration:

A2: £3,795.24 to £5,069.79 basic salary per month net of tax.

A3: £4,683.01 to £6,333.06 basic salary per month net of tax.
In principle, a staff member will be engaged at the lowest step of the lower grade of the post for which he or she is selected. Exceptionally, recruitment may be at a higher level when this is justified by qualifications and experience.

A deduction is made from the basic salary for the Pension Scheme and for Partial Invalidity (currently 8.8%, rising to 10.8% from 01.01.2011 for the Pension Scheme and 0.2% for Partial Invalidity). A further 1.46% of basic salary and related allowances is currently deducted for the ECMWF Supplementary Health Insurance Scheme.

Starting date: As soon as possible.

Length of contract: Maximum of 4 years for initial contract, with the possibility of renewal.

Application forms can be downloaded from ECMWF’s website:

www.ecmwf.int/newsevents/employment/en/

Closing Date 26 October 2010

National Centre for Atmospheric Science (NCAS) – “Seachange Project”
Climate Directorate – Department of Meteorology, University of Reading

Salary range:  Grade 6-7 (£27,319 to £41,323)

Full time, fixed term for 3 years

Closing Date:  31/08/2010

External Job Reference:  RS10030

The National Centre for Atmospheric Science (NCAS) need an experienced, skilful and imaginative software developer to produce new software for analysis and visualisation of model-generated and observational climate data.

You will design and implement  the software, taking account of community standards, user requirements and existing tools, document  it and support initial users.

You will have:

• Excellent  programming skills.
• A first degree in a scientific or numerical discipline and understanding of physical data analysis.
• Experience with software development  in a research environment and (grade 7) with design of software systems.
• Self-motivation and creativity.
• Good communication skills, both written and oral.
• Ability to maintain productive working relationships.

Previous research experience in physical science would be an advantage.

Informal contact details
Contact role: Principal Investigator
Contact name: Professor Jonathan Gregory
Contact phone: +44 (0)118 378 5602
Contact email: j.m.gregory@reading.ac.uk

Applications should be made online via the University of Reading website at www.reading.ac.uk/jobs

So how can Google be used to find job adverts and aid candidates get an interview?  Firstly, acknowledge that many employers only list a vacancy on their own website or with just one specific agency.  These can be tough to find and it requires you to know the company beforehand.  However, the following tips will lead you to find companies who hire for the job you are looking to undertake and not just specific job adverts.  These tips have lead to success before!

It should be remembered that your ideal job is likely to be found only with hard research.

1. Searching online for a generic phrase, such as ‘physics jobs’ is unlikely to work.  You might find a long list of positions, but most of them will be unsuitable for your own personality.  Understand what *you* want to do and which skills you want to use.  See ‘Your Dream Job’ for more.
2. If you are looking for specific job titles or want to use a definite skill, don’t just enter a basic search on that term or phrase.  Instead, seekers can use Google’s “site” command, which filters results by specific web domains.  This can be useful to identify which companies are presently listing or have previously listed jobs with those search terms.  For example, if I were interested in fluid dynamics, I could search the ExcelScient site:
   

   site:excelscient.com fluid

   which should list a temporary position with ANSYS and a fellowship at the University of Exeter.  This command is great when used with the main job sites, but best used with local job sites (if you know a vague location).

3. Search online for industry directories.  If you fancy working in a company related to the space sector, then try a Google search for “space directory”, which leads to a large list of companies working in this sector.  Naturally, the majority of these companies will not be hiring, but it will tell you which companies work in that sector and usually list them by location.
4. A great list of companies within specific technical sectors is compiled by BERR, who publish a series of online brochures under the heading “UK Capability”.  A search for “BERR UK capability” usually lists
5. Remember to search for UK pages only, unless you are looking to move abroad, so that the results are filtered accordingly.

I will try to add more to this list as I remember my own tricks…

Good luck with the search!

At this moment Xelvin is looking for:

Experimental Physicists

Department:

The department is charged with designing, building and testing nano- and micro level systems and sub-systems which are fitted into the end products. The area’s involved are in material sciences, optics, thermodynamics, quantum physics, low temperatures / pressures and all experimental related.

Job Mission:

To contribute to the development of products by designing, creating and testing, sub-systems within the restrictions imposed by system specifications, costs and planning considerations. As well the integration of subsystems as the partially system design and simulation (Matlab) is part of this job.

Job Description:

• Specifies, analyzes and supports the design, and tests modules in order to control equipment and measurements in the machine.
• Supports the design by analysis.
• Comes up with tests and performs these tests on the design to verify the specifications.
• Is responsible for the proper documentation of specifications, supporting calculations, and tests.

Educational Level

Technical University Master or PhD graduate in physics. Solid in both theoretical and experimental experience in the field of materials sciences, optical techniques & methods, building and testing of setups, simulations, integration, testing or system designing.

Personal Skills

Strong analytical ability with a pragmatic attitude. Good communicational skills and good knowledge of English.

Please send your resume and motivation letter to Erik de Groote via e.degroote@xelvin.nl or call our office in Eindhoven on +31 (0)40 29 10 056.

At this moment Xelvin is looking for:

Optical Engineers

Department:

The optical department is charged with designing, building and testing the optical systems and sub-systems which are fitted into the end products. This specific group is concerned with the optics, opto-electronics and all interferometry within its high tech machine.
The holder of the position reports to the group leader of this department and is operational within multidisciplinary projects

Job Mission:

To contribute to the development of products by designing, creating and testing, sub-systems within the restrictions imposed by system specifications, costs and planning considerations. As well the integration of subsystems as the partially system design and simulation (matlab) is part of this job.

Job Description:

• Specifies, analyzes and supports the design, and tests modules in order to control all optical equipment and measurements in the machine.
• Supports the design by analysis.
• Comes up with tests and performs these tests on the design to verify the specifications.
• Is responsible for the proper documentation of specifications, supporting calculations, and tests.

Educational Level

Technical University Master or PhD graduate in (technical) physics or mechanical engineer. Solid in both theoretical and experimental experience in the field of optics, diffraction, opto-electronics, polarization, integration, coating, interferometry, system design, simulation and budgets.

Personal Skills

Strong analytical ability with a pragmatic attitude. Good communicational skills and good knowledge of English.

Please send your resume and motivation letter to Erik de Groote via e.degroote@xelvin.nl or call our office in Eindhoven on +31 (0)40 29 10 056.

On two occasions she has been able to fill two posts in Physics, where we had suffered from sudden and long term absence. Both of the people she found proved themselves to be highly competent and able to teach Physics at a variety of levels suited to a secondary school.
I can attest to Lisa’s judgement and her wide variety of contacts, and can thoroughly recommend her to anyone who has staffing issues in Science.

Ray Everitt
Deputy Headteacher
High Storrs School