Job Description
Faculty of Science, Department for Computer Science
Application deadline: 15.07.2025
Our group builds artificial intelligence systems for discovering new concepts, experiments and ideas in physics. To accelerate this effort, we need your help! We have several fully-funded open
PhD and Post-Doc positions (m/f/d, E13 TV-L)
in our group – which just moved from the Max Planck Institute in Erlangen to the University of Tübingen, one of Europe’s most vibrant hub for artificial intelligence research.
A list of concrete potential projects:
- Development of modern auto-differentiation (JAX-based) physics simulators for the discovery of new physics experiments (example here)
- AI-driven discovery of hardware for some of the most thought after quantum information technology, quantum-enhanced microscopes and telescopes (example here), and AI-driven discovery of new physics experiments to test quantum-gravity and observe gravitational waves (examples here and here)
- Inventing state-of-the-art AI-driven exploration, optimization, and search algorithms in extremely complex and enormously large spaces motivated by physics and chemistry
- Developing interpretable AI for scientific discovery in physics (example here)
- Formal mathematics (using Lean’s mathlib) for Automated Discovery in Physics
- Agentic frameworks (e.g. LLMs with tool-use) for closed-loop idea generation for physics (example here)
Other projects are certainly possible too. In general, we believe that building autonomous scientific systems is not just a technical question, but requires understanding and insights from the philosophy of science – see e.g. here.
If you are excited to use artificial intelligence techniques for scientific discoveries in physics, send us your Application, including a CV, a short motivation letter, the names & contact of two potential references to mario.krenn@uni-tuebingen.de . The opening will remain valid until 15.07.2025.
PhD positions will be for a duration of 3 years, post-doc positions will be for 2 years.
Requirements: Master/Bachelor in Physics, Computer Science or related fields (for PhD); Doctorate in Physics, Computer Science or related fields (for Post-Docs).
The positions are funded via the Cluster of Excellence (Machine Learning for Science), the ERC Starting Grant ArtDisQ and the University of Tübingen. Salary will be determined according to the German collective wage agreement in public service (E 13 TV-L). The University aims to increase the proportion of women and therefore urges suitable qualified women scientists to apply. Qualified international researchers are expressly invited to apply. Disabled candidates will be given preference over other equally qualified applicants.
The employment will be handled by the central administration of the University of Tübingen
