Research Associate in Mechanical Engineering

King's College London

About Us

You will be part of an active research programme in the Heat and Fire Lab (https://heatandfire.github.io/) in the Department of Engineering at King’s College London.

About the Role

We are looking to appoint a full-time (1.0 FTE) Research Associate to work for the next 2.5 years at the interlink of prevention and prediction of wildfire risk, by contributing to the development of a fundamental physical model to understand the process of fire spread for wildfires, as part of the European Research Council grant FIREMOD (https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101161183).

This is a full-time post, and you will be offered a fixed-term 30-month contract.

At King’s, you will be part of an active research programme in the Heat and Fire Lab (https://heatandfire.github.io/) in the Department of Engineering under the supervision of Dr Francesco Restuccia.

Our group is focused on carrying out experimental and computational multidisciplinary research in the thermal sciences covering heat transfer, combustion, fire science, and bioenergy. Our interests range from helping develop more efficient and durable energy storage to understanding the fundamentals of ignition and fire spread for prevention of damage to people, property, and the environment from unwanted fires in topics such as wildfire and electrification.

Our current projects focus on wildfire dynamics, battery fires, thermal management of Lithium-Ion batteries, and ignition research.

The research in this project at King’s aims at creating a detailed physical model to better understand and predict fire behaviour.

The project will study fire across different scales, include smouldering effects, and improve small- and large-scale fire models. This approach will help manage wildfires more effectively and provide valuable tools for researchers.

Key Responsibilities

Specifically, this role will lay the foundation to enable:

1. Fire dynamic modelling for upscaling current lab-scale models to field-scale fires
2. Supporting the development of a numerical model of ignition and flame spread based on fuel properties
3. Integration of the transition from smouldering to flaming regimes when quantifying different fire spread regimes
4. Support for experimental validation work at the lab scale on a variety of vegetation

Candidates with a background in Fire Science and physics-based modelling are particularly encouraged to apply.

About You

To be successful in this role, candidates should demonstrate the following skills and experience:

Essential Criteria

1. PhD in Mechanical Engineering or in an area related to Fire Safety Engineering*
2. Good knowledge and research experience in fire dynamics
3. Publications in fire safety engineering or closely related areas in peer-reviewed journals
4. Proficiency in a multiphysics software and fire dynamics simulation software (FDS or similar)
5. Knowledge of kinetics processes for vegetation
6. Proficiency in chemical kinetics software (Cantera or similar)

Desirable Criteria

1. Experience in experimental work for wildfires
2. Supervision experience of students at Master’s or PhD level

*Please note that this is a PhD-level role, but candidates who have submitted their thesis and are awaiting award of their PhDs will be considered. In these circumstances, the appointment will be made at Grade 5, spine point 30, with the title of Research Assistant. Upon confirmation of the award of the PhD, the job title will become Research Associate and the salary will increase to Grade 6.

Job Description

Full details of the role and the skills, knowledge and experience required can be found in the Job Description document, provided at the bottom of the next page after you click “Apply Now”. This document will provide information on what criteria will be assessed at each stage of the recruitment process.

Further Information

We pride ourselves on being inclusive and welcoming. We embrace diversity and want everyone to feel that they belong and are connected to others in our community.

We are committed to working with our staff and unions on these and other issues, to continue to support our people and to develop a diverse and inclusive culture at King’s.

Applicants are asked to submit:

• A copy of their CV
• A supporting statement detailing how they meet the essential criteria listed in the advert

If a strong field of candidates is received, the desirable criteria may be used to determine the final shortlist.

To find out how applications are reviewed, please see the How we Recruit pages: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/jobs/how-we-recruit

Interviews

Interviews are due to be held in April 2026.

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