Join the Cluster of Excellence “BlueMat: Water-Driven Materials”

Starting 1 February 2026: Join our interdisciplinary BlueMat team as Research Associate (m/f/d).

Are you an early-career researcher with fresh ideas and a global mindset? We welcome diverse perspectives, especially from women in science and international talents to help shape the next generation of sustainable, water-driven materials.

Our mission is to create interactive, sustainable, and intelligent material systems that either unfold their unique functionality in aqueous environments or derive their properties directly from nature’s most powerful resource: water.

BlueMat brings together four Research Areas – mechanical, fluid transport, photonic, and energy materials – supported by four Cross Areas dedicated to imaging, modeling, data, and exploitation. Together, they form a vibrant interdisciplinary research ecosystem:

• Mechanical Materials – design of hybrid nanomaterials for actuation, sensing, and active acoustics.
• Fluid Transport Materials – plant-inspired porous architectures for precise control of water-solid interactions.
• Photonic Materials – water-driven structured materials with tunable optical and microwave properties.
• Energy Materials – sustainable aqueous batteries, hydrovoltaic energy harvesting, and advanced catalysis.

The Cross Areas drive innovation with cutting-edge multimodal imaging, multi-scale computational and machine learning models, novel data strategies, and scalable exploitation pathways that bring Blue Materials into real-world applications.

At BlueMat you will find: Access to world-class infrastructure and facilities, Collaboration with internationally renowned scientists, An interdisciplinary, well-funded, and ambitious research environment, A strong focus on mentoring, career development, and international networking.

We welcome diverse minds – from leading experts to emerging researchers – to collaborate in an ambitious research program supported by state-of-the-art infrastructure. If you are excited to push boundaries at the intersection of materials science and water research, we look forward to hearing from you.

Find more information about the open positions here: www.tuhh.de/bluemat/get-involved/open-positions

Questions? Contact us at bluemat.office@tuhh.de – we are pleased to support you ahead of your application.