We are excited to offer a two-year postdoc position in the Utrecht University topology group, one of the largest and most active in Europe. The position is joint between the NWO Vidi grant ‘Understanding symmetries of spaces via modular forms’ of Lennart Meier and the Spinoza Prize of Ieke Moerdijk.

Your job
We have a large and lively topology group (of currently thirteen members). You will actively contribute to it by organising seminars, giving talks and engaging with the other members of the group. The position comes without teaching obligations, but if you would like to gain teaching experience we offer you the opportunity to teach a course. Additionally, we encourage you to supervise Bachelor's or Master's theses. Regarding research, we encourage both collaboration and independence and provide regular mentorship.

The envisioned starting time is September 2025, though there is some flexibility to accommodate individual circumstances.

You are an enthusiastic mathematician who has recently obtained a PhD or will have by the starting date. You are working in algebraic topology, other parts of homotopy theory or its applications to other fields. The Utrecht topology group has a broad profile in these areas, including the study of topological modular forms, equivariant homotopy theory, derived algebraic geometry, the theory of operads and higher categories. We encourage applications from candidates having a broad outlook and their own ideas.

• A position for two years (initially one year which will be extended for another year after a positive evaluation);
• a gross monthly salary between €3,378 and €5,331 in the case of full-time employment (salary scale 10 of the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities (CAO NU));
• 8% holiday pay and 8.3% year-end bonus;
• a pension scheme, partially paid parental leave and flexible terms of employment based on the CAO NU.

In addition to the terms of employment laid down in the CAO NU, Utrecht University has a number of schemes and facilities of its own for employees. This includes schemes facilitating professional development, leave schemes and schemes for sports and cultural activities, as well as discounts on software and other IT products. We also offer access to additional employee benefits through our Terms of Employment Options Model. In this way, we encourage our employees to continue to invest in their growth. For more information, please visit Working at Utrecht University.

Universiteit Utrecht

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The Mathematical Institute is part of the department of Mathematics. It organises and teaches the Bachelor's curricula in Mathematics as well as the (English-taught) Master's programme in Mathematics and some service teaching in mathematics. The Institute is internationally recognised for its research in both pure and applied mathematics. It houses the Utrecht Geometry Centre and maintains a long-standing tradition of transdisciplinary collaboration with other scientific fields including, among others, atmosphere/ocean sciences, computational life sciences, mathematical biology, mathematical economics, medical and seismic imaging, theoretical computer science, and theoretical physics. We participate in university focus areas in Complex Systems and Applied Data Science.

You will join the Topology group. We are a large and active group, led by Gijs Heuts, Lennart Meier and Ieke Moerdijk, and have close ties to neighbouring universities as well. We have almost constantly several seminars running, for example now a joint research seminar with Amsterdam and Nijmegen and two learning seminars, one on trace methods and one on factorization homology. Additionally, we have a lot of informal exchange in group meetings, mentorship meetings and collaborations. Our research covers many areas of homotopy theory. Themes of special importance are the use of higher categories and operads, particularly in applications to chromatic, equivariant and unstable homotopy theory.

For more information, please contact Lennart Meier at f.l.m.meier@uu.nl.

Do you have a question about the application procedure? Please send an email to science.recruitment@uu.nl.