Postdoctoral Researcher: How do physical learning systems learn?

Work Activities
We are seeking an excellent and motivated postdoctoral researcher to join our team at AMOLF, working on fundamental questions on physical self-learning systems as part of the NWO ENW‑M1 project “How do physical learning systems learn?”. The research position is intended to start in September 2026.

Physical learning is an emerging paradigm in which materials adapt their behavior through local physical rules, without digital computation. Despite rapid experimental progress, it remains poorly understood how such systems learn and what signatures learning leaves in their physical structure and energy landscape. This project aims to build the theoretical foundations of physical learning, uncovering the modes of learning available to linear and nonlinear systems, their expressiveness and capacity, and the physical imprints of learned tasks.

The postdoctoral researcher will contribute to developing this theoretical framework, with a strong focus on analytical modeling, computational methods, and the interpretation of learning signals embedded in physical structures. Recent advances in our group, including new methods for detecting learning signals in linear networks that reveal aspects of the tasks they have learned, provide a powerful conceptual starting point.

The scope of possible topics includes:

• Developing theoretical tools to characterize learning modes in linear and nonlinear physical networks.
• Understanding how learning reshapes physical energy landscapes.
• Identifying physical signatures of learned tasks.
• Exploring expressiveness, capacity, and continual learning in physical systems.

This position is theoretical and computational in nature, with opportunities for collaboration with experimental groups working on physical learning in electronics, mechanics, and living flow networks (Physarum Polycephalum).

For more information about our work, see:

[1] Stern, Hexner, Rocks and Liu, Supervised learning in physical networks: From machine learning to learning machines, PRX 11, 021045 (2021)

[2] Stern and Murugan, Learning without neurons in physical systems, Ann Rev Cond Matt Phys 14, 417 (2023)

[3] Stern, Liu and Balasubramanian, Physical effects of learning, PRE 109, 024311 (2024).

[4] Stern, Guzman, Martins, Liu and Balasubramanian, Physical networks become what they learn, PRL 134, 147402 (2025).

Qualifications
We seek candidates with:

• A PhD in physics, applied mathematics, materials science, mechanical engineering, computer science, or a related field.
• Strong interest in learning, adaptation, and dynamical systems in physical contexts
• Experience with analytical and\or computational modeling.
• Proficiency in numerical methods and coding (Python, JAX, MATLAB, or related tools).
• Good communication skills in English.
• Experience with complex systems, energy landscapes, physical memory, machine learning, or soft/active matter is advantageous but not required.
• We welcome applicants from diverse backgrounds and strongly encourage curiosity-driven thinkers.

Work environment
AMOLF is a part of NWO-I and initiate and performs leading fundamental research on the physics of complex forms of matter, and to create new functional materials, in partnership with academia and industry. The institute is located at Amsterdam Science Park and currently employs about 140 researchers and 80 support employees. www.amolf.nl

The Learning Machines group at AMOLF, led by Menachem (Nachi) Stern, focuses on the development of fundamental understanding and theories regarding learning, from a physical perspective, under real world constraints.

Our group members work closely together with extensive support from AMOLF resources in all aspects of design, realization, and interpretation of computational models of physical learning systems. We have a strong focus on stimulating development of personnel in all professional aspects, as well as collaborations with other researchers at our institutes and beyond. Moreover, we work closely together with international groups and companies.

Working conditions

• The working atmosphere at the institute is largely determined by young, enthusiastic, mostly foreign employees. Communication is informal and runs through short lines of communication.
• The position is intended as full-time (40 hours / week, 12 months / year) appointment in the service of the Netherlands Foundation of Scientific Research Institutes (NWO-I) for the duration of four years
• Salary is in scale 10 (CAO-OI) which starts at 4.552 Euro’s gross per month, and a range of employment benefits.
• AMOLF assists any new foreign Postdoc with housing and visa applications and compensates their transport costs and furnishing expenses.

More information?
For further information about the position, please contact

Dr. Menachem Stern
E-mail: stern@amolf.nl

Application
You can respond to this vacancy online via the button below.

Online screening may be part of the selection.

Diversity code
AMOLF is highly committed to an inclusive and diverse work environment: we want to develop talent and creativity by bringing together people from different backgrounds and cultures. We recruit and select on the basis of competencies and talents. We strongly encourage anyone with the right qualifications to apply for the vacancy, regardless of age, gender, origin, sexual orientation or physical ability.

AMOLF has won the NNV Diversity Award 2022, which is awarded every two years by the Netherlands Physical Society for demonstrating the most successful implementation of equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI).

Commercial activities in response to this ad are not appreciated.

Postdoctoral Researcher: How do physical learning systems learn?

Work Activities
We are seeking an excellent and motivated postdoctoral researcher to join our team at AMOLF, working on fundamental questions on physical self-learning systems as part of the NWO ENW‑M1 project “How do physical learning systems learn?”. The research position is intended to start in September 2026.

Physical learning is an emerging paradigm in which materials adapt their behavior through local physical rules, without digital computation. Despite rapid experimental progress, it remains poorly understood how such systems learn and what signatures learning leaves in their physical structure and energy landscape. This project aims to build the theoretical foundations of physical learning, uncovering the modes of learning available to linear and nonlinear systems, their expressiveness and capacity, and the physical imprints of learned tasks.

The postdoctoral researcher will contribute to developing this theoretical framework, with a strong focus on analytical modeling, computational methods, and the interpretation of learning signals embedded in physical structures. Recent advances in our group, including new methods for detecting learning signals in linear networks that reveal aspects of the tasks they have learned, provide a powerful conceptual starting point.

The scope of possible topics includes:

• Developing theoretical tools to characterize learning modes in linear and nonlinear physical networks.
• Understanding how learning reshapes physical energy landscapes.
• Identifying physical signatures of learned tasks.
• Exploring expressiveness, capacity, and continual learning in physical systems.

This position is theoretical and computational in nature, with opportunities for collaboration with experimental groups working on physical learning in electronics, mechanics, and living flow networks (Physarum Polycephalum).

For more information about our work, see:

[1] Stern, Hexner, Rocks and Liu, Supervised learning in physical networks: From machine learning to learning machines, PRX 11, 021045 (2021)

[2] Stern and Murugan, Learning without neurons in physical systems, Ann Rev Cond Matt Phys 14, 417 (2023)

[3] Stern, Liu and Balasubramanian, Physical effects of learning, PRE 109, 024311 (2024).

[4] Stern, Guzman, Martins, Liu and Balasubramanian, Physical networks become what they learn, PRL 134, 147402 (2025).

Qualifications
We seek candidates with:

• A PhD in physics, applied mathematics, materials science, mechanical engineering, computer science, or a related field.
• Strong interest in learning, adaptation, and dynamical systems in physical contexts
• Experience with analytical and\or computational modeling.
• Proficiency in numerical methods and coding (Python, JAX, MATLAB, or related tools).
• Good communication skills in English.
• Experience with complex systems, energy landscapes, physical memory, machine learning, or soft/active matter is advantageous but not required.
• We welcome applicants from diverse backgrounds and strongly encourage curiosity-driven thinkers.

Work environment
AMOLF is a part of NWO-I and initiate and performs leading fundamental research on the physics of complex forms of matter, and to create new functional materials, in partnership with academia and industry. The institute is located at Amsterdam Science Park and currently employs about 140 researchers and 80 support employees. www.amolf.nl

The Learning Machines group at AMOLF, led by Menachem (Nachi) Stern, focuses on the development of fundamental understanding and theories regarding learning, from a physical perspective, under real world constraints.

Our group members work closely together with extensive support from AMOLF resources in all aspects of design, realization, and interpretation of computational models of physical learning systems. We have a strong focus on stimulating development of personnel in all professional aspects, as well as collaborations with other researchers at our institutes and beyond. Moreover, we work closely together with international groups and companies.

Working conditions

• The working atmosphere at the institute is largely determined by young, enthusiastic, mostly foreign employees. Communication is informal and runs through short lines of communication.
• The position is intended as full-time (40 hours / week, 12 months / year) appointment in the service of the Netherlands Foundation of Scientific Research Institutes (NWO-I) for the duration of four years
• Salary is in scale 10 (CAO-OI) which starts at 4.552 Euro’s gross per month, and a range of employment benefits.
• AMOLF assists any new foreign Postdoc with housing and visa applications and compensates their transport costs and furnishing expenses.

More information?
For further information about the position, please contact

Dr. Menachem Stern
E-mail: stern@amolf.nl

Application
You can respond to this vacancy online via the button below.

Online screening may be part of the selection.

Diversity code
AMOLF is highly committed to an inclusive and diverse work environment: we want to develop talent and creativity by bringing together people from different backgrounds and cultures. We recruit and select on the basis of competencies and talents. We strongly encourage anyone with the right qualifications to apply for the vacancy, regardless of age, gender, origin, sexual orientation or physical ability.

AMOLF has won the NNV Diversity Award 2022, which is awarded every two years by the Netherlands Physical Society for demonstrating the most successful implementation of equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI).

Commercial activities in response to this ad are not appreciated.

Thesis project (BSc/MSc): How does nature break symmetry?

Work Activities
Many molecules and crystals exist in two mirror-image forms (left- and right-handed). Yet in nature, and especially in living systems, often one handedness dominates. How can a system in which left and right are energetically equivalent still end up choosing a side?

Fig.1: Chiral asymmetry in nature at various scales. Source: Zang, G (2023)

In this thesis project you will study the crystallization of chiral crystals and the emergence and amplification of chirality. The work is inherently interdisciplinary: chemistry (solution conditions, additives, kinetics) meets physics (transport, non-equilibrium growth, instabilities, pattern formation) in the context of biology (the origin of life, bio-inspired processes). Because we explore multiple connected questions, you can co-design the thesis direction based on your interests, ranging from hands-on experiments to modeling and quantitative data analysis.

You will learn

• Crystallization experiments and experimental design
• Optical microscopy and time-lapse imaging
• Quantitative analysis and scientific interpretation
• Working across the interface of physics and chemistry

Reference:

Zhang, G., Cheng, X., Wang, Y., & Zhang, W. (2023). Supramolecular chiral polymeric aggregates: Construction and applications. Aggregate, 4(1), e262.

Qualifications
BSc/MSc students in Physics, Chemistry, Materials Science or an interdisciplinary track such as Bèta-Gamma. Curiosity and motivation matter more than specific prior techniques.

Work environment
The internship will be conducted in the Self-Organizing Matter group, headed by Prof. dr. Wim Noorduin. Our group focuses on the dynamic interplay between chemical reactions and crystallization phenomena to control the emergence of complexity in the solid state. His group is known for designing physical/chemical schemes to self-organize complex materials and develop new chiral amplification methods for the synthesis of enantiomerically pure building blocks. Current research includes the development of new routes to control crystallization, material composition, shape and hierarchical organization of mineralized structures and the design of physical/chemical feedback mechanisms to self-correct and amplify the emergence of complexity.

AMOLF is a part of NWO-I and initiate and performs leading fundamental research on the physics of complex forms of matter, and to create new functional materials, in partnership with academia and industry. The institute is located at Amsterdam Science Park and currently employs about 140 researchers and 80 support employees. www.amolf.nl

Working conditions
At the start of the traineeship your trainee plan will be set out, in consultation with your AMOLF supervisor.

Supervision by: Tess Heeremans (PhD candidate, Self-Organizing Matter group, AMOLF): I care strongly about the joy of doing science and aim to provide both freedom to follow your curiosity and structured support to build solid scientific skills.

Location: Experiments will mainly be performed at AMOLF (Science Park, Amsterdam) in the Self-Organizing Matter group of Prof.dr. Wim Noorduin. Depending on the thesis angle, collaboration with other groups at AMOLF and the Institute of Physics and HIMS at the UvA is possible/encouraged.

More information?
For further information about the position, please contact Tess Heeremans: t.heeremans@amolf.nl

Link to group website: Wim Noorduin - AMOLF

Application
You can respond to this vacancy online via the button below. Please annex your:

• Resume
• List of followed courses
• Motivation Letter

Online screening may be part of the selection.

Diversity code
AMOLF is highly committed to an inclusive and diverse work environment: we want to develop talent and creativity by bringing together people from different backgrounds and cultures. We recruit and select on the basis of competencies and talents. We strongly encourage anyone with the right qualifications to apply for the vacancy, regardless of age, gender, origin, sexual orientation or physical ability.

AMOLF has won the NNV Diversity Award 2022, which is awarded every two years by the Netherlands Physical Society for demonstrating the most successful implementation of equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI).

Commercial activities in response to this ad are not appreciated.

PhD position Chiral Light Emitting Metasurfaces

Work Activities
How do you make a light source that is directional, has a controlled wavefront, and a controlled polarization out of an intrinsically incoherent and disordered set of emitters, like fluorophores in an LED phosphor? This is a defining question in the field of light-emitting metasurfaces, with applications in LEDs, incandescent lighting and VR/AR display pixels. While it is understood how to shape intensity, e.g. making LEDs directional with nanostructures, a completely open question is how to shape polarization of emission at will. This touches on an emerging field in nanophotonics: chirality, which in the light field expresses as circular polarization. Circularly polarized fluorescent light sources are for instance pursued for pixels in 3D display technology. You will work on realizing chiral light emitting devices combining both intrinsically chiral emitters, and nanophotonic engineering through optical metasurfaces.

Metasurfaces, i.e., nanostructured 2D scattering surfaces can impact chirality in two ways. On one hand, there is interest in using the geometry of metasurfaces to ‘spoof’ chirality: imparting chiral emission and absorption properties on light-emitting matter that is not itself microscopically chiral, On the other hand, matter such as light emitting molecules may itself be chiral. While molecular chirality is intrinsically weak, there are claims that on the nanoscale optical resonances can be ‘superchiral’, and will boost the enantioselective properties of molecularly chiral absorber and emitter materials.

In this project you will work with novel world-record strength chiral emitter systems derived from OLED (organic light emitting polymer LED) materials developed by M. Fuchter and J. Wade (Oxford Univ. and Imperial College). We aim to address two main questions. First, we aim to uncover the microscopic origin of the record-strength chiral nature of fluorescence from these materials. It is well known in nanophotonics that you can unravel the properties of fluorescent transitions by placing matter in controlled environments (cavities, multilayers), that exert known cavity QED effects. You will extend this toolbox to chiral/polarimetrically resolved versions to elucidate the transition dipole moments, radiative lifetimes and handed far field angular emission properties. Second, we aim to address the question how you can manipulate and enhance microscopic chirality by metasurface resonances.

This project will involve fluorescence microscopy, polarimetry, fluorescence lifetime measurements, transient absorption spectroscopy, metasurface design and nanofabrication, and will build on already available strengths in these techniques as well as numerical and analytical theoretical descriptions. The work is under joint supervision of F. Koenderink at AMOLF and S. Mann at UvA, and benefits for collaboration on the materials aspects with M. Fuchter and J. Wade.

Qualifications
You have a MSc degree in physics, optics, photonics, physical chemistry, nanoscience, or a related field.

Work environment
The project will be a collaboration between the Resonant Nanophotonics group at AMOLF and the team of Dr. Sander Mann at the nearby Institute of Physics at University of Amsterdam. You will be employed at AMOLF and be embedded in the AMOLF team, but will also participate in work discussions and events at the UvA team.

AMOLF is a national research institute and is part of NWO-I. Its mission is to initiate and perform leading fundamental research on the physics of complex forms of matter, and to create new functional materials, in partnership with academia and industry. The institute is located at Amsterdam Science Park and currently employs about 140 researchers and 80 support employees. www.amolf.nl

The research activities in the Resonant Nanophotonics group at AMOLF (PI Femius Koenderink) aim at developing nanoscale photonic structures, such as metasurface optics, optical nanoantennas and resonators to control scattering, emission, amplification and detection of light. Our work has applications in the domains of nanophotonic light sources, optical metrology, microscopy, and wavebased information processing.

The LightMatters group at the University of Amsterdam (PI Sander Mann) focuses on incoherent emission of thermal origin, both for nanophotonic control of thermal radiation and thermal transport inside materials.

Working conditions

• The working atmosphere at the institute is largely determined by young, enthusiastic, mostly foreign employees. Communication is informal and runs through short lines of communication.
• The position is intended as full-time (40 hours / week, 12 months / year) appointment in the service of the Netherlands Foundation of Scientific Research Institutes (NWO-I) for the duration of four years
• The starting salary is 3.115 Euro’s gross per month and a range of employment benefits.
• After successful completion of the PhD research a PhD degree will be granted at a Dutch University.
• Several courses are offered, specially developed for PhD-students.
• AMOLF assists any new foreign PhD-student with housing and visa applications and compensates their transport costs and furnishing expenses.

More information?
For further information about the position, please contact Femius Koenderink: f.koenderink@amolf.nl

Application
You can respond to this vacancy online via the button below.

Online screening may be part of the selection.

Diversity code
AMOLF is highly committed to an inclusive and diverse work environment: we want to develop talent and creativity by bringing together people from different backgrounds and cultures. We recruit and select on the basis of competencies and talents. We strongly encourage anyone with the right qualifications to apply for the vacancy, regardless of age, gender, origin, sexual orientation or physical ability.

AMOLF has won the NNV Diversity Award 2022, which is awarded every two years by the Netherlands Physical Society for demonstrating the most successful implementation of equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI).

Commercial activities in response to this ad are not appreciated.

PhD position Chiral Light Emitting Metasurfaces

Work Activities
How do you make a light source that is directional, has a controlled wavefront, and a controlled polarization out of an intrinsically incoherent and disordered set of emitters, like fluorophores in an LED phosphor? This is a defining question in the field of light-emitting metasurfaces, with applications in LEDs, incandescent lighting and VR/AR display pixels. While it is understood how to shape intensity, e.g. making LEDs directional with nanostructures, a completely open question is how to shape polarization of emission at will. This touches on an emerging field in nanophotonics: chirality, which in the light field expresses as circular polarization. Circularly polarized fluorescent light sources are for instance pursued for pixels in 3D display technology. You will work on realizing chiral light emitting devices combining both intrinsically chiral emitters, and nanophotonic engineering through optical metasurfaces.

Metasurfaces, i.e., nanostructured 2D scattering surfaces can impact chirality in two ways. On one hand, there is interest in using the geometry of metasurfaces to ‘spoof’ chirality: imparting chiral emission and absorption properties on light-emitting matter that is not itself microscopically chiral, On the other hand, matter such as light emitting molecules may itself be chiral. While molecular chirality is intrinsically weak, there are claims that on the nanoscale optical resonances can be ‘superchiral’, and will boost the enantioselective properties of molecularly chiral absorber and emitter materials.

In this project you will work with novel world-record strength chiral emitter systems derived from OLED (organic light emitting polymer LED) materials developed by M. Fuchter and J. Wade (Oxford Univ. and Imperial College). We aim to address two main questions. First, we aim to uncover the microscopic origin of the record-strength chiral nature of fluorescence from these materials. It is well known in nanophotonics that you can unravel the properties of fluorescent transitions by placing matter in controlled environments (cavities, multilayers), that exert known cavity QED effects. You will extend this toolbox to chiral/polarimetrically resolved versions to elucidate the transition dipole moments, radiative lifetimes and handed far field angular emission properties. Second, we aim to address the question how you can manipulate and enhance microscopic chirality by metasurface resonances.

This project will involve fluorescence microscopy, polarimetry, fluorescence lifetime measurements, transient absorption spectroscopy, metasurface design and nanofabrication, and will build on already available strengths in these techniques as well as numerical and analytical theoretical descriptions. The work is under joint supervision of F. Koenderink at AMOLF and S. Mann at UvA, and benefits for collaboration on the materials aspects with M. Fuchter and J. Wade.

Qualifications
You have a MSc degree in physics, optics, photonics, physical chemistry, nanoscience, or a related field.

Work environment
The project will be a collaboration between the Resonant Nanophotonics group at AMOLF and the team of Dr. Sander Mann at the nearby Institute of Physics at University of Amsterdam. You will be employed at AMOLF and be embedded in the AMOLF team, but will also participate in work discussions and events at the UvA team.

AMOLF is a national research institute and is part of NWO-I. Its mission is to initiate and perform leading fundamental research on the physics of complex forms of matter, and to create new functional materials, in partnership with academia and industry. The institute is located at Amsterdam Science Park and currently employs about 140 researchers and 80 support employees. www.amolf.nl

The research activities in the Resonant Nanophotonics group at AMOLF (PI Femius Koenderink) aim at developing nanoscale photonic structures, such as metasurface optics, optical nanoantennas and resonators to control scattering, emission, amplification and detection of light. Our work has applications in the domains of nanophotonic light sources, optical metrology, microscopy, and wavebased information processing.

The LightMatters group at the University of Amsterdam (PI Sander Mann) focuses on incoherent emission of thermal origin, both for nanophotonic control of thermal radiation and thermal transport inside materials.

Working conditions

• The working atmosphere at the institute is largely determined by young, enthusiastic, mostly foreign employees. Communication is informal and runs through short lines of communication.
• The position is intended as full-time (40 hours / week, 12 months / year) appointment in the service of the Netherlands Foundation of Scientific Research Institutes (NWO-I) for the duration of four years
• The starting salary is 3.115 Euro’s gross per month and a range of employment benefits.
• After successful completion of the PhD research a PhD degree will be granted at a Dutch University.
• Several courses are offered, specially developed for PhD-students.
• AMOLF assists any new foreign PhD-student with housing and visa applications and compensates their transport costs and furnishing expenses.

More information?
For further information about the position, please contact Femius Koenderink: f.koenderink@amolf.nl

Application
You can respond to this vacancy online via the button below.

Online screening may be part of the selection.

Diversity code
AMOLF is highly committed to an inclusive and diverse work environment: we want to develop talent and creativity by bringing together people from different backgrounds and cultures. We recruit and select on the basis of competencies and talents. We strongly encourage anyone with the right qualifications to apply for the vacancy, regardless of age, gender, origin, sexual orientation or physical ability.

AMOLF has won the NNV Diversity Award 2022, which is awarded every two years by the Netherlands Physical Society for demonstrating the most successful implementation of equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI).

Commercial activities in response to this ad are not appreciated.