Join our thriving Centre of Excellence in Water-Based Systems for Health Protection and Department of Chemistry as a Prize Fellow in Biological Chemistry.

The Centre of Excellence in Water-Based Early-Warning Systems for Health Protection (CWBE) is a £13m interdisciplinary research centre, established in 2024 with funding from Research England’s Expanding Excellence in England (E3) scheme, together with contributions from the University of Bath and partners. 

We are working to transform public and environmental health management, establishing the first Urban Living Lab facility; a state-of-the-art digital water sensing platform, training base and ideas hub. Our ambition is to provide a practical roadmap for a UK early-warning system, co-produced with regional and national stakeholders to serve as a sentinel and multigenerational testing site for research and innovation. This platform will enable testing of public health and environmental interventions focused on increasing community resilience to disease, pollution and climate change impacts. 

We are looking to recruit a Prize Fellow:

• To develop an internationally leading independent research programme in the broad areas of Biological chemistry; Chemical toxicology; Cheminformatics/data science. 
• To teach aspects of analytical chemistry in both lectures and laboratory classes, maintaining the University’s high standards in teaching and learning, and its inclusive and supportive learning environment. 
• To contribute, with support, at an appropriate level to the administration, leadership, and management of the Department’s and Centre’s activities. 

About you

At Bath we offer an exceptional environment for research teaching and learning and we wish to support you in reaching your potential for internationally leading research, in the broad field of water-based epidemiology. Applications are invited for a Prize Fellow position in the Department of Chemistry to join the multidisciplinary CWBE team, working on wastewater-based early warning systems for public health protection.

The successful candidate will develop an independent research programme aligned with the CWBE mission while expanding the Centre's existing capabilities in one or more of the following areas: Biological chemistry, Chemical Toxicology, Cheminformatics and Data Science. We are particularly interested in strengthening our expertise in proteomics, as well as in cheminformatics, artificial intelligence, and data science. Applicants should have expertise in at least one or two of these areas demonstrate the ability to work collaboratively within an interdisciplinary environment. The role will involve close interaction with engineers, chemists, biologists, and social scientists, making strong teamwork and communication skills essential.

You should hold a PhD and be able to demonstrate the potential to develop an internationally leading research programme, to acquire significant funding from UK and international sources, and to produce high-quality publications.

Application Requirements & Selection Process:

Please provide both research and teaching statements of up to two pages for each in addition to a full CV. 

Your research statement needs to outline your plans and intentions for research activity that expands and complements existing capabilities in the centre, grant capture over the coming five years and your planned contributions to further development of the centre. This document will be treated in the strictest confidence and with full respect for ownership. The teaching vision should outline your areas of teaching expertise and a range of potential teaching subjects as well as course development interests. These are mandatory components of the selection process, without which we will be unable to progress your application.

For informal discussion about the role, please contact Professor Matthew Jones, Head of Department (mj205@bath.ac.uk), Prof Barbara Kasprzyk-Hordern, Director of CWBE (bkh20@bath.ac.uk). However, please submit your application via the University website. This role is a full-time fixed term position (36.5 hours per week for 24 months). Subject to satisfactory progress at the end of the fixed term, the position will transfer to a Lectureship in the Department of Chemistry and CWBE. 

We consider ourselves to be a university where difference is celebrated, respected and encouraged. We have an excellent international reputation with staff from over 60 different nations and have made a positive commitment towards gender equity and intersectionality receiving a Silver Athena SWAN award. We truly believe that diversity of experience, perspectives, and backgrounds will lead to a better environment for our employees and students and encourage applications from all genders, backgrounds, and communities, particularly from under-represented groups, and value the positive impact that will have on the university. We are committed to maintaining a safe and secure environment for our students, staff, and community by reinforcing our Safer Recruitment commitment.

We're very proud to be a signatory of the Armed Forces Covenant. an accredited Disability Confident Leader; autism friendly university, committed to building disability confidence and supporting disabled staff. 

What we can offer you 

We're continually expanding our benefits package to better support you and enhance your experience with us and the below is just an example of some of the many great benefits we offer:

• Generous annual leave allowance with an additional 5 discretionary days so that you can enjoy a positive work life balance
• Generous employer contributory pension schemes
• Cycle to work scheme
• Electric vehicle salary sacrifice scheme
• Staff discount at Team Bath gym
• Staff benefits include discounted postgraduate tuition and language courses, alongside a wide range of personal and professional development opportunities such as apprenticeships, LinkedIn Learning, and more
• Local discounts, including free entry to the Holburne Museum in Bath
• A family-friendly workplace 
• An excellent reward package that recognises the talents of our diverse workforce
• Relocation allowance
• Visa reimbursement and Interest-Free Loan to help with the cost of some immigration expenses
• Employee assistance services through Health Assured, including access to the Wisdom app

Find out more about our benefits and watch the video to hear from our staff about what makes the University of Bath a great place to work as well as following us X and LinkedIn.

Be Well at Bath

We’re committed to creating a health-supporting working environment where everyone can thrive and be at their best. We offer a range of resources to enable you to do that from your first day here, including:

• Staff support groups and networks
• A network of Staff Wellbeing Champions
• A suite of tools, resources and frameworks that enable you to be at your best and thrive

Find out more about being at your best at Bath.

 

Closing Date: 09 Nov 2026

Department: Education & Research

Salary: £48,337 to £57,666

This role is part of the UK Catalysis Hub where the practical work will take place at the Research Complex at Harwell (RCaH), working within the Hub laboratories.

The UK Catalysis Hub is a national consortium of 46 universities, 15 companies, the STFC Harwell science facilities, and 13 international partners established in 2013 to coordinate and advance UK catalysis research and connect it internationally. Now in its third phase of funding, its priority research areas include sustainability and net zero, digital chemistry, and advanced characterisation methods. One of its core missions is to support the training and career development of early career researchers via community events.

This is an exciting opportunity for a skilled and motivated postdoctoral researcher to work at the interface of heterogeneous catalysis and in situ spectroscopy, to understand molecular behaviour in zeolite catalysts for sustainable aviation fuels.

This one-year project brings together complementary expertise in catalytic testing and in situ spectroscopy (Lezcano Gonzalez, UK Catalysis Hub/Manchester) with atomistic modelling and simulation of microporous catalysts carried out by the main supervisor (O’Malley, Bath). The work will focus on the alcohol-to-jet (ATJ) process, a key route to sustainable aviation fuels, and aims to establish how adsorption, diffusion, and competitive site interactions within zeolite micropores govern catalytic performance, selectivity, and stability.

The project will involve catalytic testing in fixed-bed reactors and in situ FTIR/DRIFTS spectroscopy to probe adsorption, acid-site interactions, and reaction intermediates. The successful candidate will be based at Harwell, gaining experience across multiple techniques.

This role offers a unique opportunity to develop an integrated experimental skillset working closely with expertise in molecular simulation, with strong links to national facilities (ISIS and Diamond) and future large-scale research programmes. There will also be opportunities to engage with industrial partners working on sustainable aviation fuels and advanced catalyst materials.

Both the UKCH and University of Bath are strongly committed to ED&I and RRI, with comprehensive strategies to tackle long-standing issues facing under-represented groups and key ethical issues, focusing on empowering, inspiring, connecting and upskilling more diverse leaders.

About you

Ideal candidate will have experience in the use of vibrational spectroscopy to study the adsorption of molecules into porous materials, and ideally synthesis and characterisation of zeolite catalysts. 

Apart from excellent technical skills, good organisational, communication and presentation skills are essential for this role, as is the ability to work well in an interdisciplinary environment. Interaction with partners of the UK Catalysis Hub and participation in their events will be expected.

Further information

This is a full time (36.5 hours per week) fixed term role.

For an informal discussion regarding the role please contact Alexander O'Malley at aom36@bath.ac.uk.

We consider ourselves to be a university where difference is celebrated, respected and encouraged. We have an excellent international reputation with staff from over 60 different nations and have made a positive commitment towards gender equity and intersectionality receiving a Silver Athena SWAN award. We truly believe that diversity of experience, perspectives, and backgrounds will lead to a better environment for our employees and students and encourage applications from all genders, backgrounds, and communities, particularly from under-represented groups, and value the positive impact that will have on the university. We are committed to maintaining a safe and secure environment for our students, staff, and community by reinforcing our Safer Recruitment commitment.

We're very proud to be a signatory of the Armed Forces Covenant. an accredited Disability Confident Leader; autism friendly university, committed to building disability confidence and supporting disabled staff. 

What we can offer you

We're continually expanding our benefits package to better support you and enhance your experience with us and the below is just an example of some of the many great benefits we offer:

• Free counselling services through Health Assured
• Cycle to work scheme
• Electric vehicle salary sacrifice scheme
• Staff discount at Team Bath gym
• Staff discounts on postgraduate tuition fees
• Staff discount on language courses
• Generous employer contributory pension schemes
• Generous annual leave allowance with an additional 5 discretionary days so that you can enjoy a positive work life balance
• A wide range of personal and professional development opportunities including Apprenticeships, LinkedIn Learning and more
• Free entry to the Holburne Museum in Bath
• Local discounts and more
• A family-friendly workplace 
• An excellent reward package that recognises the talents of our diverse workforce

Find out more about our benefits and watch the video to hear from our staff about what makes the University of Bath a great place to work as well as following us X and LinkedIn.

 

Closing Date: 22 Oct 2026

Department: Education & Research

Salary: £39,560 to £46,970