Vacancies

This page lists the open PhD and postdoctoral researcher positions, fellowships, and Master/Bachelor student projects available within my group at VU Amsterdam and the Nikhef Theory group. Vacancies for PhD candidate and postdoctoral researcher positions are advertised here as well as on the Nikhef jobs portal. Prospective candidates are warmly encouraged to contact me at j.rojo@vu.nl.

Open PhD and postdoctoral researcher positions

Current openings are listed below. Please also check the Nikhef jobs portal for the most up-to-date list of vacancies.

PhD position: modelling of high-energy hadronic interactions at Auger, KM3NeT, and FASER

The modelling of high-energy hadronic interactions is a dominant source of uncertainty in the interpretation of cosmic-ray air showers, high-energy astrophysical neutrino fluxes, and forward particle production at the LHC. The same underlying physics governs all three, yet the models used to describe it must be extrapolated far beyond the energies and phase-space regions where they have been directly measured. The PhD candidate will improve the modelling of these high-energy hadronic interactions by confronting state-of-the-art models and event generators with measurements from three complementary experiments: ultra-high-energy cosmic-ray air showers at the Pierre Auger Observatory, high-energy neutrinos at KM3NeT, and forward neutrino and hadron production at FASER at the LHC. By combining these accelerator-based and astroparticle datasets within a common framework, the candidate will derive improved constraints on high-energy hadronic scattering, enhancing the physics reach of all three experiments. This PhD position will be co-supervised by Prof. Dr. Charles Timmermans (Nikhef and RU Nijmegen).

Interested? Please apply through the Nikhef jobs portal. The deadline for applications is Friday August 14th, 2026

PhD and postdoc positions on QCD and proton structure with LHC neutrinos

The recently awarded ERC Advanced Grant UNICORN (“Unlocking the Strong Interactions with Collider Neutrinos”) will build the theoretical framework needed to model the production and scattering of LHC neutrinos, combining state-of-the-art QCD calculations, Monte Carlo simulations, and machine learning, and will apply it to the FASER and SND@LHC Run 3 datasets while laying the groundwork for a thriving LHC neutrino program at the High-Luminosity LHC. Supported by UNICORN, we are looking for PhD candidates and postdocs to work on four main pillars: the data-driven extraction of the LHC forward neutrino fluxes; charm production at the LHC as high-resolution probes of small-x QCD; neutrino and muon deep-inelastic scattering structure functions at TeV energies and their inclusion in the NNPDF global analysis of proton structure; and the development of state-of-the-art event generators for neutrino and muon DIS with data-driven tunes and their integration with Neural Simulation-Based Inference techniques to extract optimally sensitive, unbinned observables from FASER data. The successful candidates will work closely with the other members of the Nikhef Theory team and join the FASER collaboration, including through working visits to CERN.

Interested? Please apply through the Nikhef jobs portal. There is no fixed application deadline: the review of applications will begin on 15 July 2026 and will continue until the positions are filled. The intended starting date is 1 January 2027 or shortly thereafter.

Fellowships

Beyond directly funded positions, we are also happy to host and support applicants for a number of external fellowships, including:

MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships (Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, for postdoctoral researchers)
NWO Veni fellowships (NWO Talent Programme, for early-career researchers)
ERC Starting Grants (European Research Council, for emerging research leaders)

Interested applicants are encouraged to contact me directly at j.rojo@vu.nl to discuss a possible application and to develop a competitive research proposal together.

Bachelor and master student projects & internships

We regularly host bachelor and master research internships within the Nikhef Theory group. Out projects sit at the boundary between particle physics theory and experiment, with a strong computational component and a particular focus on machine learning and AI; several recent MSc projects in the group have led to peer-reviewed publications. Available projects span three main focus areas:

Proton structure with machine learning: designing AI-based observables, for instance via neural simulation-based inference, and global fits of parton distributions within the NNPDF framework.
Searches for New Physics with effective field theories: probing physics beyond the Standard Model at the LHC and future colliders within the SMEFiT global analysis.
High-energy neutrinos at colliders and in the cosmos: exploiting LHC neutrinos at FASER and the Forward Physics Facility to probe proton and nuclear structure and to connect with astroparticle physics.

A summary of the currently available projects is given in these slides (updated in March 2026), and further details on the underlying research topics offered by my group can be found on the Research page.

Visiting student internships

We also welcome visiting student internships, for example through the Erasmus+ programme. Interested candidates are encouraged to contact me directly at j.rojo@vu.nl.