Phd 2025 : Magnetic Granular Aerogels for Soft Robotics

**PhD 2025 : Magnetic granular aerogels for soft robotics**:

- Réf **ABG-133202**
- Sujet de Thèse
- 25/08/2025
- Contrat doctoral
- Centre de Mise en Forme des Matériaux (CEMEF)
- Lieu de travail- Sophia Antipolis - Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur - France
- Intitulé du sujet- PhD 2025 : Magnetic granular aerogels for soft robotics
- Champs scientifiques- Biochimie
- Matériaux
- Physique
- Mots clés- Bio-based polymers, porous materials, physico-chemical properties, functional materials

**Description du sujet**:

- Precise magnetic actuation requires the use of bottom-up fabrication techniques in which magnetic interactions are well-controlled on the level of the structural element.
- The **objective of this PhD project** is the fabrication of magnetic, bio-based, porous particles with tailored magnetic and mechanical properties.
- Magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles will be embedded within bio-based aerogel beads (nanostructured, stable and porous materials) and different methods for the assembly of these beads into macroscopic structures will be investigated. Also the rheological properties and behaviour in magnetic field of the granular materials will be explored towards their use in soft robotics.
- This explorative and interdisciplinary project is located at the interface of material chemistry and soft matter. The majority of the work will be performed at CEMEF - MINES Paris in Sophia Antipolis in the south of France. This lab has extensive experience in the preparation and physico-chemical characterization of bio-based aerogels [2]. The rheological characterization and magnetic behavior of the bio-aerogel bead assemblies will be investigated at the SIMM - ESPCI lab in Paris.

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions about this project.

**Keywords**: Bio-based polymers, porous materials, physico-chemical properties, functional materials

**References**:
**Prise de fonction**:

- 01/10/2025

**Nature du financement**:

- Contrat doctoral

**Précisions sur le financement**:
**Présentation établissement et labo d'accueil**:

- Centre de Mise en Forme des Matériaux (CEMEF)

CEMEF is a research lab. of MINES ParisTech I PSL University associated with CNRS, the French National Centre for Scientific Research (Unité Mixte de Recherche CNRS, UMR7635).

Overall, our missions are research and training in collaboration with industry.

Our research focuses specifically on materials and their transformation processes in the broadest sense. It extends additionally to other fields such as fluid mechanics, biomechanics or HPC for instance. On the other hand, our training programmes offer post-graduate courses related to our scientific fields of expertise. Furthermore, we are attentive to the scientific needs of industry and we set up research projects with industrial companies.

A MULTI-DISCIPLINARY RESEARCH LABORATORY

CEMEF studies the science of materials and forming processes. This twofold research theme is in fact at the origin of the creation of our research lab. Thus, from the outset, CEMEF has been interested in the analysis of manufacturing processes, i.e. it studies the entire chain consisting of the material / the process / the finished product.

**Site web**:
**Intitulé du doctorat**:

- Doctorat en Mécanique Numérique et Matériaux

**Pays d'obtention du doctorat**:

- France

**Etablissement délivrant le doctorat**:

- Doctorat de l’Université de Recherche Paris Sciences & Lettres - PSL Research University

**Ecole doctorale**:

- Sciences fondamentales et appliquées

**Profile**: Knowledge of materials science, ideally with experience in soft matter and rheology or mechanics; fluent in English; taste for initiative; MSc thesis (or equivalent) completed

**Duration**: 3 years, starting in autumn 2025

**Locations**: CEMEF (part of MINES Paris but located in Sophia Antipolis in the south of France) and SIMM (part of ESPCI Paris, France)

**Funding**:PSL University (METASOFT program)

**PhD supervisor**: Dr. Sijtze Buwalda (MINES Paris)

**Co-supervisors**: Dr. Artem Kovalenko (ESPCI) and Dr. Loren Jørgensen (ESPCI)

**Contact**:
**Annual gross salary**:about 26 k€/year.

**PhD position starting in the autumn of 2025**- 30/12/2025