Postdoc in physics (m/f/d) in the project “Virtual Museum”

76133 Karlsruhe

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76133 Karlsruhe

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As a member of the DNFS (Deutsche Naturwissenschaftliche Forschungssammlungen e.V.), the State Museum of Natural History Karlsruhe (SMNK) is one of the largest research museums and collections in Germany and presents permanent and special exhibitions on over 5000 m², including the largest living coral reef in Germany. With extensive analogue and digital offerings, it attracts more than 200,000 visitors every year. As a nationally and internationally active research museum in the fields of geosciences and biosciences, the museum enjoys recognition far beyond the region. The SMNK has a well-developed research infrastructure with molecular laboratories and imaging facilities. Based on its extensive collections and the taxonomic expertise of its curators, the museum is also an important point of contact for the general public, schools and the press interested in plant, fungal and animal species in south-western Germany and for experts in the region, as well as a cooperation partner for national and international institutes.

The Natural History Museum Karlsruhe is looking for a

Postdoc in physics (m/f/d)

in the project “Virtual Museum”

(limited to 3 years, full time, EG 13 TV-L)

Topic: Towards Serial Micro-Computed Tomography (SµCT) with synchrotron radiation

Summary: The aim is to develop autonomous X-ray Serial Micro-Computed Tomography (SµCT) with synchrotron radiation for morphological imaging of large collections of biological samples from natural history museums for large-scale biodiversity and evolutionary studies. Your research will focus on multiple contrast and hierarchical imaging by use of coherent X-ray optics, state-of-the-art image reconstruction algorithms, and experiment automation to optimize imaging conditions.

Scientific context: The collaborative VIRTUAL MUSEUM project combines the expertise and infrastructure of the State Museum of Natural History Karlsruhe (SMNK) and State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart (SMNS) as well as the two Synchrotron Radiation Facilities KIT Light Source at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, and PETRA III at DESY, Hamburg. It will revolutionize how scientific collections are digitized, creating a scalable, automated morphological imaging system to capture the rich diversity of fossil and living specimens. We employ most advanced coherent X-ray imaging techniques, implement intelligent robotics, develop AI-supported image acquisition and analysis routines with adaptive control systems for adaptive field of view, resolution and image contrast, on-the-fly 3D reconstruction, and automated quality check to achieve serial tomography without manual intervention. This will enable transforming large sample collections into virtual, research-ready digital twin collections accessible worldwide for comparative morphology analysis in correlation with genetic, environmental and other metadata. This will open the door to large-scale, data-driven biodiversity and evolutionary studies, support VR-compatible exploration of collections, and form a key pillar in Germanys strategy for digital natural history research.

Major parts of the methodical, instrumental and experimental work will be carried out at the Institute of Photon Science and Synchrotron Radiation at KIT with experimental campaigns being performed at PETRA III, DESY Hamburg.