Jerzy Haber Institute of Catalysis and Surface Chemistry Polish Academy of Sciences, Krakow, Poland opens a position of a research assistant in the Cultural Heritage Research Group of the Institute.
The candidates who meet the conditions stated in the act “Ustawa o Polskiej Akademii Nauk” dated 30 April 2010 (Dz.U. 2018 poz. 1475 z póź. zm.), art 89. Ust. 4 for the position of research assistant are encouraged to apply for the position.
The research assistant reporting to the head of the Cultural Heritage Research group will work on the development of a comprehensive mechanical and numerical model of historical, aged paint layers in paintings – innovative at a global scale. The paint layer is a complex assembly of humidity-sensitive materials which have – over centuries – aged, cracked, and delaminated. Cracks join up forming the network – the craquelure pattern (CP) – which is a distinctive characteristic of materials and physical structure of the artwork, an outcome of the construction and painting techniques employed by the workshop and the artist, but there is no knowledge on how CPs have developed and what is the effect of CPs on painting vulnerability to environmental variations.
The research assistant will be responsible for:
- developing a comprehensive 3D mechanical model of historical paint layers, using COMSOL Multiphysics software which will allow for the understanding of mechanisms and processes involved in CP formation.
- Physicochemical characterisation of the heritage objects as well as their mechanical parameters.