PhD Researcher – Numerical Methods for Photonic High-Performance Computing - Stuttgart

Institute for High-Performance Computing (IHR)
Future Computing Group

About HLRS

The High-Performance Computing Center Stuttgart (HLRS) is Germany's first federal high-performance computing center. It operates one of the world's fastest supercomputers and provides universities, research institutions, and industrial partners with access to high-performance computing resources. Furthermore, HLRS holds a leading global position in the research areas of parallel computing, cloud computing, as well as big data and artificial intelligence, and plays a key role in international and national research projects. Within HLRS, the Future Computing Group focuses on next-generation technologies for HPC, including research on photonic processors that promise to revolutionize computational performance for specific classes of problems.

We are searching for a

PhD Researcher – Numerical Methods for Photonic High-Performance Computing

(m/f/x, 100%, TV-L 13)

HLRS_09_2026)

The position is a 4-year fixed-term contract.

Background and Motivation

We conduct research in advanced numerical methods, including Finite Element Analysis (FEA) and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), which are fundamental to engineering simulation and scientific computing. Our Future Computing Group investigates how emerging photonic processors can be leveraged in high-performance computing environments to accelerate these computationally intensive simulations.

Conventional digital computing devices excel at addition and multiplication, optimized for matrix operations. However, nonlinear trigonometric functions such as sine and cosine are not extensively used in simulations. These operations are computationally expensive on traditional architectures but can be computed natively by analog photonic processors, potentially achieving breakthrough performance gains.

Research Objectives

The successful PhD candidate will:

·         Perform systematic analysis of the engineering codebases to identify dominant linear and, in particular, nonlinear computational kernels suitable for photonic execution.

·         Develop a proof-of-concept implementation demonstrating end-to-end acceleration on photonic hardware.

·         Explore how photonic hardware's inherent analog nature can be reconciled with the accuracy demands of engineering simulation.

·         Contribute to establishing methodologies for next-generation photonic HPC systems.

Requirements

Essential Qualifications

·         Master's degree (or equivalent) in computational science, applied mathematics, physics, or a related engineering discipline.

·         Ability to work independently and as part of an interdisciplinary team.

·         Excellent communication skills in English (written and spoken).

·         Willingness to publish and communicate results to academia.

Beneficial Experience

·         Experience with numerical methods for partial differential equations (PDEs)

·         Scientific programming skills in C, C++, Fortran, or Python

·         Prior exposure to FEM, or other mesh-based numerical solvers

·         Familiarity with high-performance computing environments

 If you have any questions regarding the job posting, please contact Johannes Gebert at gebert@hlrs.de

Have we caught your interest?

Then we are looking forward to receiving your detailed application!

Please submit your application including:

·         Cover letter explaining your motivation and research interests

·         Detailed CV

·         Copies of academic transcripts and degree certificates

·         Names and contact details of at least two references (optional)

·         Links to GitHub/GitLab repositories or other code samples (if available)

·         Relevant publications or technical reports (optional)

Please send your application via email (as a single PDF file) by May 8, 2026, with the subject line “HLRS_09_2026” to bewerbungen@hlrs.de.  

The University of Stuttgart aims to increase the proportion of women in academic and academic support roles and is therefore particularly interested in applications from women. Full-time positions may generally be split into part-time positions. Individuals with severe disabilities will be given priority in hiring if equally qualified.

The hiring of academic and non-academic staff is handled by the Central Administration of the University of Stuttgart (Office of the President).

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