Postdoc (f/m/d) - Remote sensing for analysing flow physics of offshore wind farm clusters

Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg

Postdoc (f/m/d)
Remote sensing for analysing flow physics of offshore wind farm clusters

Future energy systems will rely on large offshore wind farm clusters with hundreds of turbines. An enhanced understanding of the energy conversion process at various meteorological and grid conditions is crucial for the further expansion of offshore wind. There is a growing academic and industrial interest in utilising such knowledge for improved power performance, load control, mitigation of wake losses, power forecasts and auxiliary grid services. Your tasks
Your main objective is to scientifically advance the application of different remote sensing techniques, e.g., scanning lidar and radar, SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar), to develop and validate improvements in the design and operation of offshore wind farm clusters. Among others, your tasks will comprise:

• developing lidar and radar scanning strategies in the field and analysing virtual measurements in numerical wind fields,
• analysing cluster wake mitigation strategies and atmospheric phenomena (e.g. coherent structures, wind ramps, low level jets, turbulent–nonturbulent transition) at different meteorological conditions,
• enhancing forecasting methods and implementing forecasting algorithms for real-time applications.
• supporting extensive offshore measurement campaigns,
• processing large amounts of data by combining remote sensing measurements, meteorological information, and operational wind farm data,
• cooperating closely with wind farm operators and researchers from different fields at universities and institutes.
• project management, grant application and teaching tasks

Your profile
Requirements for employment include:

• PhD degree in physical or engineering sciences,
• university master’s degree in Physical Science, Mechanical or Aerospace Engineering, Renewable Energy or equivalent,
• profound knowledge and relevant experience in handling and analysing large data sets and statistical analysis,
• comprehensive skills with measurement techniques and uncertainty estimation,
• knowledge in forecasting methods and machine learning,
• extensive experience in programming with Python,
• high motivation and the ability to jointly work on a complex research topic,
• fluency in communicating and reporting in English.

Your benefits
We offer you the opportunity to develop your scientific career in a young and lively academic environment. You will be working in the WindLab – one of the university's most modern office and lab spaces – while you will also have the opportunity to do flexible and mobile work. Your further scientific qualification is actively supported by, e.g.,

• multidisciplinary cooperation with other researchers at ForWind and Fraunhofer IWES in Oldenburg,
• direct collaboration with industry while maintaining the links with our national and international partners in academia,
• optional secondment at an international research institute
• development of personal, scientific, and teaching skills through an individual training programme and selected teaching tasks,
• opportunities to present scientific results at international conferences and through peer-reviewed publications to extend your specific network.

Further, the university fosters a family-friendly working environment and offers a family service centre and on-campus children's daycare.

The employment is initially limited to three years. The payment is based on the collective agreement for the public service in the German federal states, TV-L E13, for a 100% position.

Our standards

• The Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg is dedicated to increase the percentage of female employees in the field of science. Therefore, female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply. In accordance to § 21 Section 3 NHG, female candidates with equal qualifications will be preferentially considered.
• Applicants with disabilities will be given preference in case of equal qualification.

Further benefits

• Secure remuneration according to collective agreement
• 30 days vacation
• Company pension scheme
• Further training opportunities
• Flexible working hours
• Health management
• Mobile working
• Compatibility of career and family

Further information on the research environment
Wind energy research at the Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg has gained international recognition by its integration into ForWind – Center for Wind Energy Research of the Universities of Oldenburg, Hannover and Bremen and the national Wind Energy Research Alliance of the German Aerospace Center (DLR), Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy Systems (IWES) and ForWind.
At ForWind, we value and maintain collaboration between our research groups and partner institutions, including members of the European Academy of Wind Energy. In Oldenburg, our 50 researchers from physics, meteorology, and engineering are collaborating at the »Research Laboratory for Turbulence and Wind Energy Systems«, which is centred on wind physics. Our mission is to develop a deeper understanding of the atmospheric and wind power plant flow physics required to meet the global demand for clean, affordable electricity. Therefore, we conduct laboratory experiments, free-field measurements and HPC-based numerical simulations. The main topics include the description and modelling of wind turbulence, the analysis of interactions of turbulent atmospheric wind flow and wind energy systems, as well as the control of wind turbines and wind farms. The covered scales range from small-scale turbulence up to meteorological phenomena. Our research facilities comprise three turbulent wind tunnels, various equipment for free-field measurements at on- and offshore wind farms and a high-performance computing cluster. Almost all our projects combine analyses at more than one of these infrastructures. For instance, virtual lidar measurements can be performed in simulated three-dimensional flow fields to verify the analysis algorithms. Our multi-lidar systems, equipped with up to three scanning lidars, are particularly important for the abovementioned research.

Further information is available at www.forwind.de/en/ and https://uol.de/en/physics/research/we-sys.
For questions regarding this job opportunity, please contact Prof. Dr. Martin Kühn at +49(0)441/798-5061 or preferably by email at martin.kuehn@uni-oldenburg.de.

Contact
Please submit your application via email by 31.01.2026 to application.wesys@uni-oldenburg.de

Please submit your application electronically as one PDF file to the University of Oldenburg, Faculty V, Institute of Physics, ForWind - Center for Wind Energy Research, Research Group Wind Energy Systems, Prof. Dr. Martin Kühn, Küpkersweg 70, 26129 Oldenburg, Germany and include reference #ACA124.

The PDF file must include either in English or German:

• A letter motivating your application.
• Curriculum vitae
• Grade transcripts and BSc/MSc/PhD diplomas
• Employment references

A second PDF file containing your PhD Thesis and relevant research papers is an optional attachment.
We are looking forward to receiving your application.