The Center for Soft and Living Matter invites postdocs working in soft and/or living matter in SAS or SEAS at Penn to apply to be a CSLM Postdoctoral Fellow. Your postdoctoral advisor must be a member of the Center; if they are not, please ask them to contact We will build a cohort of Fellows who will have regular meetings with each other, with faculty leadership within the center and with visitors. Fellows will receive funding in the form of a research fund of up to $5000 for one year to support research (travel, equipment, visitors, etc.). This fellowship is eligible for renewal.

Postdoc fellows will be expected to:

• regularly attend and contribute to postdoc meetings
• participate in and help organize CSLM events and activities when possible
• attend and contribute either problems (if an experimentalist) or possible solutions (if a theorist) during the weekly CSLM Theory Office Hours.

Faculty who wish to use a CSLM Postdoctoral Fellowship to recruit outstanding postdocs, or to support a postdoc already at Penn, see below.

Application instructions for postdocs already at Penn

Please submit the following as a single pdf along with your completed application form by following this link to the fellowship application.

• A description of your research that fits on 1 page, double-spaced in 12-point font with 1” margins. A reference list after the research statement can be included and will not count toward the 1-page limit. After the reference list, include links to 1-3 of your papers (published or submitted) in soft and/or living matter.
• An up-to-date CV

Please also ask your postdoctoral advisor to submit a recommendation letter and provide them with the link to the faculty information section below.

Granting process

• The first round of postdoc fellows selection by the director and associate directors has been completed.
• Thereafter, there will be an annual call for applications from postdocs who are already at Penn.

Information for Faculty

CSLM will support the hiring of outstanding postdoctoral fellows in soft and living matter. The support will be in the form of a fund of up to $5000 awarded to the fellow to support their research (travel, equipment, visitors, etc.). These postdocs could either already be at Penn in SAS or SEAS or they could be new hires that the CSLM would like to attract. In either case, postdocs who work or will work jointly with more than one advisor within the center will receive priority consideration.

Faculty members of CSLM who wish to use a CSLM Postdoctoral Fellowship to attract an outstanding candidate should click this link. Note that postdoctoral candidates who will work with more than one member of the center will receive priority. Please allow 3 weeks for the committee to evaluate the candidate and make a decision.

CSLM faculty who wish to support a postdoc already here at Penn with a CSLM Postdoctoral Fellowship please click here.

Granting process

• The first round of postdoc fellows selection by the director and associate directors has been completed.
• Nominations from faculty who wish to recruit outstanding postdoc candidates will be accepted on a rolling basis.