A 4-year PhD position is available in the field of lab-on-a-chip technologies and mechanobiology at the Groningen Research Institute of Pharmacy, within the Faculty of Science and Engineering at the University of Groningen.

Large Language Models are rapidly becoming central tools in search, assistance, creative work, and decision-support. Yet even strong models continue to hallucinate, encode hidden biases, or behave inconsistently across tasks and languages. To build systems that are genuinely safe and reliable, we must better understand how LLMs organise information internally, when they succeed or fail, and how their behaviour can be guided.

This PhD project asks a broad but fundamental question: How can we analyse and influence the internal behaviour of LLMs to make them more truthful, safe, and robust?

The position is part of MS-RADAM (“MultiScale phenomena in RAdiation DAMage”), a European Doctoral Network project funded by the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) programme. The project brings together leading academic and industrial partners from eight European countries (Germany, France, United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Czech Republic, Sweden, Denmark and Georgia) to train a new generation of interdisciplinary researchers.

MS-RADAM aims to advance the understanding of key radiation-induced biodamage phenomena at the nano- and larger scales, with applications in particle therapy, radiotherapy, and radioprotection. These include the formation of DNA strand breaks by ionising radiation, DNA repair, radiosensitisation by metal nanoparticles, cell survival and radioresistance.

The MS-RADAM research programme combines state-of-the-art computational multiscale modelling (using DFT/TDDFT methods, collision theory, molecular dynamics, stochastic dynamics, Monte Carlo and analytical methods) and its thorough validation using advanced experimental techniques (such as mass spectrometry, electron microscopy, radiochemistry and radiobiology experiments with biomolecular and biological systems such as oligonucleotides, DNA origami, radiosensitising nanoparticles, living cells and multicellular targets).