Applicants are invited for a PhD fellowship/scholarship at Graduate School of Technical Sciences, Aarhus University, Denmark, within the Mechanical and Production Engineering programme. The position is available from 15 May 2026 or later. You can submit your application via the link under 'how to apply'.

Title:
AI‑Enhanced Coronary Blood Dynamics for Diagnosis, Stent Planning and Prognosis

Research area and project description:
We are looking for a highly motivated PhD candidate to join our team in developing next‑generation computational tools for non‑invasive assessment of coronary artery disease. The project combines medical image analysis, computational fluid dynamics (CFD), artificial intelligence, and clinical cardiology, and offers access to several large, well‑characterized cardiovascular cohorts.

The PhD project consists of three main components:

1. Technical Development

The candidate will develop advanced methods for coronary flow analysis using CFD and physics‑informed neural networks. The goal is to automatically estimate relevant hemodynamic parameters such as coronary pressure gradients and wall shear stress. A second major task is the development of a virtual stent planner: an interactive, non‑invasive tool enabling optimized stent selection and implantation site planning. This system will use personalized in‑silico coronary models and fast hemodynamic simulations derived from the previous work packages.

2. Clinical Validation

The candidate will assess the accuracy of the CFD‑derived pressure gradients by comparing them with invasive fractional flow reserve (FFR), myocardial perfusion imaging, and absolute myocardial blood flow in more than 1,100 patients from the Dan‑NICAD cohorts.

3. Prognostic and Biological Insights

Leveraging large-scale population datasets (WDCCT and WSCCT, ~100,000 individuals), the candidate will explore the relationship between hemodynamic features and clinical outcomes such as myocardial infarction and mortality.

For technical reasons, you must upload a project description. Please simply copy the project description above and upload it as a PDF in the application.

Qualifications and specific competences:
Applicants to the PhD position must have a relevant master’s degree in mechanical engineering, physics, or relevant fields.

We are looking for highly motivated and independent candidates with the intention to complete a 3-year PhD at Aarhus University. The ideal candidate is expected to have most of the following qualifications:

• Master’s degree in mechanical engineering, physics, or relevant fields
• In-depth knowledge in fluid mechanics and biological flows.
• Experience with high-performance computing and/or machine-learning algorithms.
• Good writing and communication skills in English.

Place of employment and place of work:
The place of employment is Aarhus University, and the place of work is Department of Mechanical and Production Engineering, Katrinebjergvej 89F, 8200 Aarhus N., Denmark. 

Contacts:
Applicants seeking further information regarding the PhD position are invited to contact:

• Mahdi Abkar, e-mail: abkar@mpe.au.dk (main supervisor)
• Monika Colombo, e-mail: mc@mpe.au.dk (co-supervisor)

For information about application requirements and mandatory attachments, please see our application guide. If answers cannot be found there, please contact:

• admission.gradschool.tech@au.dk

How to apply:
Please follow this link to submit your application.

Application deadline is 09 March 2026 at 23:59 CET.
Preferred starting date is 15 May 2026.

Please note:

• Only documents received prior to the application deadline will be evaluated. Thus, documents sent after deadline will not be taken into account.
• The programme committee may request further information or invite the applicant to attend an interview.
• Shortlisting will be used, which means that the evaluation committee only will evaluate the most relevant applications.

Aarhus University’s ambition is to be an attractive and inspiring workplace for all and to foster a culture in which each individual has opportunities to thrive, achieve and develop. We view equality and diversity as assets, and we welcome all applicants. All interested candidates are encouraged to apply, regardless of their personal background.