The Getty Conservation Institute’s (GCI) postdoctoral fellowship is a two-year program designed to provide recent PhDs in chemistry and other physical or material sciences with experience in conservation science. The 2019-2021 Postdoctoral Fellow will be an integral part of the GCI Science’s Preventive Conservation and Modern and Contemporary Art research initiatives. (http://www.getty.edu/conservation/about/science/index.html). 

In support of the GCI’s mission to advance conservation practice in the visual arts, much of the Science department’s work in preventive conservation involves assessing the effects of environmental conditions on museum objects. Ongoing research is particularly important for modern polymeric materials (i.e., plastics), the lifespans of which are often much shorter than for more traditional artist materials. The GCI is studying this problem with a combined approach of chemical characterization and mechanical testing to understand the degradation pathways and physical manifestations of aging in plastic art and artifacts. Static and dynamic mechanical testing at different scales and controlled environmental conditions will be accompanied by comprehensive chemical analysis of samples with a suite of spectroscopic, chromatographic, calorimetric, and imaging techniques. The applied nature of this work means that the Fellow will collaborate closely with practicing conservators as well as with scientific researchers in other organizations.

The Postdoctoral Fellow is expected to engage with, and be involved in, both new and existing projects and research partnerships concerned with materials research and conservation methods. The GCI anticipates that the Fellow’s primary research activities will focus on understanding the mechanisms and progress of aging in range of plastic artifacts in museum collections. The physical, mechanical and chemical properties will be analyzed as a function of manufacturing technology, ongoing aging, and various conservation treatments. More information can be found at this link.