Ross Kang (University of Amsterdam) and I will be looking to hire (see also https://staff.fnwi.uva.nl/j.r.kang/M2PhDcall.html):

• One PhD student based at the University of Amsterdam: https://werkenbij.uva.nl/en/vacancies/phd-in-probabilistic-and-extremal-combinatorics-netherlands-15505

• One postdoc based at TU Delft (not yet advertised).

Besides this, I will be looking to hire:

• One PhD student based at TU Delft: https://careers.tudelft.nl/job/Delft-PhD-Position-Combinatorics-2628-CD/1373209657/
  The application for this has closed. Interview invitations will be send out in the near future and will be combined with the Amsterdam position.

The first two positions are on an M2 grant with the topic in probabilistic and extremal combinatorics. This can have intersections with structural graph theory, probability theory and algorithms. The topic of the last position can be adapted to the applicant but also has to be broadly within those fields.

The starting dates for the positions are flexible, though for the PhD positions a starting date before October 2027 is desired. The postdoc position will be advertised at a later date.

Via the links, you will be asked to upload the following documents:

• CV with contact details of two (or more) academic references that may be contacted

• Motivation letter

• Detailed transcript (containing your grades and the universities explanation of the meaning of the grades)

• Copy of master's thesis or comparable research-oriented document

It is a strict requirement to have a master's degree by the start of the PhD and to be fluent in English. It is also important to have some prior experience with mathematical research, for example through a summer internship or university project. We look for candidates with strong communication and collaboration skills, mathematical maturity and enthusiasm for our research topics. We invite all candidates with a strong match on the above criteria to apply. 

Fluency in Dutch is not required. The positions will have similar teaching requirement (15%) and salary as other PhD positions at Dutch universities. 

The 'motivation letter' is required by the TU Delft to submit one for any vacancy, but I know many master students struggle on how to write it. For me the main useful reason to have one is if there is some information that you deem relevant that did not fit in any of the other application documents, but this is probably not applicable to many candidates. One possible thing is to provide answers to questions such as 'why do you want to a PhD' (what is your previous research experience and what did you like there?) and 'why this particular topic' (what have you seen in graph theory/combinatorics/algorithms previously and which things did you like?) .

Further information on the Delft PhD position.

Examples of coursework topics related to this position include:

• The Probabilistic Method book of Alon-Spencer

• Extremal combinatorics book by Jukna

• Tree decompositions and parameterized complexity. 

No specific topic within those is required, but there should be indication that applicants can pick them up quickly. In particular, it is important to have already done either master's level coursework or research projects related to the topics in order to know whether you like the topics enough to do a PhD in one of those directions.  

In order to give an idea of the PhD topic and the desired mathematical maturity, below are some examples of recent work of mine with sections indicated that should be doable to understand with time and effort, given sufficiently high mathematical maturity:

• https://arxiv.org/pdf/2306.05979 introduction and proof of Theorem 1.2 and Theorem 3.1.

• https://arxiv.org/pdf/2509.17820 most of the paper.

• https://arxiv.org/pdf/2510.18529 introduction and section 2.

• https://arxiv.org/pdf/2511.22604 introduction and proof of Lemma 2.1.

• https://arxiv.org/pdf/2601.13072 introduction.