Job Reference: IWF086PD224
Application deadline: 31 Aug 2024
Starting date: 01 Jan 2025
Where: Space Research Institute (IWF) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (OeAW)
Duration of the contract: 2 years, full time (40h per week)
Salary: € 66.501,40 (gross annual salary according to the collective agreement of the Austrian Academy of Sciences)

Job Tasks 

The successful candidate will be part of Dr. Luca Fossati’s research group “Exoplanet characterization and evolution”. The group’s research work concentrates on the observation, characterization, and modelling of exoplanets, focusing in particular on the study of atmospheric structure and evolution using both observations and theory. Furthermore, the group holds significant expertise in the analysis of transit light curves and of radial velocity time series, as well as in the determination of stellar parameters from evolutionary models. The group is heavily involved in a number of current and future space missions (e.g. CHEOPS, CUTE, PLATO, ARIEL, ESCAPE, HWO) and in large collaborations exploiting ground-based high-resolution spectrographs to carry out both exoplanetary and stellar science.

The position is funded through a grant of the Austrian Research Promotion Agency as part of the Austrian Space Applications Programme and it involves the following tasks:

• Characterization of systematic uncertainties involved in stellar evolution modelling
• Development of a (web) tool enabling one to estimate systematic uncertainties on stellar mass and age, focusing in particular on the region of the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram of interest to the PLATO mission
• Publication of original research work on refereed journals

More information is reported in the job announcement.

Profile’s requirements 

• PhD in the relevant fields of astrophysics
• Experience with stellar evolution modelling. In particular, experience with the MESA stellar evolution code and the computation of grids of stellar evolutionary models will be considered as an asset
• Familiarity with the development of online web and/or open source tools
• Experience in scientific programming and publishing

How to apply 

Applications must include a cover letter in addition to (1) curriculum vitae, (2) list of publications, (3) statement of the applicant’s research experience (max 2 pages), (4) certificates for academic record, and (5) the name and email address of two persons willing to send letters of recommendation. Please send the application (mentioning Job ID: IWF086PD224) in one PDF file to luca.fossati@oeaw.ac.at by August 31st, 2024.

For further information please refer to the job offer.