PROBA-3/ASPIICS Post-doctoral Position at the Royal Observatory of Belgium
from Andrei Zhukov
We are looking for a post-doctoral research assistant who will join the PI team of the ASPIICS coronagraph onboard the PROBA-3 mission that will be launched in 2019. The selected candidate will participate in fulfilling the tasks of the ASPIICS science team that currently include: definition of the coronagraph characteristics in collaboration with the hardware team, instrument and data calibration, design of science operations, and preparation of the development of the software infrastructure of the PROBA‑3 Science Operations Center. The successful candidate will also pursue solar physics research in preparation of the scientific exploitation of the ASPIICS data, and publish results in refereed journals.
PROBA (PRoject for On-Board Autonomy) is an ESA program of small technology demonstration satellites. PROBA-3, to be launched in 2019, is a mission dedicated to the in-flight demonstration of precise formation flying techniques and technologies. The PROBA-3 mission will place two spacecraft in a highly elliptical orbit around the Earth. The two spacecraft will fly in a precise formation, producing a very long baseline coronagraph called ASPIICS (Association of Spacecraft for Polarimetric and Imaging Investigation of the Corona of the Sun). One spacecraft will carry the optical telescope, and the second spacecraft will carry the external occulter of the coronagraph. The inter-satellite distance of around 150 m will allow observing the corona close to the solar limb with very low straylight.
The Royal Observatory of Belgium (ROB, see www.observatory.be/) is a Belgian federal institute in the green outskirts of Brussels (Uccle). The PROBA-3 team at ROB is embedded in the “Solar Physics and Space Weather” Operational Directorate (sidc.be), which is an international group of scientists and engineers. English is the baseline language spoken in the office, official ROB communication is available in French and Dutch. New employees at ROB are offered a 1-year contract, which, after mutual satisfaction, can be extended by 1 year and eventually by a contract of undetermined duration. The present position will be at the SW1 (Assistant) or SW2 (Work Leader) salary scale depending on qualifications. Social security, pension scheme and working conditions are according to Belgian civil servant regulations. These include a flexible system of working hours and teleworking.
The ideal candidate for this position will combine a maximum of the following characteristics:
– PhD in solar physics or in a related field of physics or astrophysics,
– experience with observational and/or theoretical solar physics,
– programming skills, in particular in IDL (Interactive Data Language) and/or Python,
– experience with solar coronagraphs and coronagraph data,
– fluent communication in written and spoken English.
To apply, please send your CV, list of publications, and a motivation letter together with e-mail addresses of two persons who can provide a recommendation as soon as possible to the Principal Investigator of PROBA-3/ASPIICS, Dr. Andrei Zhukov (Andrei dot Zhukov at sidc dot be). Questions and requests for more information should be sent to the same e-mail address.
The position is available immediately. Review of the applications will begin on 15 February 2016 and continue until the position is filled.