Postdoctoral position in supernova science

This is an exciting opportunity to join a team of researchers in the Astronomy Group at the University of Southampton, working towards delivering new science with the state-of-the-art Vera C. Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space Time (LSST) and the Time Domain Extragalactic Survey (TiDES) running on the 4MOST spectroscopic experiment. LSST will be the largest and most comprehensive ground-based optical survey ever undertaken, delivering millions of astrophysics transients, while TiDES provides 250,000 fibre hours of dedicated transient and host galaxy spectroscopy. Together, these projects open up a vast new discovery space in the study of supernovae and transients, and their application in cosmological settings.

You will work within large research teams led by Prof. Mark Sullivan and Dr Phil Wiseman but interact widely with the rest of the Astronomy Group and the LSST (DESC, TVS) and 4MOST/TiDES international collaborations. As part of this work, you will have the opportunity to collaborate in exciting cutting-edge science designing the massive spectroscopic follow-up of optical transients, exploiting supernova cosmology experiments, and working on the detection and characterisation of unusual supernova explosions and other astrophysics transients.

We welcome applications from both junior and more senior researchers from a range of backgrounds consistent with the science goals of TiDES. To be successful you will have a PhD* in Astronomy, Astrophysics or a closely related field. Experience with supernova surveys/observations/models and their interpretation, or a knowledge of supernova astrophysics or cosmology, will be considered an asset.