UT Austin Astronomy Department Early Career Fellowship Program (Postdoctoral Fellowship)

The University of Texas at Austin Department of Astronomy invites applications for the UT Austin Early Career Cohort Fellowship Program, a new independent postdoctoral fellowship with a focus on improving the diversity of our community, through cross-disciplinary training to develop future faculty leaders from diverse backgrounds.

What starts at UT Austin changes the world.

At UT Austin, we are committed to building a vibrant interdisciplinary community of scholars. If you are an early career researcher, postdoctoral fellow or graduating PhD student interested in pursuing an independent academic career, the UT Austin Provost’s Early Career program could be ideal for you.

This training program is designed to allow you to develop and pursue research and teaching topics upon which you can build a future academic career. Join a broad community committed to fostering your independent career growth in research, teaching, and scholarship. The program will enable you to build a network of emerging scholars like yourself and benefit from the mentorship of top faculty in your field.

As a Provost’s Early Career Fellow, you will join an energetic community of other incoming fellows training in different departments across the university.  In the Department of Astronomy, which is part of UT’s College of Natural Sciences, we have designed a 2-year program, with an option of extending to a third year, where you will be mentored in all the different dimensions that make an assistant tenure-track professor successful. A major research focus for our program is to further strengthen our position to take optimal advantage of the next generation of observational facilities, aiming at observers, theorists, and instrumentalists alike.

From the outset, you will have the opportunity to closely interact with multiple program members, at all levels, in developing your research agenda. This includes hands-on training in classroom teaching and student mentoring. Throughout the duration of the program, you will also participate in university-wide training provided by the Provost’s Office to further develop the skills to build a unique research and teaching portfolio.  At the conclusion of the fellowship, select candidates may be considered for transitioning to a tenure-track faculty position at UT Austin.

The successful applicant must have received a PhD in Astronomy, Physics, or a related field by the starting date of the appointment, nominally September 1, 2021. We are especially interested in candidates who can contribute to the diversity of our program.

Application materials must be submitted electronically via Interfolio. Submissions should include: a cover letter, a description of current and future research plans (limited to 3 pages), a Curriculum Vitae, and a list of publications. The cover letter should include a description of the applicant’s contributions to diversity and equity, to help identify candidates who have professional skills, experience and/or willingness to engage in activities that would enhance campus diversity and equity efforts.

Candidates are also required to request three letters of recommendation using the application website, which will email the references with instructions to directly upload their letters of recommendation.

Complete applications received by January 20, 2021 will be assured of full consideration.

For further information about the position, please contact the search committee at [email protected], or the Department Chair’s Office at [email protected].