Research Fellow – TDE Host Galaxies, School of Mathematics and Physics

Research Fellow – TDE Host Galaxies, School of Mathematics and Physics (26/113404)

Hours: 37

The School of Mathematics & Physics, Queen’s University Belfast, is currently seeking to appoint a Research Fellow to study the host galaxies and long-term light curves of tidal disruption events. The successful applicant will work with Dr Matt Nicholl on a three-year STFC-funded project to analyse data from a new Hubble Space Telescope UV-optical survey of nearby TDEs, quantifying their central concentrations, tidal features, star-forming regions, and TDE remnant disks.

They will join a vibrant transients research team and will contribute to our ongoing classification and follow-up efforts for extragalactic transients. The transients group at QUB have full access to time-domain surveys including ATLAS, Pan-STARRS, ePESSTO+, RISOTTO, SOXS, 4MOST/TiDES, Rubin and LS4, ongoing programs with LT and VLT, and expertise in light curve and spectral modelling.

About the person:
The successful candidate must have, and your application should clearly demonstrate that you meet the following essential criteria:

• Hold a PhD in astrophysics or a closely related discipline, either awarded or submitted by the time of taking up the post.
• Research experience in analysing imaging data for transients and/or galaxies.
• Demonstrable experience in programming in Python and standard astronomy software packages.
• Excellent communication and ability to work collaboratively.
• Experience working with transient alerts and/or follow-up is highly desirable.

Fixed term contract posts are available for the stated period in the first instance but in particular circumstances may be renewed or made permanent subject to availability of funding.

What we offer:
Beyond a competitive salary, the University offers an attractive benefits package including a holiday entitlement of up to 8.4 weeks a year, pension schemes and development opportunities. We support staff wellbeing with flexible working options, work-life balance initiatives and support for physical and mental health. You can find more detail on all of this and more at https://www.qub.ac.uk/directorates/HumanResources/pay-reward-and-benefits/

Queen’s University is committed to promoting equality of opportunity to all. We subscribe to Equality Charter Marks such as the Diversity Charter Mark NI and Athena Swan and have established staff networks such as iRise (Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic and International Staff Network) and PRISM (LGBTQ+) which help us progress equality.

For further information on our commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, please visit www.qub.ac.uk/diversity
If you are an international applicant and don’t already hold a visa that permits you to take up the role you are applying for, please use the information provided on our website to self-assess whether the University is likely to be able to support a visa application - http://go.qub.ac.uk/internationalstaffsupport